17th October 2017

 The precious metals group relinquished early gains to end lower across the board, pressured by a stronger dollar and renewed investor focus on who the next Fed chairman would be. From reports we have been seeing, it seems that President Trump is currently impressed by Stanford economist John Taylor, a candidate who certainly is quite capably, but seems to be more hawkish on the rate front than some of the others also being vetted for the post. Moreover, Bloomberg reports that Taylor, a former Fed board member, apparently impressed the president during their meeting at the White House last week. Fed Chair Janet Yellen will be interviewed on Thursday and although, she is still in the running, her star seems to have dimmed, as has that of Kenneth Warsh’s, the early front-runner. Two-year notes rose to about 1.546% on Monday on the Taylor speculation, the highest since November of 2008, while the 10 year pushed up to yield 2.3%.