Daily Gold & Silver Market Report–2/17/2016

Brandi Brundidge

2/17/2016 12:38:00 PM

GOLD BOUNCES BACK ON FED MINUTES RELEASE; NEW STRATEGY TO BOOST OIL PRICES

Gold rebounded Wednesday after three days of losses, rising ahead of the Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting minutes, due today.  The market anticipates no announcement of future plans to increase interest rates, which indicates the U.S. economy isn’t in the best condition, as stated last December. "The Fed rate hike most likely won't happen in March, and that for me is the most important driver behind the price of Gold.  Even if the wider markets improve slightly, as we've seen in the last few days, if people still believe the rate hike won't take place in March it will be hard to see Gold prices continuing a downward movement. That's why it's sticking at the levels we've seen today,” Natixis analyst Bernard Dahdah said.

The market continues to wonder how much longer crude oil prices can sustain the pressure they are under.  On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia and Russia jointly decided to freeze production to hopefully boost oil prices.  Of course there are different viewpoints on how this might affect the supply and demand of oil.  Credit Suisse analysts, led by Jan Stuart, shared their thoughts, saying, "Tuesday morning's meeting between the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, Nigeria and Venezuela was, in our view, significant in a number of ways. While an agreement to freeze supply at January levels for the balance of this year does not sound like much and has only been subscribed to by three Opec members and Russia; the simple fact is that the words Saudi Arabia + Russia + Oil + Agreement have not been printed in one sentence since oil prices began to collapse in the summer of 2014."

At 1:37  P.M. (ET), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,213.40 Up $3.20
• Silver, $15.42 Up $0.05
• Platinum, $947.10 Up $9.80
• Palladium, $515.10 Up $4.50

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