By Gina Lee
Investing.com – Gold was down on Monday morning in Asia, but higher U.S. Treasury yields supported the safe-haven asset amid concerns about rising COVID-19 cases. Trade also remained thin as key Asia Pacific markets, including China, Japan, and Australia, were closed for a holiday.
Gold futures edged down 0.11% to $1,826.25 by 11:20 PM ET (4:20 AM GMT) after hitting a more than one-month high of $1,831.49 during the session. Benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries recorded the largest yield increase since 2013 at the end of 2021.
U.S. shares also closed near record highs in thin trading on Dec. 31 to end a second year of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, rising COVID-19 cases are also on investors’ radars, with an average of over a million cases detected a day between Dec. 24 and 30, according to Reuters. Given the surging number of cases and adverse weather, more than 4,000 flights were canceled globally on Sunday, with over half of them U.S. flights.
In Asia Pacific, gold discounts in India widened to the highest level in five months in the last week, thanks to COVID-19 linked restrictions and consumers in major Asian countries holding back on purchases in the runup to the year-end holidays.
China Evergrande Group's Hong Kong shares were suspended from trading earlier in the day. The indebted developer did not provide a reason for the suspension.
In other precious metals, silver edged down 0.2%, while platinum rose 0.8% and palladium gained 0.6%.