Gold and Silver Prices Plunge, US Fed Stays Hawkish
Gold and silver prices are slipping down in early US trading on Thursday, with gold touching a three-month low. The prevailing hawkish stance of the US Federal Reserve is pressuring the precious metals market bulls. Trading figures reveal that gold is down $28.60 at $1,940.40, while silver is down $0.695 at $23.41 for July. Despite the pause made by FOMC on rate hike cycle, the FOMC statement and Fed Chair Powell’s press conference hinted at the hawkish US monetary policy.
China’s Central Bank Eases Monetary Policy
Earlier, Bank of China also took another step to ease monetary policy by cutting another key interest rate. This move reportedly came on the back of China’s weak incoming economic data, which was released on Thursday. Furthermore, the stocks of global stock markets are mixed overnight, with US stock indexes looking weaker at the start of NY day session.
US Economic Reports for Thursday
Furthermore, Thursday is a bustling day for US economic reports, with important details like the weekly jobless claims report, the Philadelphia Fed business outlook survey, import and export prices, retail sales, industrial production and capacity utilization, Treasury international capital data, and manufacturing and trade inventories set to be released.
Technical Analysis of Gold and Silver Futures
On the technical end, gold futures are bearish, with bears having re-established a price downtrend on the daily bar chart. While the silver bulls still have a slight overall near-term advantage, a budding uptrend in price on the daily bar chart has now been avoided. The next silver bulls’ target price is closing July futures above technical resistance of $24.62, while the prevailing downside target price for bears is closing prices below solid support at the May low of $22.785.
