Gold Spot Price Open: $1,171
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,168
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.00
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.84
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.16
Despite posting daily losses, precious metals were seen as having recovered a bit from last week’s poor ending. When all was said and done, gold lost about three dollars while silver was down by little more than 15 cents. Platinum and palladium finished mixed, with platinum having lost more than ten dollars while palladium gained roughly $5.
US Employment Report Still In Focus
Though it was made public last week, Friday’s US employment report from February was still being mulled over by investors everywhere, but mainly by those investors located in Europe and Asia. In case you missed it, the Labor Department announced that just shy of 300,000 jobs were created last month. With preliminary expectations coming in at right around 240,000, Friday’s data handily bested the expectations of the market.
For gold and silver, the better than expected employment data contributed to some major losses to close out the week. Because job growth was seen as being much better than expected in February, US stock indexes opened the week in impressive fashion thanks to the revived risk-on attitude being exhibited by investors. We will continue to watch equity markets this week in order to see if investors maintain their current appetite for risk.
Scattered News From Europe
We did not hear all that much news from Europe last week, but that does not mean that the region has stepped out of the spotlight. Today, the EU finally put into action its monthly bond-buying initiative, though the news was mostly outweighed by the continued focus on Friday’s employment report. Though it will be impossible to immediately tell if QE is the solution to the EU’s economic and financial problems, most think that it is a step in the right direction.
In other news from the region, today saw EU finance ministers sit down to discuss what to do with Greece and its reluctance to follow through with previously agreed upon bailout measures. Today, EU officials had to decide what to do with reform proposals from Greece regarding the way their debt is financed and how repayments will be made. Coming on the back of a few reports from the weekend claiming that Greece’s financial situation is even bleaker than originally believed, it will be interesting to see how and when the EU and Greece clash once more. Uncertainty regarding Greece and Europe provided gold and silver with just a small, safe-haven upward boost. As we head further into the week and month, I anticipate that Greece will be in the news more readily.
Wrap-Up
To be fair, today did not bring all that much in the way of breaking news. This week, expected to be slow, will likely see investors focus on Europe as well as the progress made by US stocks. Really hurting precious metals today was the fact that the USD Index, which hit an 11.5 month high twice last week, stabilized and even finished the day in the green. With stocks and the greenback taking up a good amount of investor interest, it is always going to be difficult for metals to gain any amount of traction or momentum. Precious metals’ prices may be falling, but with four days ahead of us yet, it is still too early to tell how the week will pan out for gold and silver.
