Gold Spot Price Open: $1,338
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,341
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.78
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.74
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.04
Despite Monday being a mostly slow day across the global marketplace gold and silver were both able to perform half-decently on the day. When all was said and done, gold gained about 3 dollars while silver spun its wheels and finished in roughly the same position it was in when the day began, having lost about 4 cents. Platinum and palladium were mixed on the day, with platinum losing closer to 10 dollars while palladium actually gained about 7 dollars.
Summer Doldrums in Full Swing
Precious metals did make up some ground on Monday, but it was clear to see that the global marketplace was mostly quiet. With few new economic nor geopolitical happenings to talk about from over the weekend, this week has opened up in much the same way last week ended—quietly.
Despite most people’s hopes, there is no strong chance that the duration of the week will be any different than what we have experienced today. Something worth keeping an eye on is the spot value of crude oil. The commodity has slowly been gaining ground ever since it was announced that OPEC would be meeting once more to discuss the possibility of cutting daily production of crude oil—something that most think would do a lot in the way of stabilizing the market as a whole. We have seen similar meetings take place over the course of the past year or more, but they have thus far been fruitless seeing as no OPEC member-nation wants to hurt their own profits by limiting daily production.
Perhaps helping drive forward the spot value of crude oil is the fact that Saudi Arabia has come out in support of measures to stabilize the market. The Saudis are a huge part of OPEC, so hearing this type of commentary from them is somewhat significant. Even with all this said, gains being made by crude oil can best be described as minimal. It is going to take a lot more than a few rumors for actual, sustainable gains to be realized.
Gold Struggling, But Doing Just Fine
In the midst of what has proven to be a quiet start to the week, it is important that investors put into perspective just how well gold has done thus far. Since the beginning of 2016 gold’s spot value has gained more than 20% and there are plenty of investors who think that that number could increase even further. For now, however, the slow summer months are preventing spot values from moving too far in any one direction.
As we look forward to the Fall, you can bet that investors will once again be completely and entirely preoccupied with interest rate speculation. There still exists a pretty solid divide in opinion, with some people thinking that interest rates will be hiked before the end of the year while others still think that there is no way interest rates will be touched before the end of the year. For now, however, most betting people would put their money on interest rates remaining put until next January, at the earliest. This is something that lends a bit of underlying support to gold and silver.
Wrap-Up
To be fair, gold and silver did not do all that moving to begin the week, however this should come as no surprise seeing as there were very few new news items for investors to talk about. There is not much to say that this will change before the end of the week, and as such I imagine that gold and silver will continue to move within a fairly well-defined range.
