Gold Spot Price Open: $1,226
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,224
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$2
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.48
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.57
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.09
Precious metals ended the week posting mixed results, but for the week are going to be reflecting on decent gains. When all was said and done on Friday, gold lost a few dollars while silver managed to pick up close to ten cents. Platinum and palladium both gained on Friday, both by close to ten dollars.
More Downbeat US Economic Data
This week brought about a lot of US economic data, but most of it was poor and fell short of expectations. Earlier this week, we received word of poor April retail sales as well as producer prices that flat-out missed the expected mark. Today, economic data from the United States didn’t really improve as industrial production during April was recorded as being down by .3%. Expectations were for an industrial production month-on-month rise of one tenth of one percent. In addition to this, the University of Michigan’s report on consumer sentiment painted a picture of US consumers who are only growing less confident in the US economy.
All of this data is important because it helps investors gain a better idea of when interest rates might be hiked. According to Kathy Lien, of BK Asset Management, “The dollar is oversold. The data weren’t all that great, but the story is people still see the Federal Reserve raising interest rates later this year.” Now, the attention of the marketplace is slowly but surely transitioning to the upcoming FOMC meeting, which is expected to take place in about two weeks time.
USD Declines for 5th Consecutive Week
If you can think back to 2 months ago, you couldn’t make it through a week without talking about how the US Dollar was performing much better than expectations. Now, however, all that seems to have changed as this 5-day trading session marks the 5th consecutive where the USD Index ended in a worse off position than where it started. Currently sitting near a 4-month low, this is the first time in 4 years where the Dollar declined more than 4 weeks in a row.
The Euro and the Yen finished this week on a positive note, which only hurt the Dollar even further. Tying hand in hand with the greenback’s recent decline is the fact that US economic data has been far from upbeat. So long as the data remains in the gutters, you can expect that the USD will follow suit. Thankfully, for gold and silver investors, the Dollar’s progress is keeping metals from losing too much ground. It will truly be interesting to see what direction spot values head in by the time markets open up next week.
Wrap-Up
For the first time in a while, both gold and silver are reflecting upon a 5-day trading session worth of gains. These gains are mostly due to the fact that we were on the receiving end of a lot of poor US economic data that drove spot values upward. As is always the case when metals end the week on a positive note, it will be very interesting to see if these gains can be retained by the time markets open up next week. We will be dealt a bit more economic data during next week’s trading session, but I imagine that it will be more of a slow week than anything else,
