Gold Technical Report: Gold, had a mixed movement starting the week with green shoots but fizzling out in the end. The prices registered a DOJI on the last day of the week. The trend picked up pace after crossing 50 DMA which is at 1688 on the Daily charts currently. The next Major resistance is 200 DMA @1797, above which the main trend may turn positive. The short-term Stochastics Oscillator is at 68 and the Relative Strength Index is at 59.
Silver Technical Report: The silver prices marched up nicely last week after crossing forcefully 200 DMA @21.32, but witnessed some profit booking on the last day of the week and closed below the same. On the downside, major support is only at 50 DMA @19.96, crossing below which may change the medium-term trend into negative. The Short term Stochastics Oscillator is at 71 and the RSI momentum is near 56.
Fundamental Report: The U.S. Dollar is edging higher on Friday, but remained near a three-month low as it headed for a weekly loss, as the prospect of the Federal Reserve slowing monetary policy tightening as soon as December preoccupied investors. Minutes from the Fed’s November meeting released last week showed that a “substantial majority” of policymakers agreed it would soon be appropriate to slow the pace of interest rate rises. Those remarks sent the dollar tumbling and gold prices soaring as the Fed’s aggressive rate increases and market expectations of how high the central bank could take them have been a big driver of the currency’s 10% surge this year. The majority of Fed officials agreed that it is better to raise interest rates in smaller increments than the last four rate hikes. There are two primary techniques or tools they use to achieve their goal of reducing inflation to its target rate of 2%. One technique is by adjusting the money supply by buying or selling assets from their balance sheet. Their asset balance sheet includes U.S. debt instruments and mortgage-backed securities (MBS). However, the primary technique they use along with another powerful option i.e. adjusting their benchmark “Fed funds” interest rate. The Federal Reserve has completed seven of the eight yearly meetings and except for January has raised its Fed funds rates at each consecutive meeting. The Fed has raised rates by 75 basis points at each of the last four consecutive meetings (June, July, September, and November), taking their benchmark rate from between 0 and 25 basis points in March to its current rate which is between 375 and 400 basis points. Last week’s volatility suggests investors still aren’t sure about gold’s short-term direction. This is likely because they aren’t sure of the Fed’s next move at its December policy meeting. The lack of direction will probably be driven by the uncertainty surrounding the next U.S. consumer inflation report, which comes out shortly before the central bank’s mid-December meeting. Until gold traders get some clarity on the direction of U.S. inflation, it’s going to be difficult to take a major position with any conviction.