Newmont Corp. (NYSE:NEM) shares fell more than 3% on Tuesday as gold prices dropped below $4,060 an ounce after U.S. inflation data came in above market expectations and Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he supports further tightening in December. Broader markets were modestly lower, with the State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF and the Invesco QQQ Trust each down about 0.3%.
Inflation Data Pressures Gold
U.S. headline inflation eased to 0.4% month over month in October from 0.6% in September, but exceeded market expectations of 0.3%. Core inflation rose 0.3% for a second straight month, above forecasts of 0.2%, which points to persistent underlying price pressures, according to Trading Economics.
Waller said Tuesday that a half-percentage-point, or 50-basis-point, hike should be considered in December if October core inflation came in at 0.3% or higher, a threshold the October report met. Money markets are pricing in around 28 basis points of tightening, which suggests a 25-basis-point hike is fully priced in, with some expectations of a larger increase, according to Trading Economics.
Technical Analysis
Even with Tuesday’s pullback, NEM is still holding an uptrend structure on longer timeframes, trading about 7.8% above its 200-day simple moving average (SMA) ($112.36) and about 8.3% above its 100-day SMA ($111.76). The stock is also about 5.4% above its 20-day SMA ($114.85), suggesting the bigger trend is still intact even as the session turns choppy.
Momentum looks more “range-bound than stretched” right now, with the relative strength index (RSI) at 54.90 (neutral). RSI measures how extended a move is versus recent price action, and a mid-50s reading typically signals neither buyers nor sellers have clear control.
The mixed moving-average picture helps explain the push-pull: the 20-day SMA remains below the 50-day SMA (a bearish short-term crossover), but the 50-day SMA is still above the 200-day SMA after the golden cross in September. That combination often shows up when a stock is in a longer-term uptrend but working through a consolidation phase.
NEM Price Action: Newmont shares were down 3.26% at $121.08 at the time of publication Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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