Gold Spot Price Open: $1,246
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,249
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.43
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.58
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.15
Gold and silver finished the day having made gains, but were down from daily highs. Still, gold is now hovering around a 6-week high and the precious metals bulls, generally speaking, are only seeming to gain more and more momentum. When all was said and done, gold gained about 3 dollars while silver added around 15 cents. Platinum and palladium also finished up, both by about 15 dollars.
Risk-Appetite Picks Up, Metals Weather Storm
Today, Apple released a corporate earnings report and what it had to say came as a shock to investors for all the right reasons. The numbers came back far better than expectations and really helped calm down investors who have grown increasingly nervous about not only US corporations, but the stock markets that they so heavily rely upon and are associated with.
There are going to be more corporate earnings made public this week, and so long as they come back as upbeat as Apple’s did today, there is no doubting that precious metals will see buying interest limited significantly.
Data From China Upbeat, But Still Disappointing
The market has been keeping an eye on China for a while now, and recent history has seen the large Asian nation emit nothing but poor economic figures. Today that all changed, but the bigger picture really hasn’t; the Chinese economy is still, undoubtedly, struggling.
According to official reports, China’s 3rd-quarter GDP was reported as growing by about 7.3%. This level of growth beat expectations, but is the slowest quarterly growth China has seen in more than 5 years. Industrial production in China was reported as beating expectations and being up by more than 8% during September. Though none of the data, standing alone, is very impressive, compared to recent history today’s figures were far and away better than expectations. All of this upbeat data ended up acting as an underlying bullish factor for all raw commodities, including precious metals.
USD Index Surges As EU Stimulus Package Lies In Waiting
The US Dollar Index surged against a basket of rival currencies, including the Euro, on a day when everything was going right for the greenback and US stocks. Helping the USD along is a growing belief that the European Central Bank is going to soon announce a quantitative easing plan for the region. This growing belief is helping keep investors from growing any more unnerved than they already are, but it also put a lot of pressure on the Euro currency.
Looking forward, it is highly likely that the Euro will continue to perform poorly against the ever-strengthening US Dollar. This could potentially be another factor working against the prospects of gold and silver, even if only slightly.
Wrap-Up
As we look ahead to Wednesday and the rest of the week, there is no doubting that the attention of investors the world over will be on upcoming corporate earnings reports as well as how they affect the major stock indexes of the United States. Other than that, things are going to be generally quiet throughout the duration of the week. The real test for metals will be over the next few days and whether or not they can hang on to, or even build upon, recent gains.
