Gold

Just like the canary in a coal mine, the Federal Reserve utilizes economic data to ascertain the current economic environment. More importantly, this data is used to create a forecasting model from which future monetary policies are developed and implemented.

It is that time of year, when the Federal Reserve’s Chairwoman Janet Yellen provides testimony to both the Congress and Senate. This semiannual monetary policy report began yesterday with testimony given to the congressional financial services committee. It was followed by testimony today before the Senate Banking Committee.

Now in the third straight day of price advances, gold prices have moved up roughly $15 from the low achieved earlier this week when gold traded to $1204 an ounce.

Gold futures traded marginally higher on the day for the second day in a row. However, in each of the last two trading days market participants have moved pricing dramatically lower intraday. More importantly, the intraday lows of each day were met with a “buy the dip” mentality, taking prices off of the lows, resulting in closing prices near the intraday high.

In light trading overseas gold prices continue to trade under pressure to a new low at $1204, before recovering slightly to approximately $1213. At least for the short term, it appears gold prices are attempting to hold $1200 as a baseline in the sand and technical support.

The famous “Running of the Bulls” is part of a nine-day festival held in Pamplona, Spain. This annual event, which began yesterday, is composed of thousands of people who risk their lives to run with the bulls, or more correctly, to run ahead and faster than the bulls.

U.S. dollar weakness provided a robust tailwind today, moving gold to higher pricing. After four days of higher value, the U.S. dollar came under pressure, trading off by half of a percent to settle at 95.58 (-0.49 points).

After sinking to a three and a half month low, gold prices are attempting to stage a recovery. On Monday of this week, gold experienced a price drop of approximately 1.9%, which is the largest single daily drawdown for 2017. Market sentiment which saw a more hawkish Federal Reserve and a robust equities markets were cited as contributors to this $22 decline in gold prices.

Although gold has come under pressure both this week and this month, its price increase for the first half of 2017 is respectable. In fact, it is on par with gains achieved in both the Dow Jones Industrial Average as well as the Standard & Poor’s 500 this year. Both equity indexes, along with gold, scored roughly 8% gains over the last six months.

On a day which has resulted in increased volatility and lower pricing in U.S. equities, it appears that the only financial instrument gaining value is interest rates. At the same time, we have seen the dollar come under massive pressure over the last three trading days, resulting in an almost 2% decline in value.