Gold Spot Price Open: $1,092
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,094
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$2
Silver Spot Price Open: $14.83
Silver Spot Price Close: $14.64
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.19
Gold and silver finished the day mixed on Monday, but things are still clearly stacked against precious metals currently. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain a few dollars while silver’s losses edged closer to twenty cents. Platinum and palladium, however, extended last week’s losses as both metals lost more than 20 dollars to open up this fresh week of trading.
Gold Higher on Short Covering, Market Still at Odds with Precious Metals
As expected, the major news story of Monday was nothing more than a continuation of investors reacting to Friday’s surprisingly upbeat employment report from the United States. In case you missed it, the Labor Department announced on Friday that the US economy managed to create somewhere in the neighborhood of 271,000 new jobs during the month of October. Considering expectations were for job growth in the range of an even 200,000, Friday’s report was perceived as being exceptionally upbeat. As a result, the marketplace almost immediately decided that not only were December rate hikes a possibility, they are all but guaranteed. Though there is a long way between now and the December Fed meeting, investors have and are continuing to make up their minds with regard to whether or not rates will be raised.
For precious metals, multi-month lows seem to be here to stay, at least for the time being. Even with gold’s marginal gains today, the yellow metal is still hovering right around a 3-month low, and is not looking like it will improve much anytime soon. Silver, whose slide only worsened on Monday, is sitting well below the $15/ounce threshold and that much is keeping interest in the metal at a minimum. Like we already said, there is a long way to go before the Fed makes their final decision regarding interest rate hikes, or a lack thereof, but for now the market is convinced that rates will, in fact, be raised before the end of the year.
Chinese Economic Data Doesn’t Impress
A recurring theme across the global marketplace over the past few months is that of poor economic data from the world’s second largest economy, China. Today we received the latest batch of downbeat data as it was reported that October year on year imports were down by more than 18%. In addition to this, annualized data on exports shows that they too fell during October, by nearly 7%. This is about in line with what we have come to expect from the Chinese economy of late.
Fortunately, and surprisingly for some, the Shanghai Stock Index climbed on the day thanks to rumors that China’s central bank is going to enact further stimulus measures in the coming weeks. This has been something circulating around the rumor mill for weeks now, but it seems as though we are closer than ever to even more stimulus measures.
Wrap-Up
As we look ahead to the next four days, you can bet that investors are going to want to be on the receiving end of any and all economic data from the United States. From now until December, it is safe to say that we will be talking about the possibility of interest rate hikes on an almost daily basis. For now, rate hikes seem to be expected by just about everyone, but one poor batch of US economic data can undo that expectation in the blink of an eye. With China contemplating further stimulus measures, it is safe to say that we are in for an eventful next few weeks.
