Mum is Not the Word, at Least For This President

There have been many adjectives used to describe the current president of the United States, both by his supporters as well as his critics. However, words like “tight-lipped, wordless, and quiet,” are rarely if ever used to describe Trump.

Case in point, an early morning tweet at 7:21 AM EST, one hour and nine minutes before the release of the Labor Department’s monthly employment numbers.

Simply put, President Trump said, "Looking forward to seeing the employment numbers at 8:30 this morning.”

Although the tweet did not contain any actual numbers contained in one of the most closely watched government reports, his comments certainly included an indication of the outcome.

As reported by Bloomberg, “To many traders, it was clear that Trump was signaling the numbers would be good. There was a noticeable reaction in some markets, with the dollar climbing in the wake of the tweet as benchmark Treasury yields extended their advance to new highs for the day.”

Based on the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, an hour before the jobs report was released the U.S. dollar had a huge move. This spike occurred after the president’s tweet, and before the actual jobs numbers were revealed. This is certainly an unusual and unconventional move prior to the release of the report.

Apparently, the president didn’t get the memo or did not read the Federal rule that says that executive branch employees with early access to data must make sure there is no release of the information ahead of the designated time.

This tweet certainly impacted gold pricing. It caused an immediate and strong drop resulting in gold trading to today’s low: $1,293.10. Although prices recovered briefly trading back above $1,300, it closed off $6.70 today at $1,298 (August Comex contract).

Wishing you as always, good trading,