All Eyes on the FOMC Minutes

Gold prices continue to trade in a steady manner with not much of change over the past 24 hours. There was a brief period when the prices dropped below 1230 but the gold prices quickly recovered after that and they sit in the mid 1230s as of this writing, awaiting the FOMC meeting minutes later on in the day.

Gold Bulls Look Ahead at FOMC

The meeting minutes are expected to be very crucial in determining the short term direction of gold. Its been a long time since the bears have been waiting for the dollar strength to show its hand but the expected strength has not arrived in full force as yet. A major part of the reason for this is that the market has been too much focussed on Trump and his antics and this fear and uncertainty has been keeping the pressure on the dollar.

The investors and buyers, especially those who are outside the US are yet to fully place trust in him and what he can do for the economy and that is why we have been seeing the dollar floundering of late, unable to make any decent bullish move for a few days at a stretch. This has helped the gold bulls to make merry and that is the reason why gold prices have been shooting up over the past couple of months.

But things seem to be slowly changing now as the focus has begin to shift to the Fed and its policies and this is what the dollar bulls would like to see. The Fed has been harping on its proposed rate hikes and in recent weeks, they have also dropped enough hints to say that propose to hike rates as early as March.

If this happens, then we could see some weakening in the gold prices. But, if the rate hikes are supposed to happen in March, then some hints of that are likely to be dropped in the FOMC meeting minutes that will be released today and that is what the markets expect to see.

Oil Prices Get a Brief Boost

Oil prices received a small boost yesterday and made a move above 55 for a very brief while but the prices were quickly beaten back and it is back into range as of this writing. Oil prices are unlikely to make much of a headway during the next few days atleast as the production cut agreement continues to be in place.

Silver prices also wandered along slowly with no specific direction for most of the day and waits direction post the FOMC minutes.