AuRico Gold Inc

Besides ongoing geopolitical concerns, a crucial factor that gold keeps looking to for directional moves is the US dollar.

Although most of the upswing in precious metals has been due to the rise in geopolitical risks in 2017, the dollar has been the most crucial factor.

All four precious metals except palladium witnessed an up day on December 18, 2017. Platinum touched the day’s high of $915.3 and ended up at $913.2 per ounce.

Precious metals and miners saw some relief on December 13 after the Fed raised rates as expected. Sibanye Gold (SBGL), Aurico Gold (AUQ), and Goldcorp (GG) rose 3.5%, 3.6%, and 5.8%, respectively.

Often, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium react to the overall risk in the market.

The US stock markets were closed on Thursday, November 23, 2017, for Thanksgiving, and the next day (Black Friday) was quite slow for precious metals. Gold played in a narrow range that day.

Besides the impact of interest rates, there are also other global indicators that could play on precious metals—the most important being the US dollar.

All four precious metals rose on Monday, October 30, as multiple speculations in the market gripped investors’ attention.

Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium have a five-day trailing loss of 0.67%, 0.44%, 1.1%, and 1.5%, respectively.

Gold fell for the third consecutive day on October 18, 2017, as the US dollar regained strength. However, October 19 was an up day for gold and silver.

Gold futures for June expiration fell 0.47% and ended May 18 at $1,252.8 per ounce. The call implied volatility in gold rose to 11.3%.

The gold-platinum spread was ~1.3 on April 26, 2017. The gold-platinum spread RSI on that day was 59.

When analyzing the precious metals market, it’s important to take a look at the relationship between gold and silver.

The gold-silver spread was trading at 68.5 on February 23, 2017. The spread suggests that it took 68.5 ounces of silver to buy a single ounce of gold.

The gold-palladium spread has seen its ups and downs over the past few months. But the United Kingdom’s Brexit vote resulted in some strength for palladium.

Gold gave steady returns to investors for the first two months of 2016 as unrest and instability continued in the markets. However, March started with some ups as well as downs for gold.

The Fed rate hike has been a major driver for gold prices since mid-2015. Higher interest rates usually diminish gold’s appeal due to its non–interest yielding nature.