Gold Spot Price Open: $1,223
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,228
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.90
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.07
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.17
Precious metals recovered a bit after a few days’ worth of consecutive losses, but what gains were made were marginal in nature. When all was said and done on Tuesday, gold managed to add about 5 dollars while silver added a little more than fifteen cents. Platinum and palladium finished the day mixed, but neither moved too far from where it began the day.
Unexpectedly Strong Retail Sales Reported
Even though this week is not expected to bring about too much in the way of economic data from the United States, Tuesday was a bit of an exception. According to the Commerce Department, retail sales during the month of October rose by .8% from the month before. Not only is this good growth for a typically lackluster month, it defeated expectations which called for retail sales growth of little more than .5%.
While the USD Index was backtracking a little bit during the overnight hours, the better than expected retail sales report allowed the greenback to remain right around an 11-month high which was initially reached on Monday. Once again, investors are divided over what they think Donald Trump’s presidency might mean for economic and monetary policy here in the United States. Some people think that a now Repulican-controlled government might pursue tax cuts and spending to encourage growth, while others feel as though these are items Donald Trump and his colleagues simply might not follow through on.
While the Dollar performs well, the euro, yen, and yuan are all struggling. The greenback is sitting around an 11-month high while the euro is attempting to work its way back from an 11-month low. Against the yen specifically, the Dollar is sitting at a near 6-month high while the Chinese yuan is sitting at its lowest level in about 8 years. It will be interesting to see how currency markets react as we head deeper into this week, but for now the momentum is entirely in the hands of the USD.
Energy Sector Given A Push
We have recently been talking about how crude oil prices have been beaten down at what seems like every turn. Today, however, the crude oil market was given a lift in the form of rising crude oil prices. Naturally, the rise in crude’s spot value is something that also gave metals a bit of underlying support. To be fair, however, rising crude oil prices alone are not going to be enough for metals to put in a solidified and elongated trek back from recently strong losses.
Today’s crude oil bounce has to do with little else than the fact that prices have been realy beaten down in recent days. There is a meeting of OPEC representatives in Austria set to take place later this month, however there are not an overwhelming number of people who think it will yield anything in the way of productions cuts or freezes. This has long been a point of contention surrounding the crude oil supply glut, but like it has always been, it will take a little more than asking nicely for some oil-reliant economies to slash daily production of their number one money-maker.
Wrap-Up
As we look ahead to the middle and rest of the week, expect things to move along much like they have through the first few days of this week. Sparing bits of economic data will be complemented by further President-elect Trump speculation and the precious metals market will more than likely continue trading within a fairly well-defined range. Barring any unforeseen reports between now and the end of the week, it is difficult to envision gold and silver moving much higher than they did today.
