Gold Spot Price Open: $1,267
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,227
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$40
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.77
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.32
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$1.45
Gold and silver are both going to finish the day on Friday having lost a lot ground, and for the week both metals lost a good bit as well. When all was said and done today, gold lost about 40 dollars while silver fell by almost a dollar and 50 cents. Platinum and palladium finished the week on a negative note as well, with platinum losing more than 30 while palladium lost almost 15 dollars.
First Weekly Drop for Gold in a Month
Now that Donald Trump is the president-elect of United States, it is surprising to many to see precious metals spot values continuing to suffer. In the lead-up to the election, the prevailing belief was that a Donald Trump victory would breed a whole lot of uncertainty. While, during the early hours of Wednesday morning metals were gaining ground, a more subdued Trump in the aftermath of his victory allowed markets to stabilize by the end of the week.
James Steel, chief metals analyst at HSBC, commented on Trump’s victory and what it means for metals by saying, “Gold stayed on the defensive, beset by enhanced growth expectations as Trump’s team reassured financial markets and investors took on the view that the pro-growth policies of a new administration were good for paper assets.”
If this holds true, the near-term future for metals is not looking as bright as many had thought it might. We are seeing stocks and the US Dollar do better since Trump’s election and assuming his rhetoric stays as subdued as it has been, we may very well continue to see stocks and the USD perform well. In the coming days and weeks we can expect Donald Trump and his staff to elaborate on policies he plans on putting in place, and this will undoubtedly affect the marketplace in one way or another.
For now, gold is correlating directly with the Dollar. So if the greenback continues to gain you can expect that gold and silver will feel pressure. Luckily, there is still strong physical demand from Asia and this is something that is preventing spot values from falling too far.
Best Week for Dollar in More Than A Year
Once again, with Donald Trump sitting as president-elect, it is difficult for most to wrap their head around the fact that the US Dollar is performing so well. The Dollar is set to have its best week in more than a year while the Mexican Peso and Chinese Yuan are showing signs of weakness. The reason for this is due to the fact that many people think that, if enacted, Trump’s policies aimed at protecting the US economy will hurt emerging economies around the world.
Though there is a lot of speculation going on with regard to what Trump will say and do, we will just have to wait until he makes more public addresses in the coming weeks. Despite everything he said during his campaign over the last year or more, there is a strong feeling that much of that was posturing. Now it comes time to see if Trump is actually going to follow through on his words, or if he is going to take a new direction now that he has secured the election.
Wrap-Up
As we look ahead to next week, you can bet that the presidential discussion will persist. In addition to this, investors will be interested to see what effect, if any, the new president-elect has on the prospect for raised interest rates. As it stands the overall expectation is for rates to still be raised come the conclusion of the December FOMC meeting. With that being said, Trump and the unpredictability he brings to the table can make for a potentially interesting few weeks to come.
