INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Bullion, a hedge against currency debasement and inflation, has climbed 24 per cent this yearGold slumped more than 5 per cent on Monday as
news of the first successful late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trials prompted investors to dump safe-haven bullion and flock to riskier assets
Spot gold was down 5.1 per cent at $1,852.82 per ounce by 11:07 a.m
EDT (1607 GMT), while U.S
gold futures slid 4.9 per cent to $1,855.30.Spot prices beat a sharp retreat from a near two-month peak of $1,965.33 hit earlier in the
session amid a weaker dollar and hopes for more stimulus following Joe Biden's victory in the U.S
elections.Equities surged after Pfizer Inc said its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective
Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE said they expect to seek U.S
emergency use authorization later this month."(The news) really exceeded everyone's best-case scenarios
There was growing nervousness that we might not get a strong vaccine result, so this unleashed the risk-on trade and for gold, signalled a
massive exodus of safe-haven plays," said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA.However, he added "the economy is still in need of
much support and only 50 million (vaccine) doses will be available, so we're not in the clear with the virus and the calls for stimulus will
be growing."Bullion, a hedge against currency debasement and inflation, has climbed 24 per cent this year, mainly driven by unprecedented
global pandemic-led stimulus."If you think that you're living in the best of all worlds, then you don't need gold," said Commerzbank analyst
Daniel Briesemann."However, this assessment seems to be premature
And we've often seen in the past that at prices below $1,900, buying interest will come into the market - we would expect that to happen
again this time."Other precious metals also sold off, with silver sliding 6.7 per cent to $23.87 per ounce, platinum falling 3.9 per cent to
$854.50 and palladium shedding 0.8 per cent to $2,471.32.
