GLOBAL GOLD PRICES HIT OVER ONE-WEEK HIGH

Cassie Bastien

2/2/2017 12:21:00 PM

Daily Gold & Silver Market Report – 02/02/2017

On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve met for the first time since President Donald Trump took office, announcing they would keep interest rates unchanged. This news weakened the dollar, helping Gold prices hit a more than one-week high Thursday. Despite not changing interest rates, the Fed did paint a relatively upbeat picture of the U.S. economy and even suggested monetary policy may tighten this year. Arpan Varghese with Reuters reports, “the yellow metal gained more than 5 percent in January, its best since June 2016, as the dollar suffered its worst start to the year in three decades.”  Varghese went on to say, “Investors also turned their attention to a quarterly report from the Bank of England [Thursday]. The BoE was expected to avoid adding to speculation about a first interest rate hike in nearly a decade, even as it acknowledges the resilience of Britain’s economy since last year’s Brexit vote shock.”

SILVER PRICES APPROACH THREE-MONTH HIGHS

Silver prices reached their highest level since November as a tumbling dollar and risk aversion boosted Precious Metal demand. Sam Bourgi with EconomicCalendar.com said, “demand for Precious Metals on Thursday was lifted by a slumping U.S. dollar, “which was approaching three-month lows against a basket of other major currencies.” The 30-day Fed Fund futures prices, which gauges the market’s views on U.S. monetary policy, shows the first of three rate hikes expected in 2017 could happen in June. Bourgi said, “Global equity markets wilted on Thursday, as investors continued to track corporate earnings against an uncertain political climate.”

WALL STREET STOCKS SET TO FALL

U.S. stocks failed to rise Thursday  amid fresh concerns about the President Trump administration’s diplomacy. Some investors saw the Federal Reserve being vague regarding the next interest rate hike its policy meeting Wednesday. “The [Federal Open Market Committee] was on hold, with a slightly hawkish bias. The market response was to buy the yen as equities wobble,” Société Générale Global Macro Strategist Kit Juckes said in a note Thursday. He noted the market is suffering from the U.S. administration’s continued bickering about currency levels with Germany, China and Japan. MartketWatch Markets Reporter Barbara Kollmeyer said, “stocks logged modest gains on Wednesday after the Fed held steady on interest rates and offered a positive view of the economy, but the central bank declined to telegraph the timing of its next hike, which fostered some concern that the Fed may fail to produce three interest-rate increases in 2017 as its most recent forecasts imply.” Investors were also still eyeing new headlines after “the White House delivered a rebuke to Iran over a recent ballistic missile-test launch, warning that the country could face new sanctions,” Kollmeyer reported.

At 01:21 A.M. (ET), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,217.90 Up $9.00
• Silver, $17.52 Down $0.01
• Platinum, $999.40 Up $0.60
• Palladium, $760.30 Down $4.10

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