GOLD FUTURES TOP $1,200

Cassie Bastien

1/12/2017 9:49:00 AM

Daily Gold & Silver Market Report – 01/12/2017

Gold rallied to a seven-week high Thursday after the U.S. dollar dropped in response to President-elect Donald Trump’s highly-anticipated press conference. Dollar weakness is typically beneficial to Gold spot prices, boosting the yellow metal's appeal as an alternative asset and making the dollar-priced commodity cheaper for holders of other currencies. Trump disappointed the dollar bulls after failing to detail his plans for deregulation, lower corporate taxes and fiscal stimulus. Despite a lack of economic policy outlines, Investing.com said “Trump has been credited with being a major catalyst behind the impressive rally since Election Day in the dollar and stocks.” According to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool, traders remain unconvinced of the Federal Reserve’s plan for three interest rate hikes in 2017 and instead are pricing only two this year. As traders look for more signs on the likelihood of higher interest rates, global financial markets turn their focus to several planned Fed speakers Thursday, including Chair Janet Yellen.

TRUMP’S PRESSER THREATENED TO WRECK HIS OWN STOCK-MARKET RALLY

President-elect Donald Trump’s first news conference Wednesday “didn’t deliver fresh insights into the billionaire’s policies, but it did manage to whipsaw Wall Street stocks,” Wallace Witkowski with MarketWatch reported. U.S. equities dropped after the news conference started, with comments that drug companies were “getting away with murder” with respect to pricing. Witkowski said, “Equities had traded higher on the promise clarity on Trump’s promise of delivering a shot in the arm to the U.S. economy, but with a dearth of details and a focus on railing against news outlets, stock investors struggled for a spark.” In emailed comments, Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkMarkets, said, “The biggest impact on markets out of Trump news conference was on Biotech firms. … The reaction by investors was a pure panic and we have experienced many traders pressing the sell button.”

ANOTHER GLOBAL EQUITY BULL MARKET?

Investors are getting impatient as they await to hear Donald Trump’s plans to ‘make America great again’. MarketWatch Markets Reporter Barbara Kollmeyer said there is disappointment lingering after Trump’s press conference “with a bit of gloom across global stocks and the dollar.” Analysts at Westpac Bank complained that, “The news conference was a far cry from the market-friendly, pro-growth comments that Trump delivered at his acceptance speech on November 9.” Kollmeyer provided a chart that shows half of the world’s stock markets are now in a bull market, up more than 20 percent from a 52-week low. As Topdown Charts’ Callum Thomas notes, “once markets officially move from a bear to a bull market, they take off strongly at the start — as in 2003 and 2009. Hence today, stocks may have some way to run yet.”

At 10:49 A.M. (ET), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,203.40Up $4.50
• Silver, $16.93 Up $0.07
• Platinum, $981.30 Up $5.90
• Palladium, $761.90 Up $7.00

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