Gold prices fell on Wednesday, to resume losses after taking a breather yesterday in recovery attempts from a 6-week low, as the US dollar's strong performance is weighing down on gold prices. 

Gold prices fell 0.3% to $1,849.47 an ounce, after opening at $1,854.87 and hitting a low of $1,863.01.

The yellow metal gained 0.65% yesterday, and posted its first daily gain in 5 days, within its recovery attempts from the lowest since December 2 of $1,817.31.

The US dollar index rose over 0.3% against a basket of major currencies today, and hit a 3-week high of 90.73 points.

The dollar's uptrend comes as the 10-year treasury yields jumped above the 1% barrier for the first time since March, and hit a 10-month high of 1.184%.

This came after the Congress ratified Democratic candidate Joe Biden's election victory, the Democrats' control over the Senate alongside the House of Representatives, as they intend to inject massive stimulus packages to help the economy recover from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Gold stocks at the SPDR ETF remained unchanged yesterday, with the total at the lowest level since December 31 of 1,181.71 metric tonnes.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, extending gains for the second day, and jumped to 11-month high, lifted by a drop in the US crude inventories according to preliminary data by the American Petroleum Institute, and ahead of the official later today.

US crude rose 1.1% to the highest since February 2020 at $53.90 a barrel, after opening at $53.29, and hit a low of $53.23, and Brent crude rose 1.2% to the highest since February at $57.40 a barrel, after opening at $56.71, and hit a low of $56.54.

US crude gained 2.1% yesterday, and Brent crude futures rose 2%, their fifth daily gain in 6 days, thanks to US stimulus hopes.

President-elect Joe Biden pledged to launch a huge stimulus package to support the US economy that worth trillions of dollars, and hinted that more details would be revealed on Thursday.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories fell by about 5.8 million barrels during the week ending January 8, beating forecasts of a drop by 2.3 million barrels.

The total commercial inventories fell to 489.7 million barrels, the lowest level since the week ending November 13, 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 3.2 million barrels.

Asian stock indices opened the third session of the week mixed with China in particular mixed, while Japan, Australia, South Korea gained ground, as New Zealand and Hong Kong declined. 

Investors are assessing the spread of the second coronavirus wave and government shutdowns after the discovery of new strains in multiple countries, weighed against the new stimulus expected to be launched by many governments soon in addition to vaccines.

From Japan, the M2 money supply rose 9.2% as expected in December, up from 9.1% in November, while machine orders rose 8.7%, up from 8.6% in November. 

The Japanese government is reportedly looking into extending the emergency state to other areas to help control the spread of the coronavirus. 

From New Zealand, consumer prices rose 1.8% in December, up from 0.9%.

Japan's TOPEX rose 0.12%, while Nikkei climbed 0.57% to 28,325. 

China's CSI 300 rose 0.02%, while Shanghai inched down 0.17% to 3,602. 

Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 0.02%, while South Korea's KOSPI rose 0.62% to 3,145. 

New Zealand's NZX 50 fell 0.24%, while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.05% to 6,682.