Gold pricing declined earlier this week on the heels of the most recent jobs report for March which was released on Friday. However, because markets were closed a delayed reaction occurred beginning Monday morning in Australia and moving through Hong Kong, London, and then New York with June gold futures trading to a low of $1995 before recovering and closing above $2000 per ounce.
Economic predictions and forecasts expect that the inflation rate will decline from 6% to 5.2% YoY. However, the predictions also expect that the core inflation rate will increase by 0.1% from 5.5% to 5.6%. The Federal Reserve focuses on the core inflation numbers which exclude food and energy costs.
China has made bold moves as it began military exercises focusing on Taiwan. The Chinese military recently sent dozens of aircraft across the Taiwan Strait median line. This occurred a few hours after China announced the beginning of three days of drills around Taiwan in response to the island's President, Tsai Ing-wen, visiting the U.S. and meeting the House speaker.