Investor caution dominated Monday’s trading as Gold and other commodities posted modest gains in today’s Asian and European trading sessions.
After a series of relatively soft data releases from the US, investor caution on the Fed’s next move is seeing moderate support for safe haven assets such as gold. However, also enjoying support was the US Dollar which made gains in most currency pairings after initial early Asian losses.
Having inched higher on Friday, Gold rose to 1,229.37, a gain of 0.20%, to edge towards a two-week high. The commodity markets in general all enjoyed gains on Monday. Silver is up 0.43%, Copper up 1.00% and Crude Oil up a modest 0.02%.
Investor Caution Before Important Week Ahead
After lacklustre jobs and inflation data from the world’s largest economy, investors have plenty to keep them busy in the week ahead. Much of the upcoming data will have a direct effect on the Fed’s monetary policy. This week we will see U.S. housing sector data, weekly jobless claims and surveys on manufacturing conditions in the New York and Philadelphia regions.
Analysts are predicting a 40% chance of an interest rate price hike by the end of the year. The recent data has sparked some some investor caution which has seen precious metals enjoy investor support. Dovish comments from Janet Yellen helped push the yellow metal 1.5% higher overall last week.
Elsewhere, the US dollar index which tracks the USD against a basket of six weighted currencies hit an early session low not seen since September 2016. The US Dollar index rallied from the 11-month low to be 0.21% higher at time of writing.
