24th August 2016

 We had a very quiet day in the markets on Tuesday, as investors seem to be hunkering down somewhat early ahead of Janet Yellen’s talk on Friday. Gold gave up mid-day gains to finish slightly lower and base metals also closed mixed in uneventful trading.

In the energy markets, a rather abrupt reversal in oil helped limit gold’s declines. In this regard, we saw oil prices rebound from being down by roughly $1/barrel to up by about $.40 by session’s end on account of the Iranians apparently saying that they would entertain the idea of a freeze after being opposed to it previously. (This is not a surprise given that they have spent the last several months ramping up output).