Gold News & Info

Source:Dana Samuelson, American Gold Exchange

AustinGold remained unchanged Friday despite the dollar gaining 65 basis points on the US dollar index and bond yields edging higher. Modestly hawkish comments from Fed Governor Michelle Bowman buoyed the buck. Contrarily, concerns over the US defaulting on its debt by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen helped to hold gold prices steady despite a stronger dollar.

Fed Governor Bowman commented Friday, “Should inflation remain high, and the labor market remain tight, additional monetary policy tightening will likely be appropriate to attain a sufficiently restrictive stance of monetary policy.” Bowman’s comments echoed Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s higher for longer mantra earlier this year.

Optimism over a Fed June rate hike pause has faded this week due to stickier than anticipated inflation and remarkably resilient US employment. While still unexpected by market participants today, the odds of another quarter point rate hike by the Fed in June have increased slightly this week according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

In a separate interview Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said if the US debt ceiling was not raised the US government “would have to default on some obligation, whether it’s Treasuries or payments to social security recipients.” When pressed on which obligation the US might not honor, Yellen indicated right now discussions were only focusing on negotiations with the Congress to raise the debt ceiling.

While gold was down 70 cents on the day it ended the week down a modest $10. Since moving over $2,000 on April 3rd of this year, gold has stubbornly held above this psychological level in 24 of the last 31 trading sessions. Silver continued to ease on profit taking, falling 26 cents on the day and a more significant $2.20 since peaking at $26.34 a week ago yesterday. More importantly, silver has now fallen significantly below the $25.00 support level it held since April 4. Platinum is unchanged for the week, and palladium is up $24 for the week.

At the Comex close: June gold eased $0.70 to $2,019.80 July silver slid 0.27 to $24.15; July platinum fell $38.00 to $1,067; June palladium fell $40.20 to $1,514 an ounce.