August J, 2023

Gold declines by over $27 as hope diminishes of a rate cut this year

Gold spot and futures both declined by over 1% today as traders reacted to dollar strength and stronger yields on U.S. Treasuries. But that explanation lacks the complete backdrop to the multiple reasons why gold is trading under pressure today.

Market participants are reacting with extreme caution before the release of Friday's nonfarm payroll jobs report. Current forecasts are predicting that the report will reveal that 200,000 new jobs were added in July after increasing by 209,000 in June.

In a report today by Reuters, U.S. job openings hit more than a two-year low.

"U.S. job openings fell to the lowest level in more than two years in June but remained at levels consistent with tight labor market conditions, which could spur the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates elevated for some time. Labor market resilience was underscored by the third straight monthly decline in layoffs as employers hoard workers after difficulties finding labor during the COVID-19 pandemic."

This week's jobs report could be an underlying factor enticing some traders and investors to take profits ahead of the report.

A momentary pause from the focus on the Federal Reserve

Although last week's FOMC meeting statements and comments by Chairman Powell left many investors, analysts, and economists with more questions than answers regarding the future guidance as it pertains to the monetary policy of the Federal Reserve, it is widely believed that next month's FOMC meeting will not contain another rate hike. The most current information provided by the CME's Fedwatch tool predicts that there is an 82.5% probability that rates will remain unchanged after the Fed raised rates by ¼% at the last FOMC meeting.

While it is true that the Fed remained guarded about revealing too much information about their plans, Chairman Powell's statements were carefully worded but direct and to the point such as, "It's not an environment where we want to provide a lot of forward guidance".

As of 4:32 PM EDT, gold futures basis the most active December contract is currently trading down $27.40 or -1.36% and fixed at $1981.80. This after breaking a key psychological price point trading to an intraday high today of $2004.40, $0.20 above this morning's opening price. Gold is currently trading near $1978.30 today's intraday low.

While dollar strength is partially responsible for gold's strong selloff today it was certainly not the major component moving gold lower. The dollar is currently up 0.38% and the index is fixed at 102.015. Silver futures basis most active September contract declined by $0.54 and is currently fixed at $24.435