Gold Spot Price Open: $1,186
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,195
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$9
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.60
Silver Spot Price Close: $16.56
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.04
Precious metals opened up the last week of November posting mixed results. When all was said and done on Monday, gold added roughly 9 dollars while silver ended up losing about 4 cents. Platinum and palladium began the week on the up and up as well, but palladium’s more than $20 gains outpaced platinum’s gains of about 5 dollars.
OECD Predicts Strong US Economy Will Boost Global Economy
In a statement released Monday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that they anticipate global economic growth to accelerate as Donald Trump’s spending and tax-slashing plans are enacted. The OECD releases an economic outlook report twice a year, and today brought about their second report for 2016. Despite this year’s forecast only calling for 2.9% growth, the OECD thinks that next year will see global growth exceed 3% and potentially move in on 4% and beyond through the next 3 years.
For the US specifically, the OECD was extremely optimistic, boosting 2017 projections from just over 2% to closer to 2.5%. The OECD has boosted its prediction based on president-elect Donald Trump’s plans to slash taxes levied against households and businesses while simultaneously increase spending on infrastructure updates and other domestic investments. Playing off the investment in infrastructure was the OECD’s expectation that the unemployment rate will fall even further than it already has. With more and more construction projects breaking ground, an increasing number of workers will be needed. By 2018, the French organization predicts that overall domestic unemployment in the US will be down to 4.5%.
If the US grows as the OECD expects, this will help to eliminate any of the pressures created by other, struggling economies. In essence, the organization thinks that US growth will help pick up the slack created by struggling economies in Europe and Asia. Of course, with Donald Trump more than a month away from officially taking his seat at the White House, there is still no surefire way of knowing if the plans he intends on pursuing will pan out smoothly, or if things will head in a different direction. In all, this OECD outlook did not have any major impact on markets in the US seeing as precious metals, for the most part, were still able to squeeze out small gains on the day.
Metals Supported by Bargain-Hunting
Part of the reason precious metals perked up on the first trading day of the week was due to the increase in bargain-hunting buying in the physical market. Thanks to spot values that have been beaten down over the past few weeks, investors are viewing now as the perfect time to buy gold and silver.
The big news of this week is Wednesday’s OPEC meeting. As has been the case in the past, OPEC is meeting in an effort to reduce the overall daily production of crude oil by member nations. Unfortunately, we are already hearing that Russia and Iran may throw a monkey wrench into any proposed production cuts. Put simply, the two aforementioned nations are not willing to reduce daily revenues in any way. In order for a production cut plan to work, every OPEC member nation must be on board. This has been the case for a long time now, and every time a meeting like the one on Wednesday is proposed there is always a country or two who does not see eye to eye with the others.
Wrap-Up
Despite there being little to no economic data to talk about on Monday, investors had plenty to mull over and discuss. As we conclude the month of November later this week the economic data stream will pick up. What’s more, the OPEC meeting on Wednesday is bound to make a splash with investors one way or another.
