Gold Spot Price Open: $1,230
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,232
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$2
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.24
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.26
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.02
Precious metals, for the most part, ended the week on a positive note by advancing ever so slightly today. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain about two dollars while silver’s gains were limited to only a few pennies. Platinum and palladium both trended downward for a majority of the day, but their downward movements were very slight.
Revised Housing Data Boosts Metals
There wasn’t all that much economic data made public this week, but today brought about arguably the biggest market-mover of all in the form of a report on new home sales in September. According to the figures, about 467,000 new home sales were reported last month, which translates into a year on year increase of about .2%. While this data fell just about in line with expectations, revisions to previous months’ data ended up sending a shockwave through the market enough to put pressure on the greenback today.
According to the report, August’s previous reading of 504,000 reported new home sales was downgraded by about 7% to now be sitting at 466,000. In addition to that, June and July’s figures were also revised downward. Speaking about the report today was Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc., when he said, “This was going to be a very lengthy recovery for the housing sector, and we still have a long way to go. The low mortgage rates are very helpful. The job growth is very, very helpful. But we’re still seeing relatively tight mortgage credit and relatively weak growth in average wages.”
While the greenback backtracked today, rumors with regard to the ECB being on the verge of announcing fresh quantitative easing measures stand the chance of picking the USD right back up sometime next week.
Stocks Bounce Back, S&P With Biggest Weekly Gain This Year
After weathering a tumultuous 5-day trading session a week ago, equity markets recovered nicely this week and ended today on a very positive note. All three major stock indexes in the US were up, but it was the S&P 500 that recorded the single-biggest weekly gain it has seen this year. Just a week ago, fears that US stock markets might be on the verge of facing their first major correction in three years, but through 5 days this week it is clear to see that there is still some gas left in the tank for US stocks.
Riding upbeat corporate earnings for much of the week, it should come as no surprise that equities performed so well. What is surprising, however, is that with a reported case of Ebola in New York City, stocks remained mostly unphased. It will be interesting to see if equity markets can show similar signs of strength as we head into next week, the final week of October.
Wrap-Up
The Euro currency was able to end the week in positive fashion as it made some gains today on news that the upcoming EU bank stress test might not go as dismally as originally anticipated. With that said, however, it is likely that the Euro’s rally will be short-lived, at best, due to the overriding belief that the ECB will soon be implementing more easy money measures. Next week will see investors focusing on the Eurozone, but not so much so that they lose track of equity and currency markets here at home. Though not much data is on the table for next week, I am thinking it will be an intriguing 5-day trading session.
