After Snapping A Four-Week Losing Streak, Gold Heads Lower

The price of gold futures fell on Monday after snapping a run of three consecutive weekly declines, as investors eagerly awaited the Federal Reserve's Jerome Powell's testimony scheduled for this week.

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Price action

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• The price of gold for April delivery GC00, 0.11% GCJ23, 0.11% was up $1.60, or 0.1%, to $1,856.20 an ounce on Thursday.
• At $21.22, May silver SIK23, 0.08% was down 1.8 cents, or nearly 0.1%.
• April platinum price PLJ23, 0.04% declined by 0.6% to $973.90 an ounce, while the June palladium price PAM23, -1.66% declined by 2.9% to $1,407.50 an ounce.
• May copper HGK23, 0.18% added 0.1% to $4.0715 a pound.

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Driving factors in the market

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The gold price is holding around $1,850 at the start of the week, as investors are waiting for a clearer picture of what the Federal Reserve is likely to do with interest rates as well as how well the U.S. economy will hold up against current cost pressures, according to Rupert Rowling, a market analyst at Kinesis Money in his market commentary.

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It is expected that the monthly data on U.S. nonfarm payrolls will be released on Friday. Prior to that, Powell has been scheduled to give a testimony on Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee and on Wednesday before the House Financial Services Committee. The two hearings are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

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While the central bank aims to bring inflation down, Powell is expected to emphasize the need to continue raising interest rates.

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Rowling says these two speeches from Powell are going to be a "big factor in driving the price of gold" since gold has been closely linked to the actions of the Fed.

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“There are recent comments by Fed officials that have reaffirmed the importance of continuing to raise rates until they reach at least 5% since the war against persistently high inflation is far from over,” he said.

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Mary Daly, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve, said on Saturday that bumpy progress on lowering inflation may in fact mean that interest rates will need to be raised further over the coming months and stay at their current levels for quite some time.