Gold Up for the Week but Lower Than Expected

APMEX

9/18/2020 8:38:28 AM

Gold Up for the Week, but Lower Than Expected

It has been a week of moves for Precious Metals.

Gold has always been the weathervane for the Precious Metals market as a whole, and this week saw a lot of price changes. The Fed met this week to set monetary policy for the U.S., and though markets expected a dovish stance on inflation, the central bank’s policy did not go as far as many traders would have liked. Gold had a nice run up into the meeting and dropped headed out of it, eventually settling back around the $1,950 an ounce mark. It looks likely to mark a modest gain for the week, even with intra-week volatility.

The U.S. looks like its recovery is continuing, as jobless numbers dropped again this week to 850,000. But core retail was down 0.1% for August, marking a softer recovery than expected. Total retail was up. COVID-19 continues to be a dampener, but a vaccine is in the works and the White House indicated this week that they would support a care package of up to $1.5 trillion. Congress is working on a plan around this number.

Tensions continue between the U.S. and China, and the WTO ruled this week that American tariffs broke its rules. This will probably not affect much. The TikTok acquisition by Oracle looks like it will probably go ahead with approval from both the U.S. and the Chinese government.

Markets are in a holding pattern overall right now as investors wait for a reason to move.