After beginning the week in impressive fashion, metals are pulling back thanks to a corrective pullback and profit-taking. This week is not expected to bring about too much in the way of economic data, but with recent volatility in the currency and equity markets, there will be plenty for investors to pay attention to. Just yesterday, in fact, the greenback played part in a corrective bounce that saw it turn a few days’ worth of losses into gains.
A major feature in the marketplace both this week, last week, and likely to be for many weeks to come is the attention that is being paid to the Federal Reserve and their plans to raise interest rates. At present, the timeline for interest rate hikes is continually being pushed back, and that much is helping precious metals, but is also providing the US Dollar with a little bit of help as well.
Upbeat Corporate Earnings Help Equity Markets Rebound
Last week saw US equity markets trend lower and lower with each passing day. Through the first 2.5 days of this week, however, things have done the exact opposite as upbeat corporate earnings reports from Apple and other companies provide a bit of stabilization that was lacking a week ago. While there is still a lot of uncertainty with regard to equity markets in the US abounding through the global marketplace, things have become a good bit less volatile than they were 1 and even 2 weeks ago.
Unfortunately for precious metals, the renewed risk-appetite slowly but surely taking over the marketplace is limiting buying-interest significantly. This may result in the duration of the week seeing precious metals back down from the gains they made last week and early this week. It will be interesting to see however, because yesterday, despite a US equity market rally, gold and silver spot values were still able to finish the day on the up and up.
Because of the lack of economic data set to be made public this week, all eyes will be on the USD Index as well as equity indexes in the US and across the world. These have been important factors for investors and will likely remain that way for some time to come.