Gold Spot Price Open: $1,328
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,325
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.64
Silver Spot Price Close: $18.50
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.14
Gold and silver did not exactly impress on Thursday, but they stopped the drastic slides that have marked the past few trading sessions. When all was said and done, gold conceded about 3 dollars while silver lost almost another 15 cents. Platinum and palladium finished the day mixed, however neither metal ended the day having moved drastically at all.
Stocks Fall Ahead of Jackson Hole
The global central bankers summit taking place in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this week is catching the attention of investors from around the world. Members of the Fed descended upon the small Wyoming town on Thursday ahead of a speech from Fed chair Janet Yellen, which is expected to take place sometime tomorrow afternoon. US stocks pushed lower on Thursday as investors are expecting Yellen to remain mostly dovish and offer little to no fresh insight with regard to the potential for further interest rate hikes this year.
Currently, the odds for a rate hike to happen next month are just over 20% while the odds for a November rate hike are a bit better, at a little more than 40%. Overall, however, it is clear to see that there are very few people who are overly convinced that interest rates are moving upward anytime soon. With that said, a continuation of the upbeat economic data we have seen so far this month has the potential to change the Fed’s thinking.
Weekly Jobless Claims Fall Again, Beat Estimates
For yet another week, the weekly jobless claims report from the Department of Labor came back more upbeat than expected. Today, it was reported that last week saw 1,000 fewer first-time claims for unemployment benefits than the week before. This brought the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims down to 261,000 and is giving investors even more reason to believe that the labor situation in the US is good and getting better all the time. In case you are wondering, this bit of data falls into the policy hawk camp—or those who would like to see interest rates raised sooner rather than later.
Being that economists and market experts were anticipating that first-time unemployment benefit claims would rise to 265,000, it is easy to see why people are growing increasingly optimistic with regard to employment in the US.
Something notable from this data is that we are now running 77 consecutive weeks where the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims came in lower than 300,000. This is the best such run since the early 1970s. Once you understand that the labor market was significantly smaller back in 1973/1974, this streak becomes that much more impressive.
Wrap-Up
All in all, Thursday was a day that helped and hurt gold and silver all at the same time. On the one hand, metals were helped by stocks moving lower and the belief that perhaps Janet Yellen and her colleagues will refrain from moving interest rates anytime soon. On the other hand, we were dealt yet another batch of upbeat economic data, specifically employment data, from the United States. Anytime the US data stream is overly positive, gold and silver tend to suffer a bit.
As we look ahead to the final day of the week, the overarching concern of investors will be what Janet Yellen has to say in her remarks. Once again, very few people are anticipating that she will do anything other than reiterate her previous sentiments, saying that the US economy is strong, but more evidence is needed in order to justify interest rate hikes. If this happens, you can expect a very muted response from the global marketplace.
