Gold Flirts With 1300 Key Zone

 | Sep 20, 2017 06:00AM ET

  • Gold prices continued to edge lower this week, amid a general risk-on environment. Indeed, major US equity indices continued to post fresh all-time highs this week, while safe haven assets tumbled. A potential explanation is that investors have become somewhat accustomed to the latest missile strikes from North Korea, evident by the muted market reaction after Friday’s launch. In our view, as long as this geopolitical risk does not translate into military conflict, market participants may continue to place less and less emphasis on such developments. If seen in isolation, this could imply even lower gold prices in the coming days.
  • Not so fast though: the near-term path of gold may also depend on any major move in the US dollar. In this respect, we will keep an eye on tomorrow’s FOMC decision. We see the case for the Fed to keep its “dot plot” unchanged and signal one more rate hike this year, something that could help the dollar recover somewhat. If so, this would be another factor arguing for the continuation of the recent decline in gold.