Gold Spot Price Open: $1,154
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,172
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$18
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.67
Silver Spot Price Close: $16.18
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.51
Precious metals added significant value for a second consecutive day this week as they continue to benefit from the Federal Reserve’s comments on Wednesday. When all was said and done, gold picked up more than 15 dollars while silver improved by just more than 50 cents. Platinum and palladium lost on the day, but losses were mostly kept to a minimum.
Dollar Rebounds After Heavy Losses
Over Tuesday and Wednesday, the US Dollar suffered heavy losses thanks to a rebounding Euro and surging British Pound. In fact, Wednesday saw the Dollar suffer its biggest single-day losses against the Euro in more than 5 years. Still, the Euro is in a subdued position and is expected to continue trending downward against the USD as the year progresses.
The Fed’s statement released in the wake of their monthly meeting on Wednesday indicated that the Fed may be more apt to pulling the trigger on interest rate hikes before the year is through. This news did not help the greenback at all, though, on the whole, investor outlook on the Dollar is still incredibly upbeat. According to Richard Franulovich, expert currency strategist, “The Fed is less supportive of the dollar, but the dollar’s bull trend is built on more than just the Fed. I still think parity with the euro is still achievable. It’s difficult to see the euro gain any momentum with the ECB buying $3 billion in bonds every day and Greece is still unresolved.”
As we head into the final day of the week, it will be interesting to see if the greenback can sustain today’s gains, or if profit-taking will push the value of the Dollar downward once more.
Weekly Jobless Claims Rise With Expectations
Despite the fact that this week has not given way to too much in the way of economic data, today offered a bit of an exception thanks to the weekly jobless claims report. According to the Labor Department’s report, first-time weekly jobless claims last week came in at around 290,000. This number was not overly significant considering preliminary expectations were for a weekly jobless claims figure of 295,000.
The four-week moving average for first-time jobless claims was moved up above 300,000. This statistic is often seen as more reliable because it looks at jobless claims over a more elongated period of time. Still, a number anywhere near 300,000 will always be seen as more of a miss than anything else. When it comes down to it, today’s jobless claims report did not have all that much of an impact on the global marketplace.
Crude Oil Hovering Near 6-Year Low
Crude oil, as has been the case for much of this week, continued hovering near a 6-year low today. This has been a bearish factor for precious metals in recent history and will likely continue to be. According to reports, global oil reserves are now at their highest point in recent history. This is something that will continue to weigh on spot values and is the reason we may see the price of a barrel of oil fall even further in the coming weeks. Because crude oil directly impacts the precious metals market, we will continue keeping a close eye on all spot value movement.
Wrap-Up
Gold and silver are heading into the final day of the week having posted two solid days of gains. Whether they can be sustained through the course of Friday remains to be seen, but early indications are looking good. Still, metals are in a subdued position and are being impacted by a number of bearish outside market forces.
