Gold Spot Price Open: $1,296
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,281
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$15
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.41
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.95
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.46
Both gold and silver opened up this week rather disappointingly and suffered some decent losses as a result of it. When all was said and done, gold lost about fifteen dollars while silver’s losses edged above 40 cents. Platinum and palladium had a mixed day, with platinum losing more than ten dollars while palladium managed to gain around 5 dollars.
Continued Attention Being Paid to European Union
As if the last few weeks didn’t see the market pay enough attention to the European Union, today saw investors turn their attention to Greek parliamentary election results. The anti-austerity Syriza party was reported as winning the recent elections, and by many measures, they won by a considerably wide margin. Though the election results did not have a major impact on the Euro nor European stocks, it does raise some valid concerns regarding just how the EU will get on in the longer-term.
With Germany constantly being called upon to bail out countries with under-performing economies, investors are curious to see how long Germany will put up with this. With Greece likely needing another financial bailout before 2015 is done and dusted, we are in for an interesting next 11 months as far as the European Union is concerned.
Metals Suffer From Stronger Dollar, Profit-Taking
After the last few weeks saw precious metals benefit greatly from concerns over Europe, it should not come as much of a surprise that today saw profit-taking pull spot values back down a bit. Now that investors can relax a bit in the wake of the European Central Bank’s decision last week, we are seeing some of the safe-haven interest in precious metals fade.
Now, with the Euro continually being devalued, the US Dollar is on the up and up and is really benefiting from overall uncertainty with regard to other currencies, but especially those with ties to the EU. As this week wears on, it will be interesting to see if gold and silver bounce back from today’s losses or if the near-term momentum has actually gone away.
Ukraine In the Headlines
Though we haven’t talked about the civil war in Ukraine for quite some time, the ongoing violence there is once again making headlines. This time, it was the falling apart of peace talks and subsequent offensive on the part of pro-Russian separatists that caught the world’s attention. Now, pro-Russia rebel forces are vowing a long and intense offensive against government troops.
As this week plays out, it will be interesting to see just how much things intensify in Ukraine. As is the case with any bouts of violence, the proceedings in Ukraine stand the chance of altering the prices of precious metals in one way or another.
Wrap-Up
To be quite honest, this first trading day of the week was more quiet than anything. Though metals accrued somewhat decent losses, this should not come as much of a surprise considering how well the last few weeks have gone for gold and silver. I expect that the duration of the week will be similarly quiet, but with continued attention being paid to the European Union, anything is possible.