Gold and Silver Move Sideways After Record Thursday Performance

 

Precious Metals Move Sideways After Excellent Thursday Performance

(Bullion News Network) – Gold prices pulled back slightly today but will end the week up nearly 3.5% from Monday’s closing price. Gold lost just $5 per troy ounce and remains above $2,880/ozt. The spot price of silver dropped by a larger percentage, shedding $0.18 per troy ounce while remaining above $33.70/ozt, a four-month high. Both precious metals peaked on Thursday amid a highly uncertain economic environment and the lowest fear and greed index rating in over a year. Silver logged a recent intraday high of $34, the first time the metal has crested above the $34 line since November of 2024. Gold logged yet another all-time high, adding over $20 to its previous record and ending the day just below $2,890/ozt. 

This price action came on the heels of a better-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, as well as an optimistic Producer Price Index (PPI) data set released on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. The two reports suggest that inflation may be slowing in the United States and helped to quell some of the market’s concerns about rising consumer prices in the wake of President Trump’s aggressive set of tariff policies. The good news on inflation may complicate the Fed’s next few meetings, although CME FedWatch now predicts only a 1% probability that the FOMC will vote to cut rates by 25% when it meets next Wednesday. 

Wall Street bounced today, with the S&P 500 gaining 2.13%, the Dow Jones climbing 1.65%, and the Nasdaq Composite making the largest headway at 2.61%. Today was the best of 2025 for Nasdaq and the S&P 500, but the market still suffered its worst trading week since 2023 as traders contended with heightened uncertainty. CNN’s Fear and Greed Index remains in the “extreme fear” zone, although markets appear less skittish than yesterday, which saw a one-year low in the Fear and Greed Index rating. 

On a granular level, the Fear and Greed Index today shows a small drop in safe haven demand, which is measured by the ratio between stock and bond performance. This figure still remains at its lowest since August 5th of 2024. A flight to bonds generally suggests a more fearful market, experts say, as bonds are considered safe haven assets that tend to outperform stocks during periods of uncertainty, instability, or unrest. Demand for precious metals, another category of safe haven asset, continues to climb as investors pivot from stocks into traditionally safer assets. 

Precious metal traders are now eyeing next week’s Federal Reserve meeting for more cues on where the market may be heading. The Federal Open Market Commission (FOMC) is responsible for setting the federal interest rate. The Committee will meet next Wednesday (March 19th). The FOMC is expected to vote to keep rates unchanged at 4.25-4.50%. CME FedWatch’s projections have fluctuated from day-to-day this week but have remained relatively stable over the month. The model currently projects only a 1% chance that the Fed will reduce rates next Wednesday, down from 2% last week and 3% one month ago. 

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has previously stated that the FOMC needs to see more evidence that inflation is approaching the Fed’s established 2% target before it is likely to resume cutting rates. While the February CPI demonstrates that inflation may be moving in the right direction, analysts say this report will not do much to change the FOMC’s course heading into its second meeting of 2025. While the Fed is unlikely to cut interest rates at its March meeting, expect the tone of Chair Powell’s speech to be a major market driver next week. If the Fed seems more optimistic about its ability to start resuming rate cuts in the coming months, this could be a bullish sign for precious metals, which tend to perform well in falling-rate environments. 

Later this month, the February Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) will give markets even more insight into whether or not the falling inflation rate we saw this month is likely more than a momentary blip. The PCE, scheduled for release on March 28th, is considered one of the Fed’s two core metrics for measuring inflation. 

Gold and silver will both end the week up by a significant margin as traders take a breather and look forward to another meeting of the Federal Reserve.