On Monday, the prices of gold plunged to its lowest level since October 15 but the yellow metal managed to recover the losses in early European trading.

Spot gold is currently flat on the day, trading at 1902.80 per ounce as of 1010 GMT. Silver, however, is hovering just above the $24 level, down about a percent and a half in the day thus far.

IG Markets’ analyst Kyle Rodda said there is no motivation for investors to buy more gold at this time because the market is trading under the shadows of speculations related to the coronavirus stimulus measures and the upcoming U.S. elections. OCBC analysts agreed and predicted the bullion prices to remain at the $1,900 an ounce level this week. They do not expect much price movement until after the U.S. presidential election.

Analysts predicted that Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s victory could help spark a new rally for the bullion because the new president would need to spend a lot of money on large stimulus measures.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that the administration was already reviewing the latest COVID-19 relief plan and she is expecting a response today. She remained optimistic that they could reach an agreement before the election.

A Reuters’ rally showed that the U.S. registered a record 84,244 new COVID-19 cases on Friday and 79,852 new infections on Saturday. Hospitalization rates reached a two-month high and death rates are also on an upward trend. The resurgence of COVID-19 cases underscored the need for more fiscal stimulus.

There was also a resurgence of new COVID-19 cases in Europe. France reported a record of 45,422 new infections on Saturday and another record of 52,010 confirmed cases yesterday. In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez imposed new restrictions to control the spread of the virus.

In physical trading in India, gold premiums soared close to a three-month high last week as jewelers continued to boost their inventory in anticipation of more buyers during the upcoming festival season.

In a related development, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported last Friday that market speculators raised their net long position in COMEX gold contracts to 135,111 in the week that ended on October 20. Also, the holdings in the largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund in the world, SPDR Gold Trust, dropped by 0.14% on Friday to 1,263.80 tons.