Precious metals continued to trend downward on Monday, pressured by all-time highs reached by the S&P500 as well as a stronger US Dollar. Being that we are still in the month of August, it should come as no surprise that there really isn’t too much in the way of markets-moving economic data on the slate for this week. While there will be a few reports made public, no one is expecting them to have any major impact on the spot values of precious metals.

Apart from concentration on US equity markets today, investors continued to mull over and discuss what was said at last week’s central bankers meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Interest Rate Speculation Continues

If you have been paying any amount of attention to the global economic atmosphere over the course of the last few months or so, you are probably more than well aware of the fact that investors the world over want to know if and when the US Federal Reserve plans on raising interest rates. With each passing FOMC meeting and public appearance by Janet Yellen, the market perks up in order to hear anything they can about the future of interest rates. While much is known about when they will be raised and what factors will allow them to be, no one is entirely sure the date at which interest rates will be hiked in the US.

Last week, the investing world’s attention was drawn to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where a global central bankers meeting was taking place. At the meeting, both Janet Yellen and ECB president Mario Draghi made prepared speeches with regard to the future of monetary policy in their respective regions. During her remarks, Ms. Yellen made it clear that while the economy is definitely improving, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the labor sector. Regardless of this, investors perceived her comments as being more hawkish than anything else, and drew the conclusion that perhaps interest rate hikes may be coming sooner rather than later. What’s more, ECB president Mario Draghi stated that he is not ruling out further monetary policy measures.

Because of these two speeches, the value of the USD is moving upward today while the Euro is once again trending downward. Should the Fed raise interest rates at any time near a monetary policy change by the ECB, many people think that the Dollar could pick up even more value against the Euro. All of this, however, remains to be seen.