Precious metals, as of the writing of this post early Monday morning, were backing off from last week’s highs. Still, both gold and silver spot values are in solid positions and look to still be benefiting from the growing sense of uncertainty being exhibited by investors. Like last week, most are expecting that this week will see safe-haven demand for gold and silver contribute to nice daily gains. With that being said, however, anything can happen over the course of a 5-day trading session, so there is no guaranteeing that gains are going to be made.

As far as the week’s top events are concerned, investors are going to be wholly preoccupied with Thursday’s European Central Bank meeting. This meeting has been a top concern since the day 2015 began, and with a major shift in policy expected to be announced, it is easy to see why. The Euro’s value as it relates to Thursday’s meeting will be another talking point for investors as this week carries on. For now, the Euro is hovering around a 10-year low against the US Dollar and is not looking like it is going to improve anytime soon.

Big Week for European Monetary Policy

While we still don’t know exactly what this week has in store, we do know that the global marketplace will be paying close attention to the European Union. The region, which has been struggling greatly from an economic perspective, has been in and out of the headlines for the better part of the past year and cannot seem to shake the economic and financial ills that led to 2008’s downward economic turn. For this reason, the European Central Bank has decided that it wants to implement some sort of quantitative easing, bond-buying program. It is these prospective QE measures that are expected to be announced this week.

The likelihood of such an announcement is as good as ever, too, considering the European Court of Justice ruled last week that the ECB’s proposed bond-buying is within the realm of the law. Still, the market will just have to sit back and wait in order to see if the ECB is going to pull the trigger on QE measures.

For the Euro, it is widely expected that such a QE announcement would drive down the value of the currency even further. As it stands, the Euro is at its worst position against the Dollar in roughly ten years and is widely expected to do even worse than that as the year plays out. This week is looking like it will be pivotal in deciding the future of the Euro, so you can bet that every investor will be paying close attention to every word stemming from the ECB’s meeting.