Gold Spot Price Open: $1,258
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,284
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$26
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.94
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.26
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.32
Precious metals finished the week posting gains that saw them recover from yesterday’s significant losses. When all was said and done, gold picked up nearly 30 dollars while silver picked up more than 30 cents. Platinum finished the week gaining nearly twenty dollars while palladium picked up just a few dollars.
US GDP Report Takes Center Stage
This week has seen a good bit of economic data come to the attention of investors both in the US and elsewhere. Today, the market was dealt the most recent GDP report from the United States for the fourth quarter. Officially, year on year GDP for the fourth quarter increased by 2.6% which was a bit below what the market was expecting. This is a major part of the reason behind why gold and silver added value today. Prior to today’s GDP data being made public, market analysts and experts were anticipating a GDP increase of more than 3%. Despite today’s gains, metals are going to finish the week having posted losses.
A news report from late yesterday claimed that Fed chairperson Janet Yellen stated that she and the rest of the Fed are content with holding off on raising interest rates for the foreseeable future, Though this isn’t really big news, investors are always clambering to hear any and everything the Fed has to say about interest rates. These comments also probably helped contribute to precious metals’ gains today.
Russian Central Bank Lowers Interest Rates
In the early morning hours, it was reported that the central bank of Russia made a surprise decision to lower its interest rate from 17% to 15%. This was a desperate move made by the central bank in an effort to spur the country’s struggling economy. The Russian economy has been suffering for the better part of the past half year or more due to falling crude oil prices and sanctioned levied against them by Western governments.
Despite lowering interest rates, Russia still has rates that are 10% higher than most other European economies. This is just one other example of ongoing currency wars.
In other news from Europe, it was reported that year-on-year consumer prices fell by .6% during January. From December to January, the CPI news wasn’t much better as it was reported that prices fell by .2% during that time. This is just one more dour economic report coming out of the European Union. As most of you are probably well aware, the tough times facing the European economy will continue.
Wrap-Up
All in all, this was a pretty eventful week considering that things were expected to be quiet. There has been a lot of economic data made public over the course of the past 5 days and it has taken its toll on the marketplace. Today, the data was beneficial for gold and silver, but that has not been the case all week long. Looking ahead to next week, I do anticipate that things will be particularly quiet so it will be interesting to see if gold and silver are able to bounce back from this week’s losses or if losses will continue to pile up.
