Gold Spot Price Open: $1,137
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,119
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$18
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.46
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.35
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.11
Precious metals took another hit on Tuesday as demand for metals continues to slump in the face of higher interest rate expectations. When all was said and done, gold lost close to twenty dollars while silver’s losses came in at a little more than ten cents. Platinum and palladium also took hits on the day, with platinum losing more than ten while palladium declined by about five dollars.
Demand for Metals Falls Further
The spot value of gold fell to its lowest point since the beginning of October thanks to demand that continues to be less than stellar. Now, the attention of the market is turning to retailers of jewelry who are likely going to be stocking less gold jewelry in the coming months. The fact that jewelers are not expecting to stock as much gold and silver jewelry is yet one more factor pushing spot values downward.
With the global economic slowdown in full effect, demand for gold and silver is expected to continue declining as we head through the last two months of this year.
Factory Orders Fall During September
Economic data from the US is continuing to disappoint as it was reported on Tuesday that factory orders during the month of September fell. Officially. September factory orders fell by 1% on an annualized basis. Not only is this the second consecutive month during which factory orders have dipped, but August’s poor report was revised to be even worse than it was originally reported. August’s initial report showed declines of factory output of 1.7%, but the Commerce Department revised these figures to down 2.1% on Tuesday.
Something that was missed by most investors towards the end of last week was a report saying that orders for durable goods in September fell by more than 1 percent. All in all, the most recent batch of economic data we have been given is about in line with what we have seen the last few months. Should data continue to come back as poorly as it has been recently, the expectation that interest rates might be increased in December could take a hit. For now, however, most investors are still buying into the Fed’s words from last week.
In other news, China released more poor economic data over the weekend as the world’s second largest economy still shows very clear signs of struggle. China’s struggles have been no secret and most people are not expecting the situation there to improve anytime soon.
As the week moves forward, we can expect to see more economic data from the US from September. As it stands, I am not expecting any surprises and am putting my money on most economic data released being downbeat in nature.
Wrap-Up
Tuesday was another quiet day across the global marketplace as precious metals spot values continue to slide thanks to interest rate hike expectations. So long as the market is overly convinced that interest rates will be raised by this time next month, precious metals will have a difficult time doing anything other than move downward. Apart from economic data, there really isn’t much else for the market to look forward to for the rest of this week as far as spot values are concerned.
