Gold Prices Continue Near Highs

The gold prices continued to consolidate near its range highs as we head towards the new month and also the end of the week when some important data releases are expected. The prices were rocked a bit yesterday by the ADP employment data and also the FOMC meeting minutes but those lasted only for a few minutes before the price action shifted back to normal and now we see the prices trying out the resistance region at the 1345 price region. It remains to be seen whether it can be broken through though we doubt it as we expect the dollar to begin to gain in strength in the short term in anticipation of better data.

Gold Prices Above 1340

A piece of that came in yesterday when the ADP employment report came in much stronger than what was anticipated in the markets. This led to a brief wobble in the prices but the overall impact was pretty much limited. The bigger impact was from the FOMC meeting minutes which turned out to be slightly more hawkish than what was anticipated by the traders. This led to a brief bout of strength in the dollar which pushed the prices towards the 1330 region but it has since recovered from there and continues to trade near the range highs. It remains to be seen how the dollar story develops in the coming days, with a range of data being lined up later this week and the next.

Oil prices have recovered somewhat over the last 24 hours and it has started to trade in the $64 region for much of the time during this period. The $65 region is now likely to act as the resistance which should hold the prices for the short term.

Silver prices continue to lounge about in the $17 region without any specific direction as the market awaits the NFP data from the US tomorrow which should set the tone for the rate hikes later in the year from the Fed.