1st March 2018

Gold ended relatively unchanged on Wednesday, ignoring the swirl of volatility engulfing other markets, much of it concentrated in the US equity markets. In this regard, the Dow gave up initial advance to finish 380 points lower, while the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ each shed 57 points and 34 points respectively. It seems that after several days of impressive advances, the sellers are now back in the driver’s seat, using Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony on Tuesday as justification to take some money off the table. Powell did not testify again on Wednesday, as we erroneously wrote in our last report, but will do so on Thursday in front of yet another congressional committee. With 700 points of Dow losses behind him since he last spoke, we wonder if Powell will have something more “uplifting” to say this time around. Then again, it is not the Chairman’s job to mollify equity markets, although we have to suspect that practically all Fed Chairs keep one eye fixated on Wall Street even though they may be loathe to admit it.