GoldPrice

Good morning, traders. Welcome to our regular Monday preview of the week ahead, focusing on the macroeconomic data and market narratives most likely to have an impact on gold prices, as well as the markets for the Dollar and other typically correlated assets.

Happy Friday, traders. Welcome back to our weekly market wrap, focusing on the week’s market events that mattered the most for gold prices, as well as the Dollar and other key correlated assets.

The US economy lost 20.5 million jobs in a single month, an unprecedented loss far worse than any seen in the nation’s history. The coronavirus pandemic has dealt a major blow to the labor market which was flourishing just a few months ago, with the rate of unemployment near a 50-year low.

Initial jobless claims figures show that an additional 3.16 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. This came in slightly above expectations of 3 million. Claims are 677,000 lower than the week before, although still staggeringly high in historical terms. With the fifth consecutive week of reduced increases, the latest Labor Department report indicates that layoffs due to the coronavirus peaked in March and are now trending downwards.

Private sector employment shed 20,236,000 between March and April according to the April ADP National Employment Report. The report measures jobs lost between March 12 and April 12, the same period used by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. Actual job losses during this period were much higher, and the NER measures private sector employment only.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) non-manufacturing production managers index (PMI) came in at 41.8 vs. 37.9 expected in April and compared to 52.5 the month before. While the reading was better than expected, the PMI is now at the lowest point in 11 years, since the end of the Great Recession. The non-manufacturing index, which measures activity in the services industry, has contracted for the first time since December 2009.

Good morning, traders. Welcome to our weekly preview of the next five trading days, with a focus on the economic data and market narratives most likely to impact the price of gold, as well as the Dollar and other correlated assets.

Happy Friday, traders. Welcome to our weekly market wrap, with a focus on the news and data that most impacted gold prices as well as trading for the US Dollar and other correlated assets.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) PMI came in at 41.5 last month, down from 49.1 in March. While this indicates a steep contraction, the figure is better than the expected drop to 36.9. Employment sunk dramatically to 27.5, while new orders fell to 27.1.

Personal income fell 2% in March along with disposable income as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect people’s lives and finances. Consumer spending took a major drop of 7.5%, with most households remaining indoors. This resulted in net savings of 13.1%, up from 8%, due to the drop in spending outpacing that of incomes. PCE came in at 1.3% annually and core PCE came in at 1.7%.

Initial jobless claims soared by another 3.8 million in the week ended April 25, above the expected figure of 3.5 million claims. Last week’s figures are down from the week before which registered 4.44 million claims. In the last six weeks, over 30 million Americans have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic still sweeping the nation.

On the same day that the US government reported an annualized contraction of 4.8% for the American economy in Q1, the Federal Reserve concluded their first two-day meeting since drastically slashing interest rates to near 0% and initiating a raft of monetary operations and support facilities aimed at helping America’s people and businesses weather the current crisis. Chairman Jerome Powell and that Fed’s FOMC, as was broadly expected, announced no new actions following the meeting but used their core communications channels to affirm the central bank’s commitment to ultra-low interest rates and an un-banded program of asset purchases in support of the economy and its eventual recovery.