By Bryan Wong
Investing.com- Gold was up on Tuesday morning in Asia, boosted by the prospect of more stimulus packages from both the U.S. and Europe.
Debate over a further round of economic stimulus measures is currently underway in the U.S. Congress, with some earlier measures expiring at the end of July. Across the pond, European Union ministers finally reached agreement on a EUR750 billion ($857.979 billion) stimulus plan earlier in the day at the EU Summit.
Gold futures were up by 0.12% to $1,819.55 by 1:40 AM ET (6:40 AM GMT), remaining above the $,1800 mark. The yellow metal continued its rally from the previous session, where it reached levels not seen since September 2011.
Meanwhile, British drugmaker AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) and Oxford University said on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine induced an immune response in all study participants that received two doses. Two other candidates, developed by Cansino (HK:6185) Biologics alongside China’s military research unit and German biotech BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) alongside U.S. drugmaker Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), also reported positive early results on the same day.
But COVID-19 also continues its rampage, with over 14.6 million cases globally as of July 21, according to Johns Hopkins University data.