(Kitco News) – The gold market is not finding much traction even as U.S. consumers expect inflation pressures to remain elevated through 2022, according to the latest University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey.
The preliminary survey results show that consumer sentiment dropped to 68.8, down from December’s reading of 70.0. However, according to some market analysts, the survey’s inflation expectations is garnering the most attention.
The report said that one-year inflation expectations rose to 4.9%, up from December’s reading of 4.8%. Meanwhile, 5 to 10-year inflation expectations rose to 3.1% up from 2.9%.
Inflation data has been getting a lot of attention lately. Earlier this week the Consumer Price Index showed an annual rise of 7.0%
However, the latest data is not having much impact on gold as prices trading in neutral territory. Spot gold last traded at $1,823.20 an ounce, up 0.05% on the day.
Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist, at Capital Economics, said that rising inflation pressure could lead to weaker economic activity through the year.
“With the squeeze on purchasing power from surging prices unlikely to end any time soon, this all suggests that the sharp slowdown in real consumption growth flagged by the December retail sales data may be a sign of things to come in 2022,” Hunter said. “The additional bad news is that consumers’ longer-term inflation expectations rose to a near-11 year high of 3.1% in January. That provides another reason to suspect that the Fed’s hawkish turn won’t be derailed by weaker economic growth.”