By Gold futures were little changed on Monday after clinching a sixth straight week of gains — the longest such winning streak for a most-active contract since August 2020, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Price action
Gold prices for February
GC00,
-0.02%
GCG23,
-0.02%
fell by $4.10, or 0.2%, to $1,941 an ounce on Comex.
Silver prices for March
SI00,
+0.94%
SIH23,
+0.94%
increased by 16 cents, or 0.7%, to $23.79 an ounce.
March palladium
PAH23,
+0.89%
rose $21.80, or 1.4%, to $1,621an ounce, while platinum for April
PLJ23,
-0.09%
rose $3.20, or 0.3% to $1,020 an ounce.
Copper for March
HGH23,
-0.57%
fell by 2 cents, or 0.5%, to $4.20 a pound.
Market drivers
Precious metals analysts blamed gold’s modest Monday pullback on profit-taking following an epic bull run that sent the yellow metal to its strongest level in nine months.
What’s more, traders are also waiting to see whether Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will try to take investors down a peg by signaling that the Fed is nowhere near finished with its battle against inflation.
“Gold is seeing a modest corrective pullback and some mild profit taking from the futures traders ahead of this week’s highly anticipated monetary policy meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve,” said Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco.com.
The Fed’s two-day policy meeting will conclude Wednesday with what’s expected to be a 25 basis point interest-rate hike and a policy statement, followed by Powell’s news conference. Several other central banks are set to meet this week, including the European Central Bank and Bank of England.
