Gold Steady After Fed Governor Remarks Raise Bets On US Rate Cut

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing the "Genesis Mission," a federal effort to boost innovation using artificial intelligence — the latest step by the administration to promote AI technology and its adoption.

The effort aims to better coordinate research done by agencies across the government and more effectively integrate AI tools to achieve more scientific breakthroughs, according to Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who spoke to reporters on the order ahead of Trump's signature.

The mission will harness the computing resources of the Department of Energy's national labs to tap federal datasets and enable more experiments utilizing AI, Kratsios added, predicting the effort would help shorten the timelines for scientific discoveries.

Partnerships with private-sector companies, including Nvidia Corp., Dell Technologies Inc., HPE and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., will boost supercomputing resources at the labs, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details on the order. The official cited recent announcements from those companies as a model for potential new ones.

Officials on Monday said the push would accelerate scientific discoveries in materials engineering, health sciences and energy. And they sought to cast the innovation gains as critical to helping bolster production and lower prices, another key priority for the administration as it seeks to address voter concerns about living costs.

"With the power of AI, America is on the brink of a scientific revolution," Kratsios said Monday.

The massive computing resources needed for AI's development and use, though, rely on energy-hungry data centers, which has spurred worries that the adoption of the technology will only increase strains on the US electric grid.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Monday said the Genesis initiative would help counter rising energy costs, saying one of its "ultimate goals" in the energy space is to "bring more energy on, make our electricity grid more efficient and reverse price rises that have infuriated American citizens."

"We're going to stop the rise of price of energy. First, it'll plateau, and ultimately will push downward pressure on the prices of electricity," Wright said.

The initiative was previewed earlier in November by Department of Energy Chief of Staff Carl Coe, who cast it as an effort to signal that the Trump administration sees the race to develop AI technology as just as important as the space race and the World War II-era Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.

Kratsios on Monday called it the "largest marshaling of federal scientific resources since the Apollo program" — the US mission to send humans to the moon and bring them back to Earth safely.

Earlier: Trump Plans to Unveil 'Genesis Mission' to Boost AI Development

Trump has frequently hailed the promise of AI and made its development a top priority for his administration, pushing policies he says are critical to ensuring the US wins a race with China and others to advance the technology. Through a host of executive orders, Trump has moved to ease regulatory burdens to make it easier for companies to build AI infrastructure and power data centers and for allies to obtain key hardware and software.

He's also pushed to block state-level regulation in the US, arguing for a federal standard. The president is preparing an executive order that would allow the Department of Justice to sue states over artificial intelligence regulations it deems unconstitutional.

Source: Bloomberg Europe

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said she supports a rate cut at the U.S. central bank's meeting next month.

Daly said the labor market appeared more fragile than expected and a sudden deterioration posed a greater risk than a potential rise in inflation.

Although Daly won't have a vote on the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) this year or next, his statements have drawn attention because he generally aligns with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The Fed is split on whether to hold interest rates steady or cut them on December 9-10.

"I'm not sure we can be proactive in the labor market," Daly said, noting that the economy has been in a "low hiring-low layoff" equilibrium for a long time, but the likelihood of this equilibrium breaking negatively is increasing. Conversely, he noted that the cost increases caused by tariffs throughout the year have been more limited than expected, and the risk of a sudden jump in inflation is lower.

Daly stated that he believes the Fed can reduce inflation to its 2 percent target without increasing unemployment, and that otherwise it would be a "policy mistake."

With interest rates falling to the 3.75%-4% range following the cuts at the last two meetings, the futures market is once again strongly pricing in the possibility of a new cut in December, according to CME Group data. This probability had fallen below 50% during the month, but expectations have shifted after New York Fed President John Williams stated that "there is room for a near-term cut."

However, some Fed officials oppose the reductions, arguing that price pressures, particularly on services inflation and tariff-sensitive goods, could persist. They warn that easing too quickly could put the Fed in a difficult position if economic activity picks up again in 2025.

Daly, however, argues that the Fed should not back down out of caution: "I don't assume our hands will be tied next year. We will cut rates further if necessary, or raise them if necessary."

Stating that disagreements within the FED are normal, Daly argued that this is a natural consequence of the uncertain economic environment: "Our job is not to produce consensus; it is to accurately assess the risks."

Source: CryptoSlate

Energy Costs

Source: Bloomberg

"Money is not just failing to come in, it's actually leaving the crypto market," Thielen said. "That's why bitcoin dominance is failing to pick up."

Source: Yahoo Finance

Source: Reuters

VOWS NOT TO BE SILENCED

LEGAL EXPERT SAYS KELLY HAS STRONG CASE

Source: Reuters