Gold Spot Price Open: $1,159
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,154
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.71
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.66
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.05
After posting some small gains during the early morning hours of Monday, metals saw things turn around quickly by the time markets closed. When all was said and done, gold lost about 5 dollars while silver moved downward by roughly 5 cents. Platinum and palladium also lost on the day, both by little more than 10 dollars.
Outside Markets Remain Top Focus For Investors
On the whole, this week is not expected to bring about too much in the way of impactful economic data, especially not from the United States. Because of that, investors will continue to focus on currency and equity markets from around the world. The USD Index, which hit a 12-month high last week and two separate 11.5-month highs the week before, was seen suffering from a bit of a corrective pullback throughout the day on Monday. This temporary pullback was the sole reason metals were posting small gains during the early morning hours today.
Unfortunately, however, the tide changed as crude oil’s spot value opened up the week in less than impressive fashion. Crude oil prices began the week near a 6-year low and are not looking like they will be improving anytime soon. In fact, most are expecting things to get much worse for crude oil in the near future. The reasoning behind this belief is that if Iranian crude oil is allowed on the open market (by way of Western nations lifting sanctions), the already supply-glutted crude oil market will have an even larger supply to satisfy a more or less stagnant demand. Basic economics will tell you that, should this happen, the price of crude oil will inevitably be driven downward even further.
With all of this said, however, there are many people, including myself, that believe Western sanctions on Iranian crude oil will be lifted anytime soon. Regardless, this will be a situation that we keep close tabs on over the course of the coming weeks and months.
FOMC Meeting to Kick Off On Tuesday
March’s installment of the United States’ Federal Open Market Committee meeting is set to begin on Tuesday and wrap up sometime Wednesday afternoon. As has been the case for the past year or more, investors will be paying close attention to the FOMC meeting in hopes of learning more about the future of interest rates. The market is currently split, with some thinking interest rate hikes could come as soon as June, while others do not rate hikes are likely until sometime next year.
While the Fed may not explicitly state when rates will be boosted, most are expecting the FOMC to remove the word “patient” from their language regarding rate hikes. This may not seem like a big deal, but for investors, especially the ones who love nit-picking, the removal of “patient” from the Fed’s language is a very, very big deal.
In addition to any information regarding impending rate hikes, investors are also going to be looking for the Fed’s latest economic projections for the United States this year. These projections, in my opinion, are the most important piece of data coming from the United States through the first half of the week.
Wrap-Up
There is no denying that this week is going to be a bit slower than the past few, but that does not mean investors do not have things to focus on. Of course, the FOMC meeting will consume most of the market’s attention, but so too will any and all action on the part of global equity and currency markets, especially the USD Index.
