Good morning, traders; welcome to our market week preview, where we look at the economic data, market news, and headlines likely to have the biggest impact on the price of gold this week and beyond, as well as other key correlated assets.
Gold spot prices are starting this holiday-shortened week on the back foot as investors across most major asset classes show signs of bending to the insistence of FOMC officials that the current pace of monetary tightening will not be changing dramatically any time soon.
US Economic Data to Watch
Wednesday, November 23 at 2 pm EST // FOMC Discussion Minutes
Because attendance this week is projected to be pretty light, getting the November Fed Minutes, the only high-level data point on the calendar, is likely to be mostly uneventful. However, it may deliver some information that will have reverberations throughout the Dollar and gold markets for the next three weeks ahead of the final FOMC meeting of the year. The main quest this time around for investors and Fed-watchers will be trying to parse out clues as to where the bar is set to entice the central bank to reduce the pace of rate hikes as early as next month. And hints implying that the Fed will slow by (at least) 25 basis points in December—or anything that would go beyond that one change—should drive a positive tailwind for gold prices in this shortened week.
FedSpeak this Week
Like everything else this week, the calendar for appearances from FOMC participants is shortened and compressed. Still, there may be some useful, if not market-moving, insight here. Particularly from the St. Louis Fed President, James Bullard, whose aggressive projections of the Fed’s “appropriate” terminal rate for this hiking cycle helped to tamp down investor optimism at the end of last week.
Monday: San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly (non-voter) (1 pm EST)
Tuesday: Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester (FOMC voter) (11 am); Kansas City Fed President Esther George (215 pm); St. Louis Fed President James Bullard (FOMC voter) (245 pm)
And that’s how the week lays out ahead of us, traders. As always, I wish you all the very best of luck in your markets in the coming days, and I’ll look forward to seeing you all back here next week after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Gold Price Chart
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