Gold Spot Price Open: $1,204
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,196
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$8
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.55
Silver Spot Price Close: $16.24
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.31
For a third day in a row, precious metals conceded decent value and ended the day with somewhat substantial losses. When all was said and done, gold declined by another 8 dollars while silver, yet again, was down by more than thirty cents. Platinum and palladium finished the day with contrasting results, but neither metal moved all that far from where it opened the day. Now, as we reflect on three consecutive days’ worth of losses, it is clear to see that any upside momentum gained by metals last week has now been sufficiently lost.
USD Index Continues to Pressure Metals
For much of this week the story has been the same–a rebounding greenback is putting pressure on most other currencies as well as precious metals. Today and on Tuesday, the USD Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of rival currencies, ticked upward by more than 1%. These gains are largely due to the release of more hawkish than expected FOMC minutes a few days ago. In case you missed it, the minutes from last month’s FOMC meeting painted the picture of a Federal Reserve that is more or less split on when they think interest rates should be hiked. This split and accompanying indecision has many investors thinking that interest rate hikes might soon be a reality in the US.
Of course, last Friday’s poor jobs data did a lot in the way of delaying when investors thought rates would be boosted, but that delay was quickly reverted upon the release of the FOMC’s latest minutes. Now, though it is still unclear when rate hikes will ensue, the market is slowly but surely transitioning back to the belief that they may happen sometime this summer. That growing belief has been spurring the Dollar along and is to thank for the past few days’ worth of gains. For metals, of course, the stronger Dollar has meant nothing other than losses and will likely continue to mean exactly that as the weeks and months play out.
Lots of Data to Look Forward To
Though this week remained mostly quiet and free of any noteworthy economic data (other than the FOMC minutes), next week is looking like it will present a treasure trove of economic data. First, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is set to deliver its latest outlook on the global economy both as it stands and going forward. Recently poor economic data from the US has many thinking that this IMF report will be less than stellar, but only time will tell if that turns out to be the case.
The latest retail sales data from the United States during March is also due out next week. As it stands, investors and market experts alike are anticipating that March was a solid month for retailers across the country. Some US housing data will also be released next week and is expected to show a rise in housing starts last month. Should this data fall in line with or exceed expectations, gold and silver may be on the receiving end of even more losses.
A good amount of other data is also set to be released next week and will give the investing world a decent gauge of where the global economy stands at the present point in time.
Wrap-Up
As if it weren’t already painfully obvious, the last four days have been extremely slow and mostly devoid of economic data. This has not boded well for gold and silver, both of which are looking at weekly losses as it stands now. Of course, there is one more day in the week and though it is looking unlikely, precious metals can very easily turn their fortunes around. With that said, however, I am not exactly holding my breath.
