Gold prices surged to their highest in nearly eight years on Wednesday, while global shares cooled as signs of an acceleration in coronavirus cases kept investors on edge. Fuelling concerns about the prospects for an economic recovery was data showing several US states seeing record infections and the deaths in Latin America crossing 1,00,000, according to a tally by news agency Reuters.
The New York Times reported the European Union was prepared to bar US travellers because of the surge of cases, putting it in the same category as Brazil and Russia.
Adding to the gloom, European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane warned that the euro zone economy would need a long time to recover from the pandemic-induced crisis and a string of solid data in recent days was not necessarily a good guide to recovery.
And the US is considering tariffs on $3.1 billion of exports from Britain, France, Spain and Germany, Bloomberg news reported, citing a notice published by the office of the US Trade Representative.
All that and recent softness in the dollar, along with endless cheap liquidity from central banks, helped spot gold gain 0.6 per cent to $1,777.53 per ounce, having earlier hit its highest since October 2012 at $1,779.06.
Global stocks were 0.4 per cent lower and have been moving sideways in recent weeks after rising more than 40 per cent from March lows on hopes the worst of the pandemic was over.
