By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was up on Monday morning in Asia, with concerns over the impact of the possibly vaccine-resistant omicron COVID-19 variant giving the safe-haven yellow metal a boost.

By 11:27 ET (4:27 GMT), they were up 0.3% to $1,795.05

Over the weekend new cases of the Omicron variant were discovered in Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands.

However, the World Health Organization cautioned that it will take time to assess the strain and has classified it as a “variant of concern”. Angelique Coetzee (South African Medical Association Chair) and two South African experts in health suggested that the Omicron variant may be causing mild symptoms.

Christine Lagarde (European Central Bank President) stated that the eurozone has a better chance of facing the economic effects of either the COVID-19 variant or the omicron variant.

Raphael Bostic, President of Atlanta U.S. Federal Reserve, stated that he believes the U.S. will continue to grow its economy despite the coming wave of COVID-19 case. He also said that he was open to accelerating asset tapering by the central bank.

Japan’s October growth was 0.9% as a region in Asia Pacific. Australia saw a 4% increase quarter-on-quarter in third quarter 2021.

Despite falling gold prices, physical demand for physical gold increased across major Asian cities during the week. India dealers have begun to prepare for an increase in wedding season demand.

Silver rose 1.1% in other precious metals while platinum rose 2.3% and palladium rose 2.7%.