Gold

The end of an anxious week gave us tumbling oil prices as Saudi Arabia publicly said it did not see a strong possibility there would be a production freeze agreement among OPEC and big on-OPEC producers.

If there is any doubt that the United States Federal Reserve is the big dog among central banks, behold the aftermath of yesterday’s decision to hold interest rates steady until the next meeting (at least).

Here are the three main reasons the Fed held pat. Lack of inflation. The absence of inflation. The disappearance of inflation.

In the run-up to the Fed’s September announcement today, equities held steady to lower and gold rose over $11.00 per ounce.

Equities are holding mildly higher as the Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting commences today. It is largely expected that the Fed will maintain rates as they are, but will perhaps add a sterner, more-hawkish statement concerning a rate hike come December’s meeting.

Just ahead of the FOMC meeting that begins tomorrow, there is a bit of retrenchment, a small move toward safety, but nothing that indicates more than a bit of the jitters.

The mindless mood swings continue regarding the upcoming FOMC meeting, which concludes on Wednesday. Today many markets once again overreacted to the scantest “hawkish” data release, that of the Consumer Price Index for August.

We were treated not to just a raft of soft U.S. data but a flotilla of it. Initial jobless claims were steady, representing the only positive news on the day.

Although nothing spectacular was achieved, gold, silver and U.S. equities found firmer footing today. The VIX volatility index reflected the situation, falling 3.50%, close to the 17.00 mark, after having zoomed up from 12.00 to 18.00 in the previous five days.

A week from today, the Federal Open Market Committee opens its September meeting. It will report out its action or inaction the next day (September 21). The jitters have begun yet again.

Fundamentally speaking,, gold should have been bid up strongly today. Instead, it found its momentum almost wholly from a weaker dollar. Generally, when Fed interest rates seem likely to hold steady or drop, non-interest-bearing instruments like precious metals should rise in value.