Gold Spot Price Open: $1,241
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,245
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$4
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.05
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.10
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.05
Precious metals were doing their best to inch forward for much of the day, but gains across the board were mostly limited. When all was said and done, gold managed to move upward by about 4 dollars while silver gained a little more than 5 cents. Platinum and palladium did not move much today, but what little movement was recorded was mostly upward.
US Consumer Confidence Falls in April
Despite consumer sentiment being usually strong during the summer, the latest reading from the Conference Board showed that consumer confidence is shrinking. March’s reading came in at a little above 96, but April’s reading shrunk by 2 points. Most economists were expecting to see only a small decrease from March to April, however today’s data showed a much larger decrease than was anticipated.
Lynn Franco, of The Conference Board, commented on today’s reading by saying, “Consumer confidence continued on its sideways path, posting a slight decline in April, following a modest gain in March. Consumers’ assessment of current conditions improved, suggesting no slowing in economic growth. However, their expectations regarding the short-term have moderated, suggesting they do not foresee any pickup in momentum.”
It will be interesting to see, especially this week and next, what US economic data has to say about the month of April. It does not seem as though this month has proven to be the most robust for growth, but we will need to wait for the FOMC and any upcoming economic data to figure that out for certain.
The USD Index fell in the wake of today’s report. This helped precious metals, but only marginally. Recently, the greenback’s strength has been something that is preventing gold and silver from making gains, but that was not the case.
Durable Goods Orders Rebound in March
After a period of weakness to begin the year, orders for durable goods from US factories picked up in March. Durable goods orders increased mostly due to increased orders for military aircraft and other defense equipment. After a more than 3.1% fall recorded in February, March’s orders increased by .8%. Military orders are difficult to read, because as we just witnessed they can be incredible one month and then lag behind the next. In March, however, the military placed many orders for goods.
In other news, many investors are expecting to hear a Bank of Japan announcement on Thursday prior to the FOMC meeting. Though this is about as vague as expectations come, the expectation is that the BoJ will increase its current stimulus program. This means that the quantitative easing measures employed by the BoJ are likely to be increased in the very near, if not immediate, future. Japan’s economy has been improving in recent months but they are still far from out of the woods yet. Unlike Europe, Japanese QE efforts have been paying off to some extent. With that being said, Japan still has a lot of work to do.
All in all, this was not the most eventful day and will likely not be the most eventful day of the week as investors are gearing up for the FOMC meeting on Thursday.
Wrap-Up
Gold and silver did not move upward by all that much on Tuesday, and it is looking more and more like investors are going to hold their positions until the FOMC meeting. Despite there not being anything expected to come as a result of this meeting, investors are still holding their breath in anticipation of some sort of change being made.
