Gold Spot Price Open: $1,291
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,286
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $20.07
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.88
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.19
What little gains were recorded by spot gold and silver yesterday were quickly returned by day’s end today. When all was said and done, gold lost about 5 dollars while silver’s losses came closer to 20 cents.
As has been the case this entire week or more, a lack of any new bullish news put pressure on gold and silver spot values. What’s more, the European Central Bank’s decision today, or lack thereof, gave the US Dollar room to make gains against the euro currency. A rising US Dollar almost always translates into more selling pressure being placed on precious metals.
Though it was not a very big surprise, the European Central Bank decided to preserve current interest rates and refrain from making any hurried decisions with regard to monetary stimulus measures. Mario Draghi, when speaking to media after the meeting had concluded, made it clear that monetary stimulus was by no means out of the question, but gave no further insight on the matter. A report released on Wednesday did nothing to quell deflation concerns as it was reported that the EU’s producer price index declined by .2% in February and was down by nearly 2% on an annualized basis. This was the largest annual PPI decline Europe has seen in nearly five years.
Tomorrow is shaping up to be one of the more eventful days this week thanks to the release of March’s non-farm payrolls data. As it stands, the market is expecting to see around 200,000 non-farm payrolls added to the US economy last month. After Janet Yellen expressed her faith in the US economy and job market little more than a week ago, it is no surprise that the market is expecting such healthy job growth from March. Unfortunately for precious metals, however, is the very high likelihood that an upbeat jobs report tomorrow will translate into more selling pressure.
