Gold Spot Price Open: $1,274
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,290
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$16
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.35
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.50
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.15
Gold and silver both gained to close out the week after more US employment data missed the mark. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain close to 15 dollars while silver gained 15 cents. Platinum and palladium also gained on the final day of the week, but their gains were limited to around $10 to $15 apiece.
Non-Farms Data Mostly Disappoints
All week investors from not only the United States, but the whole world, have had a good bit of employment data from the United States to contend with. Up until today, the data that has been dealt has been anything but positive too. First, on Wednesday, we saw an ADP- private-sector jobs growth report that fell far short of expectations. Then, on Thursday, the market was dealt the weekly jobless claims report from the US. This report indicated that more than 15,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week. Not only is this a significant jump, it does well to eliminate any positive feelings with regard to the employment situation in the United States because, now, the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims has jumped back up above the 270,000 mark, which is not good for the near-term outlook on employment.
When markets opened today, everything hinged on what the non-farms payrolls report from the United States might have to say. Even with the previous two days yielding no positive news, there was still hope that non-farm payrolls advanced nicely during April. This was not to be as the US Department of Labor announced that barely more than 160,000 new jobs were added to the economy last month. Expectations were that at least 200,000 new non-farm jobs were created in April, so it is safe to say that we went 0 for 3 on jobs data this week.
For precious metals, the slew of downbeat employment data is nothing more than a boatload of good news because it now means that the Fed will not be moving interest rates anytime soon—that is what investors are beginning to think, at least. With interest rates expected to keep their heading for a few more months at the absolute minimum, gold and silver are seeing some increased demand. You see, higher interest rates makes holding gold and silver less profitable than it would be when interest rates are at near-0 levels. Understanding this, the fact that interest rates are not going up anytime soon means that it is still a pretty good idea to hang on to gold and silver, especially in the wake of all this global economic uncertainty.
Looking ahead to next week, it will be interesting to see what direction metals head in when the week opens up. We are not expected to be dealt a great deal of economic data over the course of the coming days, so instead we will be looking to other parts of the world for fresh data points. What this will mean for precious metals is not so easy to say at this point in time, however.
Wrap-Up
Gold and silver will be heading into the weekend having posted some impressive gains. The early parts of the week saw metals move between small gains and losses, but as the employment data continually stacked up negatively, it was always going to be precious metals that came out on top.
Now, the really interesting thing will be to see just how long gold and silver can hang on to the momentum realized towards the end of the week. Barring any overly upbeat pieces of economic data from the US, however, it is not looking like the momentum will fade all that quickly. Still, that much is tough to say with any real amount of certainty.
