Gold Spot Price Open: $1,215
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,216
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$1
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.07
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.09
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.02
Precious metals saw solid gains early evaporate into what amounted to very minimal moves forward by day’s end. When all was said and done, gold picked up about a dollar while silver added a few pennies. Platinum and palladium both had great starts to the week and picked up more than 20 dollars respectively.
Continued Reaction to US Employment Data
As expected, today saw much of the rest of the world finally get a chance to digest and react to last Friday’s US Labor Department employment report from March. For those who missed it, the data showed that barely more than 125,000 new jobs were added to the economy during the month of March. When you consider that investors and market experts alike were planning on seeing job additions in the 240,000 range, it is quite clear that this data was much worse than expected.
Believe it or not, we will continue to see more reaction to the US employment data tomorrow, when European investors make their way back to work. Because of Good Friday and Easter Monday celebrations, the general global marketplace atmosphere is just a bit quieter than usual. Tomorrow, along with continued reaction to US employment data, the market will also see its fair share of economic reports from both the month of March and 2015’s first quarter.
What Recent Economic Data Means for Rate Hikes
The timing and extent of the Fed’s plan to hike interest rates is something that has been on the minds of the investing world for quite some time now. In recent months, this is even truer due to the simple fact that so many people believe rates will be hiked sometime soon. With that being said, there are a rapidly diminishing number of people who now believe rate hikes will happen anytime before 2016. Recent economic data from the US has been far from impressive and, considering how weak last week’s employment report was, the US economy clearly has some room for improvement.
We will still look for clues and commentary that may tip the Fed’s hand with regard to rate hikes, but so far the United States’ central bank has been fairly ambiguous about when rate hikes will actually take place.
In other news, this time from Europe, it is being reported that Greece has a fairly large debt payment to make to the International Monetary Fund later this week. Though it has had plenty of problems paying debts in the past, early reports are saying that Greece will be able to make this week’s payment. Looking ahead, Greek and EU officials are very soon going to be forced to reconvene debt refinancing talks, and that is sure to catch the attention of the global marketplace. After all, the success or failure of these talks could decide whether Greece remains a part of the European Union or not.
Wrap-Up
All in all, today offered up a fairly slow start to the trading week. With most of Europe off and many Americans taking the day off, there wasn’t much of a chance for an action-packed day to begin with. What we did see, however, was US Stocks as well as a stronger US Dollar take away some of the early gains made by metals. Despite still sitting near a 6-week high, gold saw gains of nearly 10 dollars evaporate into almost nothing. Still, it is being said that gold bulls are taking control of the market in light of recent economic data, so it will be interesting to see how the week plays out for the yellow metal.
