Gold Spot Price Open: $1,230
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,233
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.40
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.36
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.04
Precious metals began the week by not really moving much at all thanks to a general lack of fresh information for investors to react to. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain about three dollars while silver, suffering from profit-taking after Friday’s gains, lost almost 5 cents. Like gold and silver, both platinum and palladium did not do too much moving today.
Ukrainian Ceasefire Holds, Despite Reports of Violence
Beginning at 12:01 AM local time on Sunday, Ukrainian and pro-Russian forces stopped their fighting in observance of a ceasefire agreement that was reached last week in Belarus. Only an hour into the ceasefire, however, there were reports from both sides claiming that the other was participating in further military activity. These reports have continued into today, but with many of them not immediately being able to be independently verified, it is extremely difficult to decipher who is being truthful and who isn’t. On the whole, however, the ceasefire is being viewed as remaining in tact through a little more than 36 hours.
For precious metals, the ceasefire’s preliminary success has not helped spot values at all. The reason for this is because the relative calm in Ukraine is sparking a keener risk-on attitude by investors; exhibited perfectly by better-performing US and European equity indexes recently. As the week moves forward, we will continue to keep a close eye on all reports coming out of Ukraine as it already seems as though the ceasefire agreement may be at risk.
Weaker Dollar Keeping Precious Metals Afloat
If it we not for a weaker US Dollar over the course of the past few days, metals very well might have stacked up massive losses thanks to the new risk-on attitude. Fortunately, the US Dollar has been taking a bit of a beating recently and metals have responded somewhat positively. Because today is the Presidents’ Day holiday in the United States, the US Dollar Index’s price action will be a bit more subdued than it would be during a normal trading session.
In other news, Eurozone finance officials are meeting over what to do with Greece and its government’s refusal to cooperate with previously agreed upon austerity and debt reduction measures. If this week’s talks do not produce substantial, long-term results, Greece may be soon facing a credit crunch that could force its departure from the European Union. This is a concern for many investors as Greece’s departure from the EU may prompt other EU nations to do the same. If this week’s talks do produce results, precious metals may suffer losses as a result of the stability such progress would create.
Wrap-Up
Thanks to the Presidents’ Day holiday and Asian investors prepping for the Lunar New Year, the beginning of this week has been quite slow. For precious metals, the slow start to this week has resulted in spot values not moving all that much. I imagine that such will remain the case through the rest of the week due to the fact that there really isn’t much economic data expected to be made public. Instead, we will see the global market focus almost solely on what is going on in Ukraine, Greece, and the rest of Europe.
