Gold Spot Price Open: $1,304
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,303
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$1
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.60
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.71
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.11
Gold and silver partook in very little price movement today and ended the day in just about the same positions as they started with silver moving marginally higher. When all was said and done, gold lost about a dollar while silver was actually able to manage gains of more than ten cents. Despite silver’s gains, however, the metal’s spot value is still below the $20 threshold.
China’s economy was reported as growing by 7.4% year on year in March. The 7.4% growth barely bested market analysts’ expectations which anticipated 7.3% annual growth. While it is encouraging to see Chinese economic growth beat market expectations, it is important to note that March’s growth rate was the slowest in about a year and a half.
The Federal Reserve’s beige book was released today and contrary to what has been the case the last few months, it did not have much of an impact on the precious metals market. The same can be said about the remarks made by Federal Reserve chairperson Janet Yellen, who spoke in New York today. The sole US development that had an impact on gold and silver spot values was March’s industrial output report released earlier today. The data showed that industrial output for March was up .7% and that output for March and February combined was up by nearly 3%. This data boosted the US Dollar which in turn made it difficult for gold and silver to bounce back from yesterday’s losses.
In other news, the investing world continues to keep an eye on matters in Ukraine. The Ukrainian military is still out trying to restore order to the eastern regions of the nation, but have had limited success. As the crisis in Ukraine slowly but surely deteriorates once more, the investing world can only sit back and watch. Safe-haven demand for gold and silver is currently at high levels, but a strong US Dollar is making it hard for spot values to increase too dramatically.
