December 18, 2017 -- Precious metals markets stopped their recent skid in last week's trading and moved a bit higher. Selling pressure let up as bullion banks ran out of speculative longs to crucify. Open interest in gold and silver futures has fallen significantly from the very high levels of a month ago.

The modest rally in metals came despite another 1/4 percent hike from the Federal Reserve last Wednesday. The central planners there have been telegraphing each move months in advance, so the markets seem to have already priced in the rate hike.

The setup going into 2018 looks similar in many regards to that of a year ago. Metals were punished in advance of the December 2016 rate hike. Open interest came down. Then prices began moving higher immediately following the FOMC meeting. We'll see if that bit of history also repeats in the weeks ahead.



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