Gold Eases Around $1230 After Weekly Slide, Fedspeak Eyed

Gold was little changed early Monday, but prices were still near the lowest in five months as the yellow metal continues to suffer the cloudy outlook of US monetary stimulus.

The bullion market kicks off a calm trade this week, stuck again in a tight range even after strong US non-farm payroll data for November on Friday. Nevertheless, some economists still believe there are good reasons that the Federal Reserve is unlikely to start reducing its $85 billion of monthly bond purchases at the Dec. 17-18 policy meeting.

Spot Gold was slightly up by 0.03% at $1,229.42 an ounce as of 02:13 a.m. EST, compared with the previous close at $1,229.10. The day's range is far between $1,225.51 and $1,232.19.

The sideway trade is still evident in the first trading session this week, but with a slight bearish bias recently. However, further downside pressure remains the most likely scenario for upcoming sessions, unless price manages to consolidate above $1,250 mark.

Traders apparently shifted their money into stock markets Friday on the back of good job news, helping the Dow Jones Industrial Average snap a five-day losing streak, a sign the Fed is having some success reassuring investors that it will maintain easy-money policies for years to come.

The US economic calendar is kind of shy of first-tier release, but bullion junkies will be watching Fedspeak and indications whether November jobs report is enough to put tapering seriously on the table at the next week’s FOMC meeting.

On the Fed watch today:

- Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker speech to economic outlook conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

- St Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard speech on the economy in St. Louis.

- Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher speech on banking trends in Chicago.

The term Fedspeak, or Greenspeak, was first used by American Economist Alan Blinder, to express "a turgid dialect of English, used by the Fed chairman in making intentionally wordy, vague and ambiguous statements, in an attempt to prevent financial markets from overreacting to the his remarks."