By Bryan Wong
Investing.com - Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, regaining ground from losses on Friday as ongoing COVID-19 concerns fuel demand for the safe-haven metal.
Gold futures rose 0.53% to $2,028.70 by 11:44 PM ET (4:44 AM GMT), short of the record highs it hit next week.
Gold lost some ground at the end of last week as the U.S. Dollar Index rose after data for July showed unemployment in the U.S. fell to 10.2%. There were also expectations on Friday that U.S. President Donald Trump would move to unilaterally push for COVID-19 aid.
Those expectations were met when Trump signed four executive orders during the weekend to, among other things, extend unemployment benefits of $400 instead of the $600 under the previous package, suspend of the collection of payroll taxes for social security and ban tenant evictions.
But expectations that near-zero interest rates will continue for quite some time, and the possibility of negative real yields, have helped gold climb stay the $2,000 mark.
However, the unceasing number of COVID-19 cases globally could continue to drive demand for the gold. The number of confirmed cases globally has now topped 20 million, with over five million of those cases in the U.S. alone, according to Johns Hopkins University data.