Gold Spot Price Open: $1,185

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,187

Change in Gold Spot Price: +$2

Silver Spot Price Open: $15.74

Silver Spot Price Close: $15.79

Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.05

After beginning the day and the New Year trending downward, metals reverted course and were able to finish the day much better than the way they began it. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain a few dollars while silver managed to improve by about a nickel. Platinum and palladium finished the day down, but only by about a few dollars apiece.

Euro, Oil Decline, USD On the Up and Up

Straight from the offing today the US Dollar was seen making gains against all of its major rivals. Against currencies such as the New Zealand Dollar and the Euro especially, the greenback managed to make decent gains. The Euro, which finished 2014 at a near-30 month low, fell due to expectations that the European Central Bank will soon begin pursuing a tactic which will see them print large quantities of cash that will be used to stimulate the struggling EU economy. While 2014 was none too favorable for gold and silver, it was even poorer for the entire EU economic system.

Crude oil didn’t fare much better than the Euro today as it acted quite volatile during this last trading session of the week. As you probably could have guessed, we will continue to keep a close eye on the price of crude oil as we head deeper into 2015. As a leading commodity and one that has a direct impact on the price action of its fellow commodities, the price of crude oil is especially important to investors of precious metals.

Weak Economic Data Weighs on Equities

Thanks to a batch of weak economic data from Europe, the US, and Asia, stocks across the EU and the United States traded downward today. According to the slew of manufacturing data released today from Europe, economies like France and Germany are really struggling and ended the year on a particularly poor note. On top of that, there were also reports today saying that Chinese and American factory output is currently leaving a lot to be desired.

According to Sucden Financial senior researcher Myrto Sokou, “We received fairly disappointing manufacturing data from the U.S, Asia, UK and euro zone, creating renewed concerns about a slowdown of the manufacturing sector worldwide.” Perhaps, with some luck, another batch of poor global economic data will come to the aid of gold and silver, even if only temporarily. As we look ahead to next week, you can expect that there will be a large quantity of economic data made public from all corners of the world.

Wrap-Up

Though the last few weeks have been far quieter than normal due to the holidays, the same cannot be said about the weeks and months that lie ahead. Not only will we have to contend with an absolutely monstrous quantity of economic data, we will also have to focus on central bank meetings from Europe and the United States. All in all, the next few weeks are shaping up to be quite busy and will play host to a large quantity of data, most of which will be of particular importance to investors.