Gold Spot Price Open: $1,401
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,404
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $24.19
Silver Spot Price Close: $24.34
Change in Silver Spot Price:+$0.15
More sub-par economic data out of the US has given gold and silver small lifts during the early parts of the unofficial last week of Summer. When all was said and done gold picked up about 3 dollars while silver gained just about 15 cents.
Despite experiencing near 3-month highs during the overnight hours, gold and silver began experiencing a corrective bounce during the day which saw them both gradually lose some strength. When the day came to a close, however, gold and silver both regained their midday losses and ended up posting marginal gains.
Last Friday, a housing report was released and it came back as being one of the weakest such reports in a few months. This news alone allowed gold and silver to make substantial gains on the last day of the week as well as extend the amount of consecutive days which precious metals have been on an upward ascent.
Today, the downbeat economic data continued, this time in the form of a less than stellar durable goods report from this past July. The report indicated that durable goods orders in the US had fallen by over 7% since the previous report. As many are all too aware, this is quite a substantial hit, especially for those who believe that Quantitative Easing will be done away with by the end of 2013. Prior to last Friday, most economic data out of the US had been positive for the past few weeks. Now, things have taken a turn for the worse as far as the US economic outlook is concerned, something that has direct bearing on the way people feel about the future of Quantitative Easing in the US. Quantitative Easing, also referred to as QE, is the US Federal Reserve’s monthly bond-buying initiative that purchases billions of dollars worth of bonds each month in hopes of devaluing the US Dollar in an attempt to increase exports.
Even though the economic atmosphere in the US is currently one that suggests QE should be retained, a group of economists believe otherwise. After a recent central bankers meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, economists were polled regarding what they think should be done with QE moving forward into September. The results from the poll showed that a majority of those who were asked believe that QE will be softened starting this September.
Regardless of popular belief and polls from economists, the only time we will actually find out about the future of monetary policy in the US is during the FOMC meeting which is set to take place sometime in September.
