Gold Spot Price Open: $1,272
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,264
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$8
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.37
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.24
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.13
Precious metals did not particularly perform well on Thursday, but they did not do very poorly either. When all was said and done, gold finished having lost about 8 dollars while silver finished down by 13 cents. Platinum and palladium finished mixed, but neither metal strayed too far from where it began the day.
Investors Await BRExit Results
At approximately 7AM in the UK, voting began on the referendum that will decide the UK’s economic, financial, and social futures. The vote, which is quite simple, asks plainly whether citizens would like for the UK to remain a member of the European Union, or if the country should break free and become an independent nation.
Voting went on all day, and the first official results are expected to be handed down around midnight in the Eastern United States. Early indications are pointing towards the referendum resulting in a “remain” vote, however there is no way of saying how credible this belief really is. What we do know, however, is that there was a lot of speculation concerning the fact that the UK may remain in the EU, and that boded well for global stocks throughout the first few days of the week. As you might have expected, it did not bode at all well for the precious metals market.
We will keep a close eye on all happenings across the UK through the evening and into the night as it has massive implications for investors the world over. For gold and silver, it is fairly straightforward, a “remain” vote will more than likely push spot values further downward, while an “exit” vote and the economic uncertainty it would breed would, in all likelihood, push precious metals upward. All we know now is that this is sure to bring about an interesting conclusion to this week of trading by the time the dust settles tomorrow evening.
Metals Hurt by Stronger Stocks, Home Sales, Employment
It was a triple whammy for precious metals on Thursday, and somehow they managed to weather the storm quite well. In addition to the lingering pressure created by the upbeat existing home sales data made public on Wednesday, it was announced that last week saw fewer people requesting first-time unemployment benefits than the week before.
Officially, jobless claims fell last week by about 18,000, bringing the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims back down to a more bearable 259,000. Only two weeks ago the seasonally-adjusted average was approaching 300,000, and that very much helped sway the Fed’s decision to keep interest rates at their current levels.
Finally, stocks in the US and elsewhere around the world have performed well all week and continued to do exactly that today. With the overriding opinion one that holds the UK will remain part of the EU come this time tomorrow, a more risk-on environment has been created. Should the vote go the other way, however, we may see a rush back to precious metals which would help drive spot values noticeably higher.
Wrap-Up
All in all, Thursday did not offer up much in the way of fresh news. Instead, it finally brought about the referendum vote the world has been waiting for for the past few weeks. We are only hours away from the results, which means we are also only hours away from the assuredly overstated reaction to those results. It will be interesting to see just how the last day of this week goes, and even more interesting to see if precious metals can bounce back from losses suffered so far this week.
