By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was down on Wednesday morning in Asia, with countering the impact from slightly improved risk sentiment, and giving the yellow metal a boost.

At 10:41PM ET, the dollar index fell 0.9% to $1.807.45 (3:41AM GMT). The 10-year benchmark U.S Treasury yields were also lower.

Asia Pacific shares declined on Wednesday due to concerns regarding travel disruptions or store closures caused by the omicronCOVID-19 variation.

Over increasing evidence that Omicron doesn’t pose a threat to the global economy recovery, the trend for gold was downward. Investors began to withdraw from the safe-haven investment.

Omicron isn’t “the same disease we were seeing a year ago,” and even patients who do end up in the hospital spend less time there, according to University of Oxford immunologist John Bell, reinforcing reports about the variant’s overall milder nature.

However, COVID-19 daily cases exceeded 1,000,000 for the second consecutive day. Healthcare systems are under increasing pressure.

The first loss of gold in three years is imminent after it reached an all-time high for 2020. Central banks have begun to pull COVID-19 stimulation packages from the central banks to stem rising inflation. The uncertainty around omicron is still a factor that has fueled demand for safe haven assets. However, fears about economic activity and the possibility of reopening the economy are slowly fading.

With Wednesday volumes being very low, investors anticipate this trend to persist and an extremely tight trading range through the remainder of 2021.

Other precious metals saw silver drop 0.1% while platinum declined 0.7% while palladium dropped 1.5%.