Gold and Silver Slip Again Ahead of Warsh's Jackson Hole Speech

GOLD and SILVER fell Thursday, dropping to the lowest prices so far this week as US data, released ahead of new Fed chair Kevin Warsh's first Jackson Hole speech, said the jobs market is stronger than analysts expected while its trade deficit with the rest of the world continues to soar.

Suggesting that the US Dollar may be over-valued on the currency market, the USA imported $118 billion more in goods than it exported last month, the most since March 2025's all-time merchandise trade deficit.

Last week's jobless benefit claims meanwhile came in lower than forecast, easing towards this summer's 57-year lows and also suggesting the economy is running strong.

Gold dropped through $4580 per troy ounce − down 2.6% from Tuesday's new 15-week gold price high − and silver prices dipped back through $68 for the 3rd time this week.

Betting on next month's Federal Reserve rates decision continued to price 'no change' as a 2-in-3 shot, but longer-term bond yields also held firm at what were new multi-decade highs earlier this summer, prompting the Trump White House to double bond buybacks in a bid to reduce Washington's borrowing costs.

"Markets have turned cautious ahead of the Fed Chair's remarks at Jackson Hole," says gold-market consultancy Metals Focus of tomorrow's widely anticipated speech from new US central-bank boss Kevin Warsh.

Given Warsh's repeated refusal to offer any "forward guidance" on where Fed interest rates may head, "Best thing Kevin could do to lower rates [in the bond market] is to reaffirm Fed commitment to PCE [inflation data] until it hits 2%," says analyst and former Fed bonds trader Joseph Wang.

"Suggesting an index change last meeting was shocking and revealed low levels of competence. [He is] already famous for poor judgement by being hawkish into and even after" the global financial crisis.

With gold and silver prices lower, New York's tech-heavy Nasdaq stock index opened 1.0% higher on Thursday despite AI chip giant Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) jumping 7.2% after last night's strong quarterly earnings report.

Copper edged back again from this week's new all-time highs, while crude oil edged up from yesterday's 2-week lows as Qatar said it's discussing mine-clearing with Iran to open a route for tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Moscow meantime refused to say why US intelligence director John Ratcliffe of the CIA visited this week, with Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergey Naryshkin saying that such high-level contacts happen "practically every week".

The US administration, in contrast, has briefed US journalists that Ratcliffe went to "warn" the Putin Kremlin against making an attack on Washington's Nato allies, while also stressing US resolve to sanction any nation which does business with Iran.