Gold Spot Price Open: $1,358
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,337
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$21
Silver Spot Price Open: $20.32
Silver Spot Price Close: $20.13
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.19
Precious metals conceded a bit of value on the 2nd day of trading this week, thanks mostly to an increased risk-appetite amongst investors. When all was said and done, gold lost about 21 dollars while silver only lost just shy of 20 cents. Platinum and palladium finished the day mixed, but once again neither metal moves too far from where it began the day.
Metals Succumb to Profit-Taking
After global equity markets rallied behind on Japan on Monday, we saw a continuation of sorts on Tuesday as risk-appetite was noticeably higher. In fact, the S&P 500 in the US closed Monday nearing an all-time high and is still laying claim to an elevated position on Tuesday. Japan once again led the way as its Nikkei Index added more than 2% on Tuesday to complement growth in the 4% range a day earlier. This surge is mostly due to the fact that most global investors anticipate that the Bank of Japan will soon announce an expansion of their current monetary stimulus measures.
In other central bank news, the Bank of England is meeting today to discuss the future of monetary policy across the UK. At the present moment there is a large contingent of investors who are under the impression that the BoE will choose to lower rates as a result of the BRExit vote.
As far as US economic data is concerned, there really wasn’t much to speak of. A few reports were made public but did not really catch the attention of investors and thus did not have an overstated impact on today’s proceedings. Though metals seem to have been put in a tough spot to begin this week of trading, there is an argument being made that these past few days’ losses can be attributed to profit-taking after a rather extensive rally over the past 2 to 3 weeks.
USD Trading Slightly Lower
Though increased risk-appetite is by no means playing in the favor of precious metals, the fact that the US Dollar is continuing to trend lower is helping prevent small losses from becoming anything major. At the present moment, the USD is not doing well due to the circulation of rumors which hold that the Fed may move to lower rates before they raise them again. Once again, there is very little evidence to support this idea, but the fact of the matter is that there are quite a few folks who feel as though rates might be coming right back down sometime in the near future.
This week has, through 2 days, been typical of a midsummer week in that there really isn’t much in the way of fresh news for us to talk about. Gold and silver are seeing a pullback of sorts, but in reality they are still holding elevated positions and are, in the opinion of many, poised to remain there at least for the time being. This week is not expected to yield a boatload of economic data, so barring any shocking revelations from the BoJ or BoE, this week may continue to be fairly lackluster.
Wrap-Up
As was mentioned previously, Tuesday was a rather slow day across the board. Stocks are continuing to perform well which is not great for precious metals, but other outside factors are holding steady so metals are only suffering minor losses. It will be interesting to see if gold and silver can right the ship before this week comes to a conclusion, or if small losses will continue to pile up.
