Gold

This week brings with it a multitude of events that will no doubt shape the future pricing of gold and silver. Key events include today’s release of the ISM manufacturing report and Wednesday’s release of Fed minutes. This series of events will reach a crescendo with Presidents Trump’s scheduled meeting with President Xi Jinping, as well as Friday's jobs report.

As we close out the books for the first quarter of 2017, we see trends which have emerged, as well as trends that have continued. As always, there are winners and losers. This year the precious metal’s performance is certainly stellar, especially when compared to U.S. equity indexes which have done extremely well this year.

It’s all about the dollar. Or is it? There are certainly additional outside factors which have put pressure on gold. However, it is the U.S. dollar which has accounted for the clear majority of precious metal weakness this week. 

It may be hard to believe, but the first quarter of 2017 is quickly coming to an end. With only a couple of days left in March, it seems likely that gold prices will score a solid gain in terms of their first quarter performance. Gold was trading at 1144 on January 2nd of this year, and as of today, we have gold futures trading at 1255, which is a net gain of $111 or .088 %.

US equities broke an eight-day losing streak in reaction to positive economic data and an uptick in consumer confidence. The most recent data suggests that Consumer Confidence Index is at its highest level since 2000. The Index gained 9 ½ points in March and is currently at 125.8, which is a 27-year high.

In an 11^th hour move last Friday, President Trump asked House leaders to cancel the vote to repeal and replace Obamacare. Market participants had little to no time to respond to this news on Friday. They did, however, have an opportunity to react to this news yesterday as markets opened overseas.

The tension in the air was palpable as market participants waited for the initiation of a vote on the health care bill. In an 11^th hour move, with under a half hour before the House was set to vote, President Trump asked House leaders to cancel today’s vote.

Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of voting on a healthcare bill you do not believe will have enough votes to pass, or to take arms against the bill, and by opposing it … 

Gold continues to shine and has gained value for the last six consecutive trading days. Since the conclusion of last week’s FOMC meeting, market participants have witnessed a powerful rally in gold which has resulted in a 4% gain in a single week. With gold gaining more than $50 over the last week, it is clear that there are multiple factors currently at play.

Just as in the song written by Luther Dixson, and sung by the Shirelles in 1961, “Mama said there’ll be days like this.” US equites are trading under tremendous pressure, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down over 200 points. The net result is that US stocks are having their worst day since the election last November.