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Gold trades slightly higher Wednesday morning, in the penultimate session before a holiday break. Many global markets will be closed on Friday in observance of Christmas.
Bullion has lost its grip on $1,800 over the past few sessions, amid choppy, low-liquidity trade leading up to the final sessions of 2021, which has been marked by concerns about the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and the reaction of global central banks to evidence of surging inflation.
After hitting a mid-November, near-term peak, gold futures have mostly traded sideways, navigating the terrain between around $1,760 and slightly above $1,800 an ounce.
February gold
GCG22,
was trading 0.1%, or $2.40, higher at $1,791.10 an ounce early Wednesday, at last check, after settling 0.3% in the session before.
“Gold prices are figuring out its year-end trading range somewhere around $1800 and that should remain intact as trading volumes decrease,” wrote Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp., in a Wednesday note.
“Gold’s long-term outlook remains bullish as investors may have aggressively priced in Fed tightening for next year,” the analyst wrote.
Meanwhile, March silver
SIH22,
was trading 13 cents, or 0.6%, higher at $22.66 an ounce, following a 1.1% advance on Tuesday.
For the week, gold is headed for a weekly decline of 0.8%, while silver is on pace for 0.5% gain thus far, FactSet data show, based on the most-active contracts.
