Shift from ‘soft landing’ to ‘hard landing’ impacting gold

Gold fell nearly $40 from daily highs and hit more than two-year lows under pressure from aggressive rate hike expectations as the US dollar and Treasury yields climbed. The precious metal closed at $1696.79 on Wednesday, and on Thursday was unable to break the $1,700 line, instead the price action kept the downtrend and retreated even further, touching the lows last seen in April 2020.


Gold is fighting a ferocious battle against the US dollar, and expectations of another 75 basis point rate hike from the Fed. Thursday’s move was just an acceleration when the precious metal fell below the $1,685 an ounce level, triggering sell stops.

Following several key macroeconomic data releases this week, including hotter-than-expected inflation data and better-than-projected retail sales, markets are now pricing in full steam ahead regarding rate hikes.

The market is getting more nervous that a policy mistake would lead to a severe session like today’s US session.