17th January 2018

 Precious metals ended slightly higher on Wednesday, except for palladium, which tumbled by about $16/ounce. Despite the mostly positive finish, the rate of gain in gold was much less than what we saw from earlier in the week as the dollar seems to be stabilizing. Although the greenback lost ground again on Tuesday after being higher earlier in the day, it did not drop as hard as it was earlier in the week. It’s best performance came against the Euro, which ended the day at 1.2258 on reports that Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to be struggling in forming a coalition. Moreover, an ECB official walked back perceptions that the central bank will turn slightly more hawkish soon. “We need more thorough analysis before making any change,” the official was quoted as telling Reuters. His comments helped push European yields slightly lower and this fed into the US market as well, where the 10-year dropped to about 2.54%.