Exploring the fluctuating trends in gold and platinum, alongside potential investment opportunities in silver, copper, and Bitcoin amid global economic uncertainties and Fed policy impacts.
Phillip Streible, Chief Market Strategist
[TRANSCRIPT]
Good morning, it’s Thursday, February 8th, about 6 a.m. Central Time. Over the precious metals are mixed after yesterday’s volatile session. You have April gold down $8 at 2043, March silver up 4 cents at 22.40, March copper unchanged at 373, April Platinum down $3 at 883. One thing to note here is that you do have Palladium at $881, down $18. That’s the first time I’ve seen it in multiple years that the price of Palladium has dropped below Platinum. Now, I looked at a little bit of information on that, and really it’s concerns about the auto sector and demand in Asia and also in Europe. That’s why we had that sell-off yesterday, perhaps they had some estimates that came out on some of the vehicle sales and things like that.
Now, if you look at the gold market, still consolidating, really hasn’t gone anywhere. We’ve had the World Gold Council, they showed that gold ETF Holdings have slumped for the 8th straight month. So, unless you get those ETF Holdings, it’s going to be really tough to get the bullish momentum going. Remember, I said that there were three main drivers to the gold market to get another massive rally underway, and it’s got to be that gold Futures really need to break through that like 2070 level, 2073 level, and then the FOMO chasers will come in, and they’ll start buying it aggressively. I think that too many participants right now are playing with other markets such as US equities, specifically the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, and also back to the cryptocurrencies. As you look at Bitcoin, after its recent consolidation, is now starting to break out to the upside. The technical breakout on the Ethereum market would be a close over 2500. I think you’d have another wave of speculators coming to that market as well.
So, looking at the silver market, trading right around four-month lows right now, 2238 last on the charts. But what I always look at is the gold-silver RTI ratio, trading at 99:1, so a lot of pressure there, not a lot of action going on in the metals. It’s actually watching paint dry at the moment. The Dollar Index does have a small rebound, and we did have some ECB speaker come out earlier this morning, and perhaps was putting some pressure on the Euro currency and lifting that Dollar Index back just a touch higher here.
So, other things that we’re watching, crude oil future starting to push up just a touch. We’re lifting off of its recent lows. It does have some technical headwinds here as we run into some key moving averages at the moment. So, we’re going to want to just kind of keep an eye on all these different markets. We do have several things coming out, everything from initial claims, continuing claims, and then we’ll have two Fed speakers that are both FOMC voters coming out, 1 at 7:30 a.m., that’s going to be Richmond Fed President Barkin. He’ll be on Bloomberg, and then also you’ll have him come back out and talk again at about 11:05 this afternoon. So, pay attention to that Bloomberg interview. You got any questions, give me a call, 312-8581. Remember, Futures option trading does a all risk loss may not be suitable to all investors. Good luck, good trading.