News surrounding the leadership approaches of the Federal Reserve affected the price of gold earlier today, causing it to drop below the important $1,300 level.
Just a month ago gold was enjoying soaring new highs as investors turned towards it amid the tensions between North Korea and the United States. It went up and down with the news over the past few weeks, which culminated yesterday in another high at $1,308 due to the news of the conflict in Iraq.
However, early this morning the price of gold futures slumped to $1,290.40. This was caused by the news that President Trump currently prefers John Taylor as the next head of the Federal Reserve. Taylor is expected to be a more hawkish policy maker than the current Fed chief, Janet Yellen, whose term will come to an end in February.
On the expectation that the Federal Reserve will be more hawkish in the near future, investors once again put their trust in the American dollar which marked gains against most currencies. As a result, the price of gold, as a safe-haven asset, suffered. So did other precious metals such as silver, platinum, copper, and palladium.