Gold Spot Price Open: $1,164
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,159
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.60
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.55
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.05
Precious metals slid a little bit more on Monday, but losses were kept to a minimum on a less than eventful day of trading. When all was said and done, gold finished downward by a few dollars while silver lost just about a nickel. Platinum and palladium moved upward today, but their upward movement was limited to say the least.
Greek Deal Does Nothing For Metals
Upon the opening of markets on Monday, news spread quickly that EU leaders decided to supply Greece with additional bailout funds. While gold and silver investors are not happy to see spot values continue to slide, it was encouraging to see that today’s news did not push spot values significantly lower. At first glance, today’s news of a Greek deal might have led the market to believe that spot values would trend downward, but now we are seeing the lack of downward movement as a bullish factor more than anything else.
All in all, the overall reaction to the Greek deal was muted and void of any real reaction. Despite today’s news helping metals to some extent, the overall outlook on gold and silver is anything but upbeat. Spot values remain pinned down and are having trouble finding any footing.
Stocks Higher on News of Greece Deal
Thanks to today’s deal reached between European creditors and Greece, stocks the world over reacted positively. In the US especially, gains were around every corner as the growing calamity associated with Greece’s inability to meet the demands of creditors is behind us for now.
With all this being said, just because a deal was agreed to today does not mean that it is going to be put into effect. Greek lawmakers are set to vote on Wednesday whether they approve of the deal or not. As it stands, Greek banks are still closed, plenty of details need to be cleared up with regard to the deal, and a July 20th payment to the ECB of more than 4 billion euros is swiftly approaching.
In other news, talks between the West and Iran continued on Monday. The talks, which center around preventing Iran from being able to acquire nuclear weapons in exchange for a loosening of sanctions, are said to be making progress. Investors the world over are paying attention to the Iran talks because, if a deal is reached, Iranian oil may hit Western markets for the first time in years. If this happens, many believe the price of oil will take another dip thanks an over-glutted supply that exists at present.
Of course, there remains much negotiating between now and a potential deal, so we will just have to keep an eye out and see what happens.
Wrap-Up
As we head deeper into this week, I expect that the attention of the marketplace will remain on many of the same issues that we have been focusing on for the past few weeks. Wednesday’s Greek parliament vote is quickly shaping up to be the week’s top news story, but developments from Iranian nuclear talks could change that in the blink of an eye. For gold and silver, the near-term outlook is not promising, but these high-profile negotiations and deals could alter that to some extent. As far as economic data is concerned, this week is shaping up to be very light.
