Gold Spot Price Open: $1,316
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,327
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$11
Silver Spot Price Open: $21.03
Silver Spot Price Close: $21.19
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.16
Despite the market’s focus on today’s release of the FOMC’s latest minutes and the continued discussion with regard to potentially rising interest rates, precious metals held strong and were able to add value across the board. When all was said and done, gold was able to gain more than $10/ounce while silver rose by more than fifteen cents. Palladium, which has been performing extremely well as of late, surged to a 13.5 year high by the time US markets closed.
FOMC Minutes A Non-Factor For Precious Metals
The biggest economic data point of the week came this afternoon in the form of the FOMC’s minutes from their June policy meeting. While most investors were hoping to gain some insight into the Fed’s plans for raising or maintaining interest rates, the minutes let most people down in that regard.
What the minutes did show, however, is that the FOMC plans on completely doing away with Quantitative Easing by this upcoming October. This has been more or less expected by the market for some time now and ended up not having much of an impact on precious metals spot values. In all, today’s and this week’s biggest piece of economic data proved to be more of a dud than anything else.
Platinum and Palladium Continue to Impress
As global auto sales continue to shine, so too do the two precious metals found in automobile catalysts. Platinum and palladium have been surging in value as of late and are only looking like they will continue to edge higher. In addition to the metals being boosted by record-breaking auto sales in the United States, mine strikes and tensions in South Africa and Russia are fueling supply concerns.
Dollar Little Changed As Stocks Rebound
The US Dollar traded sideways for a majority of the day, but did end a 3-day skid against the yen. After sharply declining the last few days, US stock indexes rebounded and added some solid gains in the wake of the FOMC’s minutes being released.
Prior to today’s gains, a large portion of investors were under the impression that the bullish run made by equities over the last few months was finally coming to an end. While this may not be the case quite yet, equities have definitely been showing some signs of weakness as of late.
Wrap-Up
As we head into the final two days of the week, the trading atmosphere will more than likely continue to be just as quiet as the last few days have been. Precious metals have been benefiting from recently increased violence in Israel, and it is likely that such will remain the case as rocket and air strikes continue to mar the Gaza Strip.
