Greek lawmakers have approved the bailout agreement that will keep the country in the euro for now, but more decisive moves are still up in the air. Chinese stock markets continue to vacillate and oil prices are expected to tank even more than they have to date.
To top it off, Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen maked yet another announcement of her intention to raise interest rates from 0% before year's end, a move that will undoubtedly put pressure on American stock markets.
All this negative news should have given a powerful boost to the price of gold bullion. But instead, the metal continues to slide, dropping $10 Wednesday to a low of $1,143.43 an ounce, the lowest since March and keeping the metal hovering at $1150 levels.
As a sign of the continued strengthening of the economy, Yellen’s pointed to figures on U.S. industrial production that rose at the fastest monthly pace of 2015 so far in June as reported in the Fed’s quarterly Monetary Policy Report.
Interest Rate Increase Assured
In her semi-annual testimony report to Congress, Yellen said, reiterated that current economic conditions “make it appropriate at some point this year to raise the federal funds rate target."
Gold has been under pressure since June 2013 when it started to slide and has moved sideways between then and January 2015 remaining below the long-term trend level. In January 2015 the gold prices rallied above $1220 reaching $1300 before it began to falter once again. It has continued to take a hit since then.