Gold prices fell on Wednesday, to get on track for the second straight daily loss and near touching a 2-week low due to firm US dollar and weak safe-haven demand.

Gold prices fell 0.3% to $1,832.58 an ounce, after opening at $1,837.86, and hit a high of $1,845.00.

The yellow metal fell 1.25% yesterday, and pulled back from a 3-week high of 3-week high at $1,875.61 due to profit-taking and firm US dollar. 

The dollar index rose more than 0.1% today, extending its gains for the fourth straight day, near its 2-month high of 91.28 points.

The US dollar is shining as the best alternative investment due to investors' risk aversion, amid growing bets of a broad sell-off wave in Wall Street after the latest updates regarding the trading frenzy over the broadly shorted GameStop's share.

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF remained unchanged yesterday, with the total at the lowest level since June 12 of 1,157.50 metric tonnes.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, extending gains for the third straight day, as the US crude jumped near its 13-month high while Brent hit its 1-month high, after the US crude inventories fell according to the American Petroleum Institute's preliminary data, and ahead of the OPEC-Plus collation monthly meeting, amid expectations the collation will not increase its output in March within its aims to balance the market.

US crude rose 0.3% to $55.22 a barrel, after opening at $55.05, and hit a low of $54.83, and Brent crude rose 0.5% to the highest since February 2020 at $58.07 a barrel, after opening at $57.80, and hit a low of $57.52.

US crude yesterday rose 2.8% and hit its 13-month high at $55.24, while Brent crude futures rose 2.6% after OPEC increased its output less than expected in January.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories fell by about 4.3 million barrels during the week ending January 29, beating forecasts of a drop by 2.4 million barrels.

The total commercial inventories fell to 483 million barrels, the lowest level since the week ending April 3, 2020, which is considered a positive sign of the US domestic demand.

While the US Energy Information Administration's official data will be released later today, amid forecasts for inventories to fall by 0.6 million barrels.

The OPEC-Plus Joint Ministerial Committee will meet on Wednesday to review the global output cut agreement and the latest developments in the global scene.

During the OPEC Plus meeting on December 3, the members agreed to abandon a planned increase in production of about 2 million barrels per day, while agreeing to increase supplies by only 500 thousand barrels per day as of January.

OPEC-Plus also agreed on April that the third phase of the cut agreement will be lowered to 5.7 million bpd starting from January 2021 to April 2022.

The new decision replaces the planned hike of 2 million barrels, and the total of the new cuts is about 7.2 million barrels per day.

This comes as coronavirus infections continue to rise as the second wave of infections spreads in most parts of the world, which is expected to hit the global demand for fuel further and will lead OPEC-Plus to keep the current production levels unchanged in February.

Asian stock indices opened the third session of the week mixed with China in particular mixed while Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea higher, as Hong Kong lost ground, ahead of a spate of data from major Asian economies, and as vaccination efforts intensify. 

From Australia, the AIG construction index rose to 57.6 from 55.3, while building permits rose 10.9% in December, up from 3.4%. 

From New Zealand, unemployment rates fell to 4.9% from 5.3% in the third quarter, while employment change rose 0.6%, compared to a 0.7% drop before. 

Japan's TOPEX rose 0.85%, while Nikkei 225 climbed 0.67% to 28,552. 

China's CSI 300 rose 0.20%, while Shanghai declined 0.06% to 3,531. 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.83%, while South Korea's KOSPI rose 0.13% to 3,100.

New Zealand's NZX 50 rose 0.29%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1% to 6,830. 

USD/JPY tilted higher in Asian trade to near November highs and on track for the longest winning streak since March, ahead of US data and speeches by Fed officials. 

As of 07:12 GMT, USD/JPY rose 0.07% to 105.05, with an intraday high at 105.07. 

From the US, private sector employment is expected to show an increase of 48 thousand jobs last month, compared to a 123K loss in December. 

US markit services PMI is expected down to 57.4 from 57.5, while the ISM services PMI is expected up to 56.7 from 57.2.