Gold falls amid coronavirus vaccine hopes

Gold prices fell on Wednesday, deepening losses for the second straight day, due to weak safe-haven demand after the positive news about promising Covid-19 vaccine candidates.

Gold fell 0.5% to $1,871.62, after opening at $1,880.64, and hit an intraday high at $1,884.61.

The yellow metal closed lower by more than 0.5% yesterday, as safe-haven demand slowed down.

The market sentiment remains strong thanks to positive news about coronavirus vaccines that showed impressive results during the third and final phase of clinical trials before the vaccines get officially approved.

The American company Moderna announced on Monday that initial data from the phase of the clinical trials showed that its coronavirus vaccine is more than 94.5% effective in preventing the disease.

This makes Moderna the second giant pharmaceutical company in the US to announce impressive results of Covid-19 vaccine trials within a week.

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the German biotech firm BioNTech announced last week that their Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective, according to recent data from the final phase of the clinical trials.

Similarly, the Russian sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday that Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 92% effective at protecting people from COVID-19 according to interim trial results.

Otherwise, investors are focusing on the US Federal Reserve’s moves to support the economy after the record spike in coronavirus infections.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that the economy a long way to go to fully recover, and stressed that the Fed is committed to using all its tools to support the recovery when needed.

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF fell 8.02 metric tonnes yesterday, with the total at the lowest level since July 22 at 1,226.30 metric tonnes.