Powell talks down commodities and De Beers paints gloomy picture for diamonds

Commodities traded down this week after the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell made hawkish remarks at a news conference. On Sunday mining audiences manager Michael McCrae recorded Kitco Roundtable. Powell warned markets that although inflation has come down from last year’s 40-year highs, the Fed still has work to do. He said that the central bank is not “confident” that it has inflation under control enough to shift its current tightening bias, according to reporting by editor Neils Christensen.Powell also said that the Federal Reserve wouldn’t hesitate to raise interest rates if inflation pressures start to rise again.Gold investors did not like Powell’s latest message to financial markets as prices have dropped below support at $1,950 an ounce and ended the week down nearly 3% from last Friday.Copper followed gold down, too. The metal was off nearly 3% after last week's rise. It traded at $3.60. De Beers sales plunge in ninth cycle of 2023, which was $80M lower than the same cycle a year ago. Al Cook, CEO of De Beers, commented, "Macro-economic challenges continue to affect the diamond sector. The retail recovery in China remains slow.