Steady Ahead Of A Busy Week Of Global Policy Decisions and Data

Gold is steady in today’s Asia-Pac session, after closing slightly lower at $2384.19 on Monday.

• It was a subdued start to a busy week of global central bank policy meetings and key data releases. This week will see policy decisions from the BoJ, BoE and Fed alongside top-tier economic releases including the US Non-Farm Payrolls report and Employment Cost Index, Euro Area CPI and GDP, Australian CPI and China PMI.
• (AFR) Goldman Sachs economist David Mericle wrote "We expect the FOMC to revise its statement to say that the unemployment rate has ‘risen slightly but remains low’, that there has been ‘further progress’ (dropping ‘modest’) toward the 2 per cent inflation goal, that the risks to the two sides of the mandate ‘are in’ (not ‘have moved toward’) better balance, and—most importantly—that it now needs only ‘somewhat’ greater confidence in the inflation outlook to start lowering interest rates.”
• Lower rates are typically positive for gold, which doesn’t pay interest.
• According to MNI’s technicals team, the yellow metal has recently pierced the 50-day EMA at $2,361.8, a clear break of which would signal scope for a deeper retracement towards $2,277.4, the May 3 low. For bulls, a reversal higher would refocus attention on $2,483.7, the Jul 17 high.