Gold Spot Price Open: $1,254
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,246
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$8
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.99
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.13
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.14
Precious metals steadied for the most part on Wednesday after a day of very nice gains on Tuesday. Precious metals investors were encouraged after Tuesday’s gains haven’t resulted in much noticeable profit-taking to drive spot values back down. When all was said and done, gold lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 dollars while silver ended up adding close to 15 cents. Platinum and palladium both made gains on Wednesday, but neither metal made gains that very much exceeded ten dollars.
ECB Meeting Awaited by Investors
Like many countries and regions of the world, the European Union and the many economies that comprise it have been unable to escape the grip of a now very noticeable economic slowdown. Due to the sheer quantity of poor economic reports coming from the refgion, it should come as no surprise that investors the world over are very much looking forward to Thursday’s European Central Bank policy meeting. Though it is not widely expected that any policy changes will come as a result of this week’s meeting, investors fear that comments from ECB president Mario Draghi may hurt the euro.
Today alone, the Dollar made nice gains against the euro and this has been a trend throughout recent history. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, the ECB has to say about current policy and any changes that may be made in the future. As has been the case recently, many investors fear that the ECB will pursue further monetary easing sometime in the near future.
In other global economic news, market analysts and investors the world over are growing confident that we may be in the midst of an economic bounce back on the part of China. Recent weeks have brought about some upbeat data for the first time in months and people are—and maybe without good reason—beginning to shift their view of just how weak the Chinese economy currently is. According to currency strategist Sebastien Galy, who works for Deutsche Bank, “People get tired of being scared. China has essentially stabilized, and the markets are starting to reflect that.”
Oil Prices Slide as Strike is Called Off
Yesterday, we briefly talked about the fact that crude oil prices were being supported by the fact that Kuwaiti oil workers were participating in a strike in protest of reforms that were promised but never instituted. Today, before US markets opened, the price of oil declined rapidly upon the breaking of news that the multi-day strike was being called off by its organizers.
Though the OPEC meeting this past weekend did not yield any tangible results as they relate to the cutting of oil production, the Kuwaiti strike did help give investors some hope that the global supply of oil would at least be cut into for a short time. This hope has since faded as most OPEC nations are continuing to produce just as much oil today as they did last week, the week before that, and all throughout recent history. Until a solid decision is made with regard to cutting oil production, this is a topic we will be unable to escape from.
Wrap-Up
All in all, Wednesday was not the most eventful day across the global marketplace. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s ECB meeting, but as was mentioned above it is not widely expected that anything will come as a result of this meeting. For now, gold and silver are holding steady after Tuesday’s gains, but there is a lot of opportunity for this to turn into a 4th consecutive week of losses thanks to outside markets pushing spot values downward.
