Gold Spot Price Open: $1,258
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,255
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.18
Silver Spot Price Close: $18.13
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.05
Gold and silver managed to push forward to some extent on Tuesday despite equity markets that have bounced back a bit. When all was said and done, gold managed to add around 3 dollars while silver ended up losing around 5 cents. Platinum and palladium, however, finished the day mixed, but not far from even.
Stocks Bounce Back
After quite a few consecutive days of losses on the part of stocks, US markets have bounced back slightly on Tuesday. Before gaining on Tuesday, the Dow ended Monday having lost for 8 consecutive days. This was the longest such streak we have seen since August of 2011. Despite some signs of life from stock markets, we are still seeing investors ponder what the future holds for equities after Trump’s healthcare failure. I know we have been saying it quite a lot, but last Friday’s healthcare vote was seen as a massive failure on the part of President Trump. As a president who is seen as being pro-business, Trump’s failure to get legislation set into motion is seen as something that will hurt stocks, at least in the near-term.
All major US stock indices moved upward on Tuesday, but there is no clear way of determining whether today’s performance will translate into better performance throughout the second half of the week.
Fed Members Talk Interest Rates
Since the FOMC decided, a few weeks ago, to hike interest rates, global investors have mostly stopped talking about the future of rate hikes; at least for the time being, anyway. Both the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, Robert Kaplan, and president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, Charles Evans, have been heard this week talking about the prospect of rate hikes that might happen throughout the rest of the year. Though it seems as though investors are not taking it into consideration right now, there is a strong likelihood that at least 2 more rate hikes will occur during 2017, with one of them happening as soon as June.
We must give it some time, but I would not be surprised to see gold and silver take hits in the somewhat near-term future as a result of increased speculation regarding a June rate hike. This is something we will surely be paying attention to going forward.
Consumer Confidence Jumps Forward
The only real piece of economic data made public on Tuesday was the latest consumer confidence index reading from the month of March. According to the US Conference Board, the consumer confidence index jumped up to a reading of 125.6 in March, up from a reading that was almost 10 points worse in February. The reason that today’s consumer confidence reading is so shocking has less to do with the actual reading, and more to do with expectations. Most polled experts had anticipated a reading that was about 3 points worse than what we saw in February.
Despite this better than expected reading regarding consumer confidence, gold and silver did not lose too much ground in the data’s wake. Should the data we receive over the course of the next week that is similarly upbeat like today’s consumer confidence reading, precious metals may be facing an impending uphill battle.
Wrap-Up
All things considered, Tuesday was another slow day across the global marketplace. There was not much in the way of economic data dealt and, apart from stocks bouncing back a bit, the marketplace was mostly quiet. As we head further into the week there is not much on the horizon suggesting things will pick up, but that much remains to be seen.
