Dec 4 Reuters A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Wayne Cole

Asian stocks have made a hesitant start to the week, while gold hit a new peak and Treasuries ran into profittaking on their recent stellar gains. Oil failed to sustain an early rally that followed news of attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Three vessels came under attack in international waters on Sunday, while Yemen39;s Houthi group claimed drone and missile attacks on two Israeli vessels in the area.

The threat to such a major global shipping route could add to inflationary pressure, although the impact seemed limited so far. Notably, oil prices lost early gains and Brent eased around 57 cents to 78.31 a barrel amid doubts that OPEC would be able to maintain planned output cuts, particularly by some African countries.

At the same time, U.S. oil output is at record levels above 13 million barrels a day and rig counts are still rising. That means the U.S. is producing more oil than Saudi Arabia right now.

A commodity faring better is gold, which surged suddenly this morning to top 2,111 an ounce for the first time before paring the gains to 2,086.

There was no obvious catalyst for the move, leaving dealers suspecting the hidden hand of trendfollowing CTAs and algo funds following the break of a tripletop around 2,107.

Central banks have also been gold bugs, buying a net 800 metric tons in the year to September in a record for that period. Bulls are now touting chart…