Precious Metals News Update - 27 February 2018

Hello everyone.
 
Precious metals commenced the week with price action driven by the US dollar which itself was hoofed around like a football, initially on comments from Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda during early Far Eastern trading that the: “BOJ will persistently continue powerful monetary easing” and “Japan's economy needs persistent monetary easing” and then by comments during European trading from European Central Bank President Draghi that "there's no currency wars".
 
The JPY strengthened against the USD following Governor Kuroda’s comments resulting in gold rallying hard in both USD and AUD terms. President Draghi’s comments then sparked a reversal in the US Dollar as it recouped its prior intraday losses, consequently pressuring the precious metals back lower.
 
Meanwhile, US equities forged ahead and the DJIA has presently recovered approximately 70% of its Jan 29th to Feb 9th losses. US 10 Year treasury yields were modestly lower.
 
In all likelihood, the highlight of the week will be Jerome Powell’s first public appearance on Tuesday as the freshly minted US Federal Reserve Chairman with testimony being delivered before the US Congress (House Financial Services Committee) followed by the US Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. Analysts and investors will parse every word as they search for clues on the direction of the US central bank’s monetary policy under the stewardship of its new chairman.
 
Whilst geopolitical events and tensions around the globe haven’t receded, markets are focused elsewhere, muting the impact of these events for the time being.
 
Technically, choppy / range-driven trade remains to be the order of the day in XAU/AUD between its 21 Day moving average at AUD 1690 and major technical resistance at AUD 1715.00
 
Similarly, XAU/USD continues to see choppy / range-driven trade within a broader USD 1306 to USD 1366 sideways trading band. Money for jam for the scalpers and range traders.
 
Good luck.
 
Regards,
Andre