Precious metals are moving downward to begin the trading week thanks, in large part, to the falling value of crude oil. For the past two or so weeks now, crude oil prices are slacking and, as a result, so too are the values of most other raw commodities. Luckily, the demand for precious metals is picking up in Asia as Hong Kong reported September gold imports that were the highest in half of a year.

The focus of investors’ attention this week will continue to be on the equity and currency markets, but with a policy statement expected from the Fed sometime later this week, you can bet that investors will be paying attention to that as well.

Dollar Falls Against Yen, Fed Statement In Focus

Today offered up a bit of a surprise as the greenback continued to decline against the Yen after making a week or more of solid gains against the Japanese currency. All in all, the greenback is still in a very strong position, but it seems as though Asian economies are emerging from their slump. Just last week, some economic reports from China came back far better than expected and really surprised the marketplace. With a stronger physical demand emanating from Asia, the tough times for gold and silver might finally be coming to an end. While that remains to be seen, investors will definitely bee keeping an eye on any and all economic data from the Far East.

As we look ahead to the later parts of this week, the attention of investors will be drawn to a policy statement expected to be released by the Fed. Early expectations are that the US Federal Reserve will reiterate that, while intent on raising interest rates, they are still going to hold off on making such a move until the global economy is in a much more stable position. While the US economy is doing better, the fear is that struggling parts of the world such as Europe will, in time, end up dragging down the pace at which the US economy is improving. Not helping the cause of interest rate hikes at all was a US report indicating that October service sector activity was the lowest we have seen since last Winter. As an economy largely based upon services, any sub-par report with regard to the services sector will undeniably bode poorly for the possibility of interest rate hikes happening anytime soon.