By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Gold was down on Thursday morning in Asia, alongside silver, as investors weighed a strong dollar and progress on further U.S. stimulus measures.

were up 0.66% at $1,822.90 by 11:54 PM ET (4:54 AM GMT). Silver prices eased after climbing to a near eight-year peak of $30.03 earlier in the week as a social media-driven rally fizzled out and to the market.

The , which normally moves inversely to gold, was at its highest levels in over two months on Wednesday and continued the upward trend in the Asian session. The Benchmark also rose to its highest in over three weeks.

Progress on passing a $1.9 trillion stimulus package through Congress continues. The Senate began debating a budget resolution for the 2021 fiscal year on Tuesday, the first step towards passing the package propose by President Joe Biden in January. Although disagreements with Republicans over the package’s price tag remains, Biden said that he would consider tighter limits on qualification for the $1,400 checks that are called for in the package.

Although ultra-easy monetary policy could support the U.S. economy in the long term, more short-term fiscal help may be necessary to carry the U.S. economy through the COVID-19 pandemic, Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester said on Wednesday.

Investors also wait the U.S. payrolls report for January, including , which will be released on Friday.

The Bank of England on Thursday will hand down its policy decision later in the day and is likely to set its sights on the prospects of economic recovery later in 2021. Although widely expected to keep both interest rates and quantitative easing steady, investors will look for clues on the likelihood of the central bank introducing negative interest rates.