Gold Spot Price Open: $1,244
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,248
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$4
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.17
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.28
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.11
Precious metals made small gains today thanks, in part, to the Fed’s inaction in the wake of their most recent policy meeting. When all was said and done on Wednesday, gold managed to add about 4 dollars while silver moved upward by 11 cents. Platinum and palladium finished posting mixed numbers on Wednesday, but neither metal moved too far from where it began the day.
Apple Sends Stocks Lower
Across the globe, many stock indexes were trending lower on Wednesday mostly due to the fact that Apple reported its first sales miss in more than 13 years. In fact, by the end of the day Tuesday, Apple’s stock had fallen by roughly 7%. A major contributing factor to Apple’s weakness was the fact that, generally, fewer iPhones sold in the past 6 months than were expected. In fact, the iPhone sales figures were as dismal as we have seen since the iPhone was first introduced.
As you might have expected, sales of the handheld devices in China were particularly disappointing. Whether you are aware or not, China has been the victim of a very noticeable economic slump over the past year or so and that poor performance has trickled all the way down to the average consumer, who is more wary about how they spend their money. As such, a brand-new smart phone may not have been in the budget for most people.
Even though Apple has performed poorly thus far this year, the tech giant is still expected to have a strong 2016. This will be especially true should regions like China and Europe see the economic recovery that so many of us have been waiting on for a long time.
Oil Back Up, Limiting Precious Metals’ Gains
For the first time since last September, the price of a barrel of crude oil eclipsed the $45 mark. Still, this 5-month high was only realized for a short period of time because it was shortly thereafter reported that US crude oil stockpiles have risen to their highest levels since 1929. If you look at a chart of US crude oil supplies, in fact, you can see that the number of barrels on hand has been on a consistent rise since the end of last Summer.
Making today’s numbers even more confusing was the fact that the American Petroleum Institute earlier in the week alluded that we would see a decline in US stockpiles. With so many people expecting numbers to decrease, it is easy to see why today’s data has taken people by surprise.
Fed Makes No Changes to Interest Rates
In what was a widely expected move—or lack thereof–, the Fed decided that it would keep interest rates in the US unchanged at current levels. As is typical, the Fed alluded that the US economy is still performing well despite pressure from outside forces, but moved on to reiterate that rate hikes were not going to be rushed for any reason whatsoever.
With today’s meeting resulting in no changes to monetary policy, it is now on the mind of every investor when rates will be raised next. At this juncture, though it is difficult to have any amount of confidence in this belief, most people are anticipating that June is when rates might potentially be risen again. Once again, however, the Fed did not say much today to have us believe that rates will be touched at any point in the immediate future.
Wrap-Up
All in all, the big news for the day was the Fed concluding their April policy meeting. “Big news” is a bit of a misnomer, however, as the FOMC decided it would not touch monetary policy in any way. As we head into the final two days of the week it will be interesting to see if gold and silver can continue tacking on tiny gains, or if a bigger surprise lies in waiting.
