Gold Spot Price Open: $1,094
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,095
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$1
Silver Spot Price Open: $14.81
Silver Spot Price Close: $14.84
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.03
Precious metals managed to eek out another day of gains to close out a forgettable week on a positive note. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain a single dollar while silver picked up 3 cents en route to finishing the week just below the $15/ounce threshold. Platinum and palladium also posted gains to close out the week, with both metals picking up around ten dollars.
Solid Jobs Data Closes Out the Week
The biggest data point of the week came Friday morning with the release of the most recent job growth figures from the United States. After Wednesday’s sup-bar private-sector job growth report from ADP, investors were wary about what today’s data might hold. When the figures were finally made public, it was made clear that the US economy added about 215,000 non-farm payrolls during July. So far this year, monthly job growth in the US is averaging more than 210,000 which means that employers are confident in the improving nature of the US economy, and further think that improvements will continue through the end of the year and beyond.
Though today’s jobs figures are being touted as upbeat, we cannot forget to think about wage growth, which has been less than impressive for some time now. During July, for example, average hourly earnings increased by just over 2% compared to July of 2014. Despite this, it is looking like a September raising of the Fed’s key interest rate is something that most think is still going to take place. Thanks to today’s jobs figures, the US Dollar was given a bit of a boost. Currently, the USD is trading right around a 4.5 year high against the Yen, while simultaneously boasting equally impressive marks against other rival currencies. While this was so, precious metals were still able to add some value today, making that two days in a row where gains were realized.
Stocks in the US slipped after the release of the jobs data and ended the week on a bit of a slide. All in all, however, the US equity market is performing well and has been for some time now.
China May Suffer From Economic Reforms
In a statement released on Friday, the Central Bank of China announced that Asia’s largest economy may continue to suffer as we head towards the end of 2015. According to the Central Bank, these expected struggles can be tied to economic reform efforts that have been made by China throughout this year. Instead of relying on economic reforms, critics think that China should work to revitalize the same engines that have driven the economy to the point it is at now and has been at for the past decade or more. As opposed to government-led policies and government investment, it is believed that the Chinese economy should rely on private investment in order to push the economy forward.
This week did not offer much in the way of news regarding the Chinese economy, but recent history has shown that the Asian giant is struggling. As the year progresses, it will be interesting to see if China’s situation improves to any extent, or if their economy will continue to spin its wheels.
Wrap-Up
All in all, this week was quiet apart from the overload of economic data from the United States. For gold and silver, this may be the first positive week we have seen in well over a month. Thursday and today brought about some small gains, and after the way things have been going recently investors will take small gains. Next week is shaping up to be slower than this week, so it will be interesting to see how metals fare.
