Meanwhile, US president Donald Trump has just been acquitted by the senate, as widely expected, and said he would make a public statement tomorrow on "the impeachment hoax".

On the commodities front, all metals opened up for the first time this week and all bar lead managed to hold their gains through the US session, Marex Spectron's Dee Perera said from the LME desk.

Tesla's six-day rally ended, dropping 17.2% after a senior executive warned that the coronavirus outbreak in China would delay deliveries of Model 3 cars made at its Shanghai plant, Reuters reported.

The EV maker's surge had sent lithium stocks soaring this week, with Australian producers Orocobre (ASX: ORE) and Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) closing up 18.95% and 11.29% respectively yesterday.

In the US, Livent (NYSE: LTHM) closed down 1.25%, Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA (NYSE: SQM) lost 2.8% and Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) finished 3.1% lower yesterday

Finally, the gold price is around the same point as yesterday, about US$1,556 an ounce on the spot market.