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    JM Bullion Gold and Silver Market Update (1/26/17)

    Gold Spot Price Open: $1,199

    Gold Spot Price Close: $1,191

    Change in Gold Spot Price: -$8

    Silver Spot Price Open: $17.03

    Silver Spot Price Close: $16.75

    Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.28

    Despite a number of factors that would lead you to believe precious metals had a good day, the story was quite the opposite. When all was said and done, gold lost another 8 dollars on Thursday while silver moved downward by little more than 25 cents. Platinum finished the day in roughly the same position it was in when the day began, however palladium lost another 7 dollars.

    Metals Continue to be Pressured

    To make what can be a long story quite short, precious metals were seen reeling again on Thursday thanks to stocks—especially those in the US—that were higher once again. Stocks across Europe and Asia performed well while the Dow Jones Industrial Average remained above the all-time high 20,000 mark today. It wasn’t just stocks the pressured gold and silver, a stronger US Dollar Index played its part as well. The USD Index hopped back up from a 1 and a half month low, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the greenback on the final day of the week.

    Though most people were anticipating that the Dow Jones might dip back below 20,000 today thanks to some profit-taking, the opposite train of thought is beginning to take shape. The thought is that the record highs might attract even more investors in the near-term, thus keeping the stock index soaring while simultaneously keeping precious metals’ spot values in check.

    Some US Economic Data Dealt

    The tone of US economic data on Thursday might have also had you thinking that metals might win the day, but that did not prove to be true. First it was the US Commerce Department delivering some sobering news with regard to the housing market in December. Reportedly, sales of new homes in December fell by almost 10.5% from the month before, bringing the seasonally-adjusted annual total to 536,000 units. This is a far-cry from what was realized back in the fall, when in November the seasonally-adjusted rate came in just shy of 600,000 units. Though this data didn’t explicitly help precious metals, it assuredly helped in the way of mitigating losses.

    Next up was the weekly jobless claims report. According to the data, last week saw a 22,000 uptick in the number of people filing for first-time unemployment benefits. This is a sharp increase and one that brings the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims to 259,000. Though the seasonally-adjusted figure was just shy of 260,000, expectations were for that figure to not even eclipse the 250,000 mark. Despite the sizeable movement from last week to this week, the US Department of Labor did not cite any specific factors contributing to the increase. As for the four-week moving average, something that is seen as a much more accurate view of the job market, that figure was down by 2,000, so the news was not all bad with regard to employment. In the grand scheme of things, it is likely that today’s data will be mostly overlooked. After all, it is going to take much more than one poor weekly jobless claims report to convince investors that the FOMC will not be raising rates this year.

    Wrap-Up

    All things considered, Thursday was, in many ways, a lot like Wednesday. Though there was a bit more in the way of economic data dealt, the fact of the matter is that most of it was overshadowed by the continuance of positive performances by stock markets. Add to that a decent performance on the part of the US Dollar and it was never looking like it was going to be gold and silver’s day. Though the prevailing belief is that losses will continue to mount through Friday, there would be very few people out there surprised to see some sort of corrective bounce.

    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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