Gold price was little changed on Friday, as fears of an economic impact due to a surge in global cases of COVID-19 countered optimism from the developments in a potential vaccine.

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FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was steady at $1,876.92 per ounce by 0044 GMT. It was headed for its worst weekly performance since late-September, declining 3.8% so far.

* U.S. gold futures were up 0.1% at $1,874.50.

* The dollar index <.DXY> held steady but was on track for a 0.7% weekly gain.

* The heads of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank welcomed the encouraging results in trials of a vaccine candidate for COVID-19 but stressed that the economic outlook will remain uncertain.

* The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell to a seven-month low last week, but the pace of decline has slowed and further improvement could be limited by higher infections and lack of additional fiscal stimulus.

* Top Democrats in U.S. Congress urged renewed negotiations over a multitrillion-dollar coronavirus aid proposal, but a top Republican immediately rejected their approach as too expensive.

* European officials warned against COVID-19 complacency and said measures to control a surge in infections must continue.

* More than a dozen U.S. states have doubled their COVID-19 case loads in the last 14 days, compared with the previous two-week period, while the global tally has crossed 52.45 million.

* The London Bullion Market Association is threatening to stop bullion from countries including the United Arab Emirates entering the mainstream market if they fail to meet regulatory standards, a letter seen by Reuters showed.

* Silver rose 0.1% to $24.26 per ounce. Platinum was steady at $879.26, while palladium was 0.2% higher at $2,334.99.=>=>=>=>

 

The story has been taken from a news agency