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    JM Bullion Gold and Silver Market Update (1/19/17)

    Gold Spot Price Open: $1,212

    Gold Spot Price Close: $1,207

    Change in Gold Spot Price: -$5

    Silver Spot Price Open: $17.26

    Silver Spot Price Close: $16.99

    Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.27

    More upbeat economic data ended up having an adverse impact on precious metals for what is now a second consecutive day. When all was said and done, gold conceded about 5 dollars while silver lost in upwards of 30 cents. Platinum fell by 5 dollars on the day, but palladium performed decently and added a few dollars.

    Housing Starts Surge in December

    A major theme this week has been that of economic data from the United States; most of which has been positive up to this point. As you can see, as the tone of economic data from the US grows increasingly upbeat, the pressure facing precious metals will continue to grow. Today, the data regarding housing starts in the US in December is what tacked on the pressure straight from the offing.

    According to the data, housing starts in December surged upward by more than 11% from the month before. This brought the seasonally-adjusted number of housing starts up to 1.226 million units. To put this data in perspective, the absolute highest expectations had called for the seasonally-adjusted average to approach 1.2 million, but likely not exceed it. All things considered, this data does nothing but hurt precious metals.

    The reason for this is due to the fact that any upbeat data from here on out is going to encourage the spread of the belief that interest rates will be hiked a few more times this year. Janet Yellen spoke towards the end of the day on Wednesday and her words were determined to be quite hawkish. Unless Donald Trump can somehow step in and throw the Fed’s plans on their head, most people are growing in confidence that rate hikes are inevitable. Now, the conversation will transition from whether or not rate hikes will happen, to how many times they will occur throughout the year. Regardless, any talk of rate hikes is certain to have a negative impact on metals.

    Jobless Claims Fall Once More

    After an unexpectedly large rise was reported last week, this week brought with it a calming feeling thanks to a dip in the number of folks seeking out first-time unemployment benefits. According to the US Department of Labor, there were 15,000 fewer people applying for unemployment benefits last week than there were the week before. This brought the seasonally-adjusted average to 234,000, far below the 300,000 threshold.

    Expectations were for the seasonally-adjusted average to be above the 250,000 mark. Looking back at historical jobless claims figures, this week’s mark is the lowest we have seen since the late 1970s. We are slowly but surely approaching 100 consecutive weeks where the weekly jobless claims figures stayed below 300,000.

    To round out today’s employment data, the 4-week moving average was down by more than 10,000. The 4-week moving average is seen as the most current and accurate depiction of the labor market, and this downward movement is seen as a great improvement. All in all, today’s employment data reaffirms the now strong belief that the US labor market is doing well and improving constantly.

    Wrap-Up

    Thursday continued what Wednesday started by offering investors a good deal of economic data to pour over and discuss. Unfortunately for precious metals, the overly positive tone of the data does not do spot values any favors. As we look ahead to tomorrow, the biggest news of the day will come in the form of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Though there are doubts as to whether or not the inauguration itself will affect spot values at all, tomorrow’s events mark the beginning of a very interesting and uncertain future.

    Disclaimer: All Market Updates are provided as a third party analysis and do not necessarily reflect the explicit views of JM Bullion Inc. and should not be construed as financial advice.

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