The market is under the influence of past Central banks meetings: the U.S. dollar goes up, the gold futures fall

News for today, Monday, December 20:

The dollar, which normally moves inversely to gold, inched up on Monday. The U.S. dollar is at its 17-month high after Federal Reserve officials signalled a first pandemic-era interest rate increase could come as early as March.

Gold futures edged down 0.18% as the Fed signalled an earlier interest rate hike, while fears over the Omicron COVID-19 variant spreading continues.

While coronavirus restrictions cloud the outlook for economic growth, they also risk keeping inflation elevated and turning central banks yet more hawkish. It was notable that Federal Reserve officials were openly talking of hiking rates as soon as March and of starting to run down the central bank's balance sheet in mid-2022.

The price of Brent crude is $ 70.38 per barrel, WTI — $ 67.42. EUR/USD is at 1.1260, GBP/USD — 1.3183, gold is at $ 1,801.05 per ounce.­­­­