KONTAN.CO.ID - TOKYO. Gold was set for a second weekly fall on Friday as promising COVID-19 vaccine trials and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's call to end the Federal Reserve's key pandemic lending programmes eroded bullion's safe-haven appeal. Friday (20/11) at 15.45 WIB, spot gold fell 0.1% to $1,866.19 per ounce and was down 1.1% for the week. U.S. gold futures were up 0.2% at $1,865.40. In a letter, Mnuchin told Fed Chairman Jerome Powell that $455 billion allocated to the Treasury under the CARES Act should be instead available for Congress to reallocate, sparking uncertainty about stimulus programmes.
"If the Fed does start shrinking its assistance programme that could be a bit of headwind for gold again... The monetary debasement argument that has supported gold could weaken," said Lachlan Shaw, National Australia Bank's head of commodity research. Baca Juga: Gold falls 1% on stronger dollar, economic rebound hopes Meanwhile, data from AstraZeneca and Oxford University showed their potential COVID-19 vaccine produced a strong immune response in older adults. "Positive COVID-19 vaccine developments should slow but not end the secular gold bull cycle without a hawkish pivot in U.S. monetary policy," Citi Research said in a note, adding gold's move above $2,000 in 2021 is still likely. Indicative of sentiment, holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust exchange-traded fund saw net outflows of about 40 tonnes so far in November.
