Gold down, with earlier rally tempered by rising COVID-19 numbers

LONDON: Gold was down in Asia on Monday morning, with the ever-rising number of COVID-19 cases tempering the safe-haven asset’s recent rally.
Gold futures were down by 0.51% to $1,780.90 by 10:05 PM ET (3:05 AM GMT), giving up its earlier gains as investors digested the spike of cases in many U.S. states over the long weekend. There were over 2.8 million cases in the country as of July 6, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The same data showed that there were over 11.4 million cases globally as of July 6. In addition, the highest number of global cases within a 24-hour period was reported over the weekend, a World Health Organization (WHO) situation report said.
Stocks, which usually move in the opposite direction to gold, were up on Monday morning.
Investors will now focus on U.S. services sector activity data for June scheduled to be released later in the day.
Analysts are predicting a reading of 50 for June’s Institute for Supply Management non-manufacturing purchasing manager’s index (PMI), according to forecasts prepared by Investing.com. A PMI reading of 50 or higher indicates economic growth.