Gold Spot Price Open: $1,283
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,278
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.28
Silver Spot Price Close: $18.34
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.06
Precious metals finished mixed on Tuesday, but most people are ignoring today’s action as the market awaits the results of the US presidential election. When all was said and done, gold ended up losing about 5 dollars while silver actually managed to add about 6 cents. Platinum and palladium both gained on the day as well, and both metals actually added close to ten dollars apiece.
Election Results Eyed, Awaited
As you could have probably guessed, the eyes of the investing world were firmly fixated on the US presidential election. Unfortunately, polls were still open by the time markets closed so it was tough for anyone to be overly confident with regard to the final outcome. Hillary Clinton appears to be in the lead, but there is no saying how true this is or if it will be true once the final votes have been tallied. After all, when the UK Brexit vote was ongoing most people were expecting the UK to remain part of the EU only to be shocked when the opposite occurred. So while we want to say that Hillary Clinton is going to emerge victorious, we need to wait until the final votes are in.
As for global equity markets, they too patiently awaited the results of the US elections. Come the opening of US markets tomorrow, you can expect a flurry of activity on the part of equities, commodities, and currencies. At this point, however, it is tough to say what that flurry of activity will consist of.
For gold and silver, the equation is a bit more simplistic. The overarching belief is that a Donald Trump victory will give spot values at least a temporary boost, while a Clinton victory would mean that spot values are likely to move sideways and possibly lower. Once again, absolutely none of this is set in stone as of the writing of this piece, so we will just have to wait and see.
OPEC Sees Normalization of Market
In OPEC’s annual report, which was released and mostly overlooked on Tuesday, the large organization said that 2016 marked what was termed a “turning point” for the crude oil market. While OPEC thinks that a more balanced market will present itself in 2017, they were quick to point out that a number of other factors can come into play at any point in time and bring back the volatility we have seen for the past 12 months and beyond.
Though it is difficult for anyone to focus on anything other than the US election, this report from OPEC was of noteworthy variety. A stabilization on the part of crude oil could potentially help support precious metals over the long-term.
We did not hear anything with regard to OPEC, as a group, reducing daily output of crude oil, but you can bet that that talking point will make its way back into the conversation before long.
Wrap-Up
Looking ahead to the next day or so, there is no doubting that the absolute number one focus of the global marketplace will be the outcome of the US election. While there is no doubting that the president-elect—whomever that ends up being—will have some sort of impact on the global marketplace, it remains impossible to say what exactly that impact will be. Even beyond tomorrow, it is a certainty that the election and its potential impact on global markets will be a main topic of discussion.
