Gold Spot Price Open: $1,284
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,294
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$10
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.49
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.71
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.22
Gold and silver spot values were given modest boosts on Thursday as safe-haven demand was finally able to break through and relieve some of the recent selling pressure. When all was said and done today, gold picked up about ten dollars while silver was able to gain just more than 20 cents.
Tensions in Ukraine are back on the up and up after Russian officials recently warned that any attack against a Russian in Ukraine will be seen as an attack on Russia itself. This ominous warning was enough for the Ukrainian military to pull back from a number of its operations attempting to oust armed militiamen from various locations across the eastern half of the country. There have been a few casualties as a result of the violence this week, mostly on the part of the armed rebels. With Russia and the US supposedly working as a team to bring about peace to Ukraine, it is interesting to see the situation deteriorating so rapidly. As has been the case for the past few weeks, it will be interesting to see what kind of developments happen while markets are on their respective weekend hiatuses.
President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, spoke in the early morning hours and hinted that the ECB may ease monetary policy in the near future in order to combat growing deflationary pressures. The current annual rate of inflation last checked in at .5% while the ECB is hoping to see inflation more in the range of 2%. More reports continue to stream in from Europe more or less validating the widespread belief that the EU economy has past the worst of its problems and is now moving in a more positive direction. We will continue to analyze the EU over the coming months in order to get a clearer idea as to what direction it will be heading throughout the remainder of this year. There is not much US economic due out tomorrow as the market will more than likely continue to fixate its attention on the crisis in Ukraine.
