Precious Metals Lose Luster As Fed Member Signals Possible Rate Hike In Near Future, US Dollar Rallies

US dollar gained strength today owing to rising bond yields and post positive market influence from the speech of St Louis Fed James Bullard which revealed signs of interest rate hike in near future. This resulted in precious metals which are associated with US dollar seeing selling activity. Post a week’s decent performance gold saw a decline since the trading session began for the day. XAUUSD dropped 1.54% and is trading at $1297 and has been on the decline across Asian market hours.

The US dollar continues its strength versus other currencies due to speculation that the Fed will raise rate four times by the end of the year. In addition, US retail sales increased moderately in April. At the time of writing, the US dollar index rose 0.69%.

Gold Rise Stalls

Silver also saw its value decline similar to gold during American market hours. The decline in Silver could be contributed to the increase in profit booking activity along with US dollar gaining momentum. Silver was trading at 16.27, down 2.25% and has continued its downtrend movement across Asian market hours. This bearish streak is expected to continue across the US session.

Crude Oil price has maintained a range bound performance across last two trading sessions. WTIUSD is trading around $71.36 PBL. Crude Oil price is expected to hit as high as $75 based on US Iran issue proceedings this week.

While Trump has offered to help Chinese companies affected by sanctions on Iran, his decision to impose sanctions on European companies in Iran has caused Europe to fight back but this news has yet to cause much impact. Crude Oil will see range bound performance during today’s trading session as well if the situation doesn’t offer any new stimulus.