GoldPrice.

Happy Friday, traders. Welcome to our weekly market wrap, where we take a look back at these last five trading days with a focus on the market news, economic data and headlines that had the most impact on gold prices and other key correlated assets—and may continue to into the future.

Gold prices are once again closing out a summertime trading week with a late surge, this one lifting the yellow metal above $2400/oz en route to a third-straight weekly gain.

So, what kind of week has it been?

After a rally late in last week’s holiday-interrupted trading, which was spurred on by the broad investor class in gold (and other assets) edging back into an expectation for the FOMC to act earlier in introducing rate cuts this year, Monday’s trading sessions saw a correction back towards $2350/oz as Friday’s excitement was met with Monday’s sobriety. Crucially for the yellow metal’s path through the rest of this week, there was clear evidence of strong support in this area of the chart, and $2355 has, in fact, proved to be trading week’s nadir, ticked shortly after cash markets opened in the US.

From there, it was a relatively quiet week across the gold market. While Tuesday and Wednesday mornings included semi-annual Congressional testimony from Fed Chair Jerome Powell—bookended by public remarks from other key FOMC officials—which made some effort to reiterate the committee’s adherence to their stated plan despite recent remarks that the US economy’s inflation issue is improving, the early Monday correction in gold spot prices seemed to have done more of the Fed’s work for it, initially; at least in terms of how traders in the precious metal space were expressing their monetary policy projections. On the way to Thursday morning, however, investors seemed to slink back into an expectation that the forthcoming CPI data would crack the FOMC’s armor, pushing them back on their heels and into an earlier (and possibly multiple) interest rate cut. With this moderate tailwind at its back, gold had climbed back into the neighborhood of $2380/oz by the earliest hours of Thursday morning.

As futile as this adjustment seemed (or still seems, arguably, the much-anticipated inflation data released on Thursday morning did play into the market’s hands. Annualized tabulations of both overall and “core” CPI came in 0.1% below expectations (truly, it’s impressive the kind of market reaction that a delta of just ten basis points can spur on), with the headline rate landing at an even +3.0% YoY. The month-over-month CPI number actually printed negative (-0.1%) counter to projections. Perhaps feeling as if they hadn’t gotten far enough over their skis pushing prices higher midweek, the consumer inflation print was immediately met by a sharp and surging rally that drove the gold spot to and through a major level of psychological resistance at $2400/oz like a hot knife through butter. The surge didn’t come to rest until later in the US trading session when it started to settle with the chart just below $2420.

In a lucky break for any traders holding their long gold positions through the post-CPI rally, the flow of public remarks from FOMC officials has dropped significantly in the second half of this week, meaning there has been little in the way of headline flow or commentary to pushback against the resurgent assertions that the Fed can sooner declare victory over inflation and begin easing monetary policy. The one piece of information flow to counter gold’s hot rally came via Friday morning’s Producer Price Index report (effectively, the inflation rate of input prices for goods and services.) Here , while the data still implies cooler prices than earlier in the year, the report did walk back the surprisingly disinflationary data in the prior month’s report. In response, gold spot prices very briefly dipped back below $2400/oz on Monday morning. However, the thick of the US trading morning has shown investors to be pushing back hard against this correction, and the yellow metal has returned to showing bids and offers above $2410/oz before lunchtime.

Next week’s calendar is again very light on key economic data, this time without a major draw like CPI coming along at any point. We’ll be watching, then, to see if we repeat the sober retraction on Monday of a late-week rally; and if we don’t, will be tracking whether gold can continue to hold a line above $2400.

For now, traders, I hope you can get out and safely enjoy your weekend for the next couple of days. After that, I’ll see everyone back here next week for another market recap.