Gold hits fresh monthly high, eyeing $1,815 barrier amid risk-off

12.20.21 - Gold Hits Fresh Monthly High, Eyes $1,815

Gold last traded at $1,794 an ounce. Silver at $22.28 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices steadied Monday on safe-haven buying and a weaker dollar. U.S. stocks traded sharply lower amid rising pandemic fears and year-end bullish exhaustion.

FX Street--"Gold built on its post-FOMC strong recovery from the $1,753 area, or over two-month low and continued gaining traction for the third successive day on Friday. The momentum extended through the early North American session and pushed spot prices to a fresh monthly high, around the $1,811 region in the last hour.

As investors looked past this week's hawkish central bank decisions, the prevalent cautious mood was seen as a key factor that benefited the safe-haven gold.

Worries about the economic risks emerging from the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant continued weighing on investors' sentiment. This was evident from a generally weaker trading sentiment around the equity markets.

The flight to safety triggered a fresh leg down in the US Treasury bond yields, which kept the US dollar bulls on the defensive and further underpinned the non-yielding yellow metal.

Apart from this, the momentum could also be attributed to some technical buying on a sustained move beyond the 200/100-day SMAs confluence and the $1,800 round figure. With the latest leg up, gold has rallied around $60 from the low touched on Wednesday."