Gold Spot Price Open: $1,192
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,186
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$6
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.55
Silver Spot Price Close: $16.40
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.15
Precious metals extended midweek losses on Thursday as a stronger Dollar made gains almost impossible. When all was said and done, gold lost about 6 dollars while silver was down by exactly 15 cents. Platinum and palladium, meanwhile, both posted losses of more than ten dollars.
Stronger Dollar Limits Metals’ Upside
For the last few weeks, the US Dollar has been at the center of a lot of confusion. One second, the USD is making solid advances forward against rivals only to give up those gains a day later. That is exactly what has played out through the first half of this week as, only a day or so ago, the USD Index was reeling. Today, however, the greenback’s index was up by more than half a percent.
If you take a look at the USD Index over the course of the past month or so, the picture is not such a pretty one and is one that supports the notion that the Dollar has established a market top. For the past four weeks, the United States’ currency has established a gradual, yet continuous slide downward. This price action has definitely come to the aid of precious metals in recent days, but not enough to pull gold and silver out of their inconsistent rut.
Jobless Claims Give Investors, Experts Hope
Despite an ADP employment report from Wednesday that painted a pretty grim picture of what investors can expect from Friday’s US Labor Department report, today’s read on weekly jobless claims softened the blow from ADP. According to the data, jobless claims from last week echoed those of two weeks ago and remained right around a 15-year low.
This small piece of data, one that is always hawked over by investors, gave the market confidence that tomorrow’s employment report will not be as bad as originally anticipated. In fact, there are a good amount of people who think that the expectation of 240,000 jobs being created in April is one that might be fulfilled. Personally, I have my doubts about job growth being that robust, but I also do not think tomorrow’s reading will be as poor as the one we received a month ago.
According to Mark McCormick, currency analyst at Credit Agricole, “The initial jobless claims got people a bit more optimistic about the outlook for the payrolls report. people are buying dollars back or at least closing out positions in foreign currencies against the dollar ahead of payrolls.” When everything is said and done, an upbeat reading tomorrow may very well put an even bigger damper on precious metals.
In other news, German 10-year bond yield backed down from highs reached yesterday upon receiving word of the better-than-expected weekly jobless claims report.
Wrap-Up
Looking ahead to tomorrow, it goes without saying that the absolute most important thing for investors to consider is the US Labor Department report. This is being touted as one of the most pivotal pieces of data put forth in the last few months and very well might sway the opinion of many regarding when interest hikes might take place. In that same breath, tomorrow’s data also stands a chance of not being nearly as impactful as many people are building it up to; but only time will tell.
