Gold Spot Price Open: $1,182
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,179
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.11
Silver Spot Price Close: $16.19
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.08
Metals suffered some follow-through selling on Friday to close out the week in sub-par fashion. When all was said and done, gold lost about 3 dollars while silver managed to gain a few cents. Platinum and palladium also added some losses to close out the week, but losses were nothing too significant.
Uneventful Day For Global Marketplace
For this being the first day of May, things were extremely quiet across the global marketplace. There really wasn’t much economic data to speak of, though it is widely believed that that will change come midweek next week. Follow-through selling continued to beat down spot values as the overall outlook on precious metals, at least for the near-term, remains bearish. European markets had the day off due to the fact that the first day of May is a holiday across the entirety of the EU.
Even with Europeans taking the day off, investors were surprised to see that the Euro currency hit a two-month high against the US Dollar. This price action only works to confirm the belief that the US Dollar has established a market top while the Euro has established a market bottom. Next week’s interaction between the Dollar and the Euro will be interesting to see, because there are many people who believe the Euro will continue to climb against the greenback.
Economic Data to Come Next Week
In the absence of any real economic developments this week, investors instead had to focus on what the first full week of May trading will bring, and for now it is looking like it will bring a good bit of April economic data. While all economic data is important, that which comes from the US economy will be of special importance as we move through the Spring and closer to Summer. The reason for this, of course, is due to the fact that the progress of the US economy directly relates to when interest rates will be raised.
Economic data from other parts of the world is expected to begin trickling in next week too, but will likely be overshadowed by data from the US. With that said, however, it will be interesting to see what kind of progress is made with regard to Greece’s debt restructuring talks. If you can recall, Greece’s prime minister on Thursday said that significant progress has been made and that a deal is on the verge of being reached. Negotiations will continue over the weekend, so I imagine Monday will see some developments from that end.
Wrap-Up
All in all, this was a somewhat confusing week from a precious metals perspective. Through Monday and Tuesday, things were looking up, but come the end of the day on Wednesday things began turning around noticeably. Now that monetary policy hawks have the market thinking that interest rate hikes will be coming sometime in the near future, interest in precious metals has taken a significant dive. Though it is tough to say what next week will bring, I anticipate an eventful 5-day trading session.
