The Week Eases To A Stop

As the week came to a close, gold maintained an equilibrium today, bulls unable to derive much energy from the Fed minutes released Thursday, bears unable to unseat gold as a minor hedge play.

Of course, the main actor this week has been the equities market, which continued to take a beating today. People are getting worried, but that worry has yet to translate into a benefit for gold bulls.

Another twist today was the U.S. wholesale price index's unexpected jump. It definitely beat expectations.

Official data showed that the U.S. producer price index rose 0.5% in March, far exceeding expectations for a 0.1% gain, after a 0.1% fall the previous month.  

Then again, that makes the two-month average 0.2%. Scarcely runaway inflation. If that average holds, the yearly inflation rate for the country would be 1.2%.

Core producer price inflation, which is stripped of food, energy and trade items - allegedly too volatile for our little minds to comprehend - rose 0.6% in March, hammering expectations for a 0.2% rise after a 0.2% decline in February. The same averages apply as above.

Additionally, the preliminary Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index came to 82.6 in April, beating expectations for a 81.0 reading.  

All the data pushed the dollar higher, which worked almost completely reciprocally against the modest gain that came through "regular trading." With about 45 minutes left in the afternoon session, the buck pushed gold down 90 cents and traders pushed it up about $1.40.

The Ukraine front was very quiet today. Essentially, world events are not moving the meter for precious metals one way or another.

But, one never knows what a tsar will do, does one?  As always, wishing you good trading,