Gold Spot Price Open: $1,156

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,151

Change in Gold Spot Price: -$5

Silver Spot Price Open: $15.70

Silver Spot Price Close: $15.61

Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.09

Precious metals somewhat continued along their downward slide on Tuesday, despite the fact that most investors were holding their positions ahead of the conclusion of the latest FOMC meeting. When all was said and done, gold lost about 7 dollars while silver was down by almost ten cents. Platinum and palladium also extended losses, with each metal having lost more than 15 dollars today.

Marketplace Slows Ahead of FOMC Statement

Like was made very clear yesterday, the investing world is primarily concerning itself with what is said by the FOMC in the wake of their meeting tomorrow. Interest rate hikes are on the minds of investors, and the overriding hope is that Janet Yellen or one of her colleagues will shed some more light on the topic. As it stands, most are expecting the word “patient” to be removed from the Fed’s commentary regarding how they feel about rate hikes. For some, the removal of such language is an indication that rate hikes may be coming sooner than expected, while for others, it doesn’t really change much.

Because the focus of investors is on what will be said tomorrow afternoon, it should come as no surprise that the marketplace is a bit quieter and subdued today. In addition to any and all information regarding interest rate hikes, investors are also expecting to see the FOMC’s latest economic projections for the United States in 2015. If anything is going to have a major impact on the market, I think it is going to be these projections. Luckily for precious metals, a slight sell-off on the part of US equity markets is helping limit the selling pressure experienced by metals.

Home Construction Nosedives in February

If you are from the Eastern coast of the United States, it is no secret that this past February brought about massive winter snow storm after massive winter snow storm. As a result of all this intense weather, US housing construction suffered considerably. According to the Commerce Department’s report, the construction of just under 900,000 new homes was begun in February. This number is 17% fewer than in Janaury, and in places like the Midwest and Northeast, the decline was even steeper.

Despite cheap gas, reasonable mortgage rates, and a host of other factors making home-buying more feasible, Americans desire more to pay down debt than to spend money on big-ticket items (like houses). Should the economy continue to improve, however, many feel as though change is inevitable. It will be interesting to see how March does with regard to housing starts. With nicer weather already creeping in, it is my guess that March will be significantly better for the construction of new homes than February was.

USD Index Continues to Suffer From Corrective Pullback

For a second consecutive day, the USD lost out against its major rivals thanks to a bit of a continued corrective pullback. Though losses today were kept to a minimum, most thought that the greenback would bounce back after yesterday’s losses. Because of what has happened the last two days, the Euro currency has been able to regain some of the ground it lost against its US rival. Still, however, the Euro currency is in a poor position and is expected to continue weakening against the greenback as well as a few other currencies.

Wrap-Up

To be fair, there really wasn’t much in the way of groundbreaking news to talk about today. Like was stated above, most investors are simply holding their positions in order to gauge the Fed’s language upon the conclusion of their meeting tomorrow afternoon. For now, the FOMC meeting remains concern number one for investors both in the US and abroad. Though I have my doubts as to whether we will find out any more information regarding interest rates, that will not stop the market from paying extremely close attention to anything and everything said by Yellen or any of her Federal Reserve colleagues.