Gold and silver trade higher leading into the European open

New York (Dec 21)  Gold and silver start the session higher this morning. Gold is just keeping its head above water at $1791/oz but silver is 0.60% higher trading at $22.39/oz. In the rest of the commodities complex, copper has moved up nearly 1% and spot WTI is 0.23% in the black. 

Risk sentiment was positive overnight as the Nikkei 225 (2.08%), Shanghai Composite (0.88%), and ASX (0.86%) all pushed higher. Futures in Europe are pointing towards a positive open. 

In FX markets, NZD/USD was the biggest mover pushed 0.26% higher while the dollar index was marginally down. In the crypto space, BTC/USD is 3.32% higher trading at $48,474.

News from overnight:

ECB's De Guindos: Inflation in Europe "not as temporary as we expected".

U.S. President Biden and Manchin spoke again and are set to continue negotiations in the new year over the Build Back Better plan.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called a snap meeting of the national cabinet. This was said to be about the Omicron COVID-19 variant. 

The omicron variant was said to have accounted for 73% of all sequenced Covid-19 cases in the U.S., surging from around 3% last week.

RBA minutes note the board is prepared to be patient, committed to highly supportive conditions.

Japan is considering hiking its GDP forecast for 2022 to 3% from 2.2%.

Chinese port shut down due to coronavirus spread concerns. The Dongxing port in Guangxi province is on the border with Móng Cái in Vietnam.

German Gfk data -6.8 vs. expected. -2.7 for January.

New Zealand credit card spending for November +4.5% m/m (prior 9.3%).

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