Gold Prices Refuse to Budge

Gold prices continued to hold steady as they have been doing over the past several days now. There is a good battle going on between the bulls and the bears to seize control of the gold prices and so far, there has not been much progress from either side and this is the reason for the stalemate and the consolidation in the prices.

Gold Holds Steady Despite FOMC

Yesterday, we saw the release of the FOMC meeting minutes and the market was expecting the statement to come out very hawkish as their hopes had been raised sky high by the statements from the various Fed members recently who had said that the rate hike could happen as early as March. But the minutes were largely a big disappointment for a lot of traders as there was no such indication and it chose to adopt a neutral stance by saying that the rate hike could happen anytime soon.

This kind of uncertainty was not expected by the markets and this weakened the dollar across the board, though not by much. Gold prices jumped a little after the minutes were released but the little bounce was quickly met with lot of sellers as the prices are near the top of the price range. Some of the Fed members continue to insist that a March rate hike is still on the table and this has brought in caution among the gold bulls who do not want to commit too much and then face the wrath of the bears if and when the rate hike comes along.

Oil Prices Consolidate

Oil prices continue to trade within a tight range, as it has been doing since the beginning of the year. There has been absolutely no progress from the oil bulls in pushing the prices higher but with the oil production cut going on and with data from the reserves also coming, there is a kind of stalemate in the prices. We have the oil inventory data from the US later on in the day and it will be watched closely to see if the reserves continue to build up in the USA which would negate the effects of the production cut on the oil prices.

Silver prices also continued to hold steady despite the weakening in the dollar and like gold, they are expected to continue to hold steady for the rest of the week as well and maybe more.