Hello and welcome to our market week preview, where we take a look at the economic data, market news, and headlines likely to have the biggest impact on pricing and market momentum for gold, silver and platinum, as well as key correlated assets.

Gold Markets

Gold maintains a spot-price level around $5100/oz on Monday morning, having recovered from a dip closer to $5000 on sharp selling when global markets reopened on Sunday evening. This sends a signal that while there is considerable pressure on the yellow metal in the current moment, there is also reliable support in place at the major psychological level of $5000. For now. This pressure continues to come primarily from a surging US Dollar, with the USD Index continuing to move toward 100 as investors flood into the global reserve currency as the preferred safe haven, with the US and Israel’s military operations in Iran moving into a second week, with what appears to be a greater likelihood of escalating rather than ending. From the perspective of global markets, the Dollar’s rally is applying additional resistance to gold prices, not only as it siphons off safe-haven interest in gold but also makes the cost of investment by foreign traders and managers in Dollar-denominated commodities considerably more expensive. Later this week, the release of updated CPI data presents a possible springboard for gold if cooler inflation strengthens the case of earlier interest rate cuts from the Fed this year, but from Monday, it is difficult to estimate how much “normal” macroeconomic reaction functions across most asset classes will be overshadowed by the war in Iran.

Silver and Platinum Markets

Silver and platinum did not face the same headwinds as gold late last week, and that continues on Monday. Silver is trading relatively flat for the day at $84/oz, having made a stronger recovery from the same Sunday evening selloff that dumped gold prices. And platinum is the outlier of the three, having gained ground when global markets opened last night to the tune of roughly +$100/oz and continuing to rise modestly in Monday morning’s trading to just above $2150. While it’s unlikely that platinum’s rally is in direct reaction to gold losing ground as a preferred save haven—because platinum buying aboard would be impacted by the same cost-increase on a Dollar basis—it may be the case that industrial buyers and hedgers are responding to a view the silver, even below $90/oz, remains “too rich” and are more willing to pay nominally more for platinum is its place.

US Economic Data to Watch this Week

Wednesday, March 11 at 830am ET // Consumer Price Index (Feb)
[(core CPI) consensus est.: +2.5% YoY // prev.: +2.5%]
[(headline CPI) consensus est.: +2.4% YoY //prev.: +2.4%]

And that’s how the precious metals basket is performing to begin the week. As always, we wish you all the best of luck in your markets in the coming days, and we’ll look forward to seeing you all back here next week for another metals market preview.