【TOP1 Morning】Nearly 200,000 COVID-19 diagnosis in the U.S. in a single day! Gold gains, dollar slips, S&P 500 at a record high.

Yesterday Market Review

Gold

Gold rose on Friday as increasing coronavirus infections globally re-ignited concerns about the economic toll from the pandemic, while scepticism over the reach of a potential COVID-19 vaccine further boosted the safe-haven metal.

The spot gold closed at $1887.99 per ounce, volatility within the day is $1873.76-$1896.73.

Covid-19 has now infected nearly 10.9 million people in the U.S.

More than 245,000 people have died there, and more than 67,000 people are currently in hospital.

"We have got COVID-19 raging in the U.S. and the uncertainty surrounding that and the potential for some more economic damage in the coming months; all that is working in favour of gold market bulls," Kitco Metals senior analyst Jim Wyckoff said.

Pfizer and BioNTech SE on Monday said their COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective based on initial trial results.

"Everybody was excited about the vaccine, but then the grim realization sets in that it will probably not be available for general public consumption until late winter or spring and until then we've got to get through some very rough waters," Wyckoff said.

Goldman expects the falling U.S. dollar to continue trending lower into 2021, which should help support gold prices.

"Biden's election win and vaccine news should continue to push currencies of emerging market consumers higher as tariff risks are lower, supporting their purchasing power," Goldman added. 

"The strategic case for gold remains strong in our view," Goldman concluded. The firm has a $2,300/toz gold price target, which represent potential upside of 22% from Friday afternoon levels.

Also supporting bullion, the dollar eased.

The silver closed at $24.621, volatility within the day is $24.135-$24.799.

Forex

The dollar slipped 0.23% against a basket of currencies. The U.S. dollar index closed at 92.74, volatility within the day is 92.73 - 93.01.

Global markets surged on Monday after Pfizer Inc said its experimental vaccine was more than 90% effective in trials. The news saw the dollar rise as traders quit their long-yen positions.

But currency market traders became more risk-averse on Thursday and Friday as infections spread and the heads of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB) stressed that the economic outlook remains uncertain.

"The prospect of the Fed staying super-easy through the winter and beyond, while vaccine optimism builds is dollar bearish," Kit Juckes, an F.X. strategist at Societe Generale said.

"The big winners in the longer-run are the higher-beta, growth and trade-sensitive currencies," he said.

The EUR/SUD was up 0.24% at $1.1832.

The prospect of a vaccine is a source of relief but the euro zone will still suffer as a result of new lockdown measures, two ECB policymakers also said.

On Friday, the USD/JPY fell 0.48% to 104.63; the USD/CAD fell 0.03% to 1.3137; the AUD/USD rose 0.53% to 0.7270.

Stock Market

U.S. stocks rose on Friday as investors bet again on stocks that would benefit from a potentially effective vaccine and economic recovery next year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 399.64 points, or 1.37%, to close at 29,479.81. The S&P 500 rose 48.14 points, or 1.36%, to end at 3,585.15 while the Nasdaq Composite rose 119.70 points or 1.02% at 11,829.29.

Shares of Cisco Systems popped more than 7% in premarket trading on Friday after beating on the top and bottom lines of its quarterly results. The equipment maker reported earnings of 76 cents per share on revenue of $11.9 billion. Wall Street forecast earnings of 70 cents per share on revenue of $11.85 billion, according to Refinitiv.

Shares of the Walt Disney Company popped 4% in premarket trading after the media conglomerate reported strong growth in Disney+, its relatively new streaming service.

Disney, which booked a far-smaller-than-expected earnings loss for the fourth quarter, said it now has more than 73 million paid subscribers for its streaming platform. 

CFO Christine McCarthy said that Disney would continue with its dividend in the long term.

Apple has joined a coalition of companies working on 6G.

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) launched the group last month, with backing from top U.S. and Canadian operators, Ericsson and Nokia, among others. Its main aim is to establish North America as a leader in 6G.

Apple, Google and L.G. Electronics became the latest major players to join the Next G Alliance, a coalition of companies working to define and develop the next generation of mobile technology.

"Markets are looking at the brighter sky but risk falling into a manhole because short-term, the news on COVID-19 is very worrying with so many states locking down, European-style," said Thomas Costerg, senior economist at Pictet Wealth in Geneva. "I would caution here that we will have a bumpy road between now and inauguration day because of the coronavirus and softness in U.S. data."

Crude Oil

Oil prices fell more than 2% on Friday.

West Texas Intermediate crude settled at $40.452, volatility within the day is $40.323-$41.170. International benchmark Brent crude closed at $42.893, volatility within the day is $42.788-$43.457.

U.S. government data showed crude inventories rose by 4.3 million barrels last week.

"In essence, some of the feel-good factor from the Pfizer vaccine has worn off and disappointing EIA figures have created a bit of a downward correction," Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity research at BNP Paribas, said.

"However, OPEC+ is prepared to tweak its production and we're still waiting for the trial results of other vaccines that may be easier to distribute since they won't need such cold storage."

New coronavirus infections in the United States and elsewhere are at record levels and tightening restrictions should lead to fuel demand recovering more slowly than many had hoped.

Focus Today

21:00(GMT+8):ECB President Lagarde Speech;