【TOP1 Evening】Gold flat as dollar ticks higher, U.S. stimulus talks drag; Oil set for a weekly gain

Gold 

Gold prices were listless on Friday, with gains kept in check by a slight uptick in the dollar and caution setting in as investors grappled with a delay in a U.S. COVID-19 relief package. 

Spot gold fell 0.35% to $1830.01 per ounce by 19:30 (GMT+8).

"Market seems to have settled in a steady range. The key drivers going forward would be the size and scale of the U.S. stimulus, the trajectory of the dollar, and inflation of course," said independent analyst Ross Norman.

"The correlation between gold and dollar has returned because markets have more or less priced in the vaccine optimism," said Margaret Yang, a strategist at DailyFX.

Gold needs a very strong catalyst to break its descending trend and that could be in form of a dovish Federal Reserve, a larger than expected U.S. fiscal stimulus bill or the unlikely failure of vaccines, she added. 

Elsewhere, by 19:30 (GMT+8), Silver fell 1.97% to $24.041 per ounce.

More than 20 years ago famed investor Thomas Kaplan made his first fortune in silver, buying options and turning that investment into one of the biggest zinc-silver mines in the world.

Looking at silver prices he remains bullish on the precious metal.

"I always say that silver is gold on steroids and I'm wildly bullish on gold," he said.

Not only does he see silver prices pushing back to its record highs above $50 an ounce, but Kaplan said that there is no reason why the metal can't get to $100 an ounce, especially as gold prices continue to rally.

"Once silver stabilizes and gold is going up as some monetary metals, silver then starts to follow gold and then it gets octane and it surpasses gold," he said. "That's what happened during the financial crisis and we are starting to see that again."

Not only is silver benefiting as a monetary metal as central banks around the world continue to pump liquidity into financial markets, but Kaplan said that the metal will also benefit as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"All the pandemic has served to do is to make people now understand that the question of money and what is money when clearly it can be printed at will, he said. "The debasement of currencies is obviously very, very bullish for gold."

Forex

Pressure was easing on the dollar on Friday, with the currency set to snap out of three straight weeks of losses while sterling still suffered due to fears a post-Brexit trade deal might not be reached before the end of 2020.

At 19:30 (GMT+8), the U.S. dollar index was up 0.24% to 90.94.

Surging iron ore prices had lifted the Australian dollar to a two-and-a-half year high of $0.7542.

A nine-month peak for oil prices also had pushed the Canadian dollar to its highest since 2018.

At 19:30(GMT+8), the GBP/USD fell 0.74% to 1.31924; EUR/USD fell 0.17% to 1.21162 AUD/USD fell 0.15% to 0.74785; USD/JPY fell 0.12% to 104.0087.

The euro was taking a breather as the ECB announced a new round of stimulus in line with markets expectations and EU leaders reached a compromise over a pandemic aid package.

Sterling was still under pressure as British and EU negotiators have been told they have until the end of Sunday to decide whether a trade deal is possible.

Crude Oil

Oil prices eased on Friday but were set for a sixth week of gains, as the rollout of novel coronavirus vaccination programmes fed hopes that demand for fuel would rebound next year.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was at $46.726 barrel, fell 0.71%, Brent was up to $49.952 a barrel, fell 0.56% by 19:30 (GMT+8).

Promising vaccine trials helped lift some gloom over record increases in the number of new coronavirus infections and deaths around the world.

Britain began inoculations this week and the United States could start vaccinations as early as the coming weekend, while Canada on Wednesday approved its first vaccine with initial shots due from next week.

Signs that Asian demand is strong have also encouraged the Market with India's biggest refiner saying that all of its nine units were operating at 100% capacity for the first time since early this year.

Stocks

Asia-Pacific stock closed up on Friday.

Nikkei 225 fell 103.72 points or 0.39%, close at 26,652.52.

S&P/ASX 200 fell 40.50 points or 0.61% to close at 6,642.60.

Hang Seng Index rose 95.28 or 0.36% to 26,505.87.

South Korea's KOSPI rose 23.60 points or 0.86% to 2,770.06.

Taiwan capitalization-weighted stock index rose 12.20 points, or 0.086%, at 14,261.69. 

Big Tech has an antitrust target on its back.

The sentiment to take action against Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook is palpable on Capitol Hill, but Wall Street doesn't seem to care and the actual shape of future actions remains unclear.

With separate antitrust actions by 48 attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission's against Facebook on Wednesday, charges by the European Union against Amazon, and a Justice Department lawsuit vs.Google, only Apple among the Big Four has yet to face official regulatory actions. Yet Apple faces a high-profile private lawsuit and a developer backlash, leaving it far from unscathed.

It could get worse: In addition to Wednesday's suits against Facebook, federal and state antitrust authorities are readying more possible actions against Facebook and Google by the end of January, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing people familiar with the matter.

What impact, then, will inevitable antitrust actions have on tech stocks and innovation beyond Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook? So far, it hasn't hurt shares of the four companies — each is up at least 30% in 2020, and their combined market value is $5.5 trillion.

In the short term, the threat could be significant as large companies are on their best behavior while they haggle with the federal government in court and closely eye legislators threatening punitive laws.

BlackRock President Rob Kapito think equities will continue to rally. It will be focused on three different areas. 

One: must-have equities, which are obviously technology and artificial intelligence and data and 5G. 

Two: should-haves, which are biotech and health care.

Three: nice-to-have, which would be travel, leisure, and other sectors. We've learned what's essential over the past eight months, and what can show the growth we need. That three-way bucketing of your investments will outperform other asset classes, like fixed income.

Focus Tonight

23:00(GMT+8): United States Michigan Consumer Sentiment Prel (DEC), Forecast:76.5, Previous:76.9;