Gold Spot Price Open: $1,196
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,209
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$13
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.29
Silver Spot Price Close: $16.55
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.26
After three straight days’ worth of losses, precious metals were able to ride a technical correction on Friday to some decent single-day progress. Still, it is looking like weekly losses will be unavoidable. When all was said and done, gold picked up close to fifteen dollars while silver improved by more than 25 cents. Platinum and palladium also ended the week having made pretty solid single day gains.
USD Index Performs Well All Week
Despite finishing the week on a somewhat somber note, the USD Index spent most of this 5-day trading session moving noticeably higher. On two occasions this week, the Index eclipsed gains of 1% and effectively surged forward after suffering some losses during the previous few weeks. Unfortunately, a stronger Canadian Dollar as a result of upbeat employment data from our Northern neighbor put a damper on the greenback’s performance on Friday.
For precious metals, the fact that the Dollar has been performing well against its rivals is not good news at all. Because of the very rigid inverse relationship the Dollar and metals have, any move forward on the part of the USD will almost always mean losses for gold and silver. Fortunately for many, today saw both metals and the Dollar post some decent gains.
Greece Makes Large IMF Payment
European stocks spent much of Friday picking up value on news that Greece was able to make a particularly large repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Debt repayments from Greece are a source of particular interest, especially for European investors, because the fate of Greece as an EU member country is hanging in the balance. Though Greece’s debt repayment problems are far from complete, this is a nice, large step in the right direction.
Also coming to the aid of European equities is the continued occurrence of quantitative easing measures that were implemented by the European Central Bank a few months ago. Early indications are pointing towards QE measures as being a success story, but I am of the opinion that it is still far too early to make such a determination.
Big Week Ahead
With this 5-day trading session now behind us, it is only right that we look forward to what next week has in store. As it stands, the market is anticipating that next week will play host to quite a bit of economic data. From the US especially, we will be dealt a number of key economic reports, including March’s retail sales report and some housing data. As it stands, the market is expecting March’s economic data from the US to be upbeat, but after last week’s poor jobs data, anything is possible.
In other news, we will also be receiving a few key reports from the European Union and China. China is a country that has thus far under-performed from an economic perspective and though most are expecting things to turn around for the large Asian nation, such has not been the case quite yet. For this reason, next week’s Chinese economic data will be of particular interest to investors the world over.
Wrap-Up
Despite today’s gains, the first full trading week of April has proven to be particularly poor for metals. Midweek losses mounted quickly and effectively sealed the fate of spot values. Next week, though expected to be action-packed, very well might result in further losses for metals. Should US data be upbeat, I anticipate that metals will suffer even further losses.
