Gold Spot Price Open: $1,194
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,198
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$8
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.21
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.07
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.14
Precious metals are already looking better this week than they did throughout most of last. When all was said and done on Monday, gold managed to add about 4 dollars while silver actually lost 14 cents. Platinum and palladium finished the day mixed, with platinum adding a few dollars while palladium lost a few.
December Consumer Spending Increases
Despite last week’s economic data suggesting otherwise, December did actually see an increase in consumer spending from the month before. Not only were households spending more money, they were making larger purchases as well. One big-ticket item that was purchased were motor vehicles.
Officially, the US Commerce Department explained that December saw a .5% uptick in consumer spending. November’s uptick of .2% was left unrevised. As for 2016 as a whole, the year saw consumer spending increase by 3.8%. This is slightly better than what was recorded for the whole of 2015. Also helping the consumer spending data was the fact that wages for employees are on the rise. December saw wages and salaries uptick by around .4%. For the year as a whole, personal income was up by 3.5%. Compared to 2015’s 4.4% uptick in personal income 2016’s data was weak, however it is still enough to have investors and market watchers alike be convinced that 2017 is going to be a great year for the US economy. Despite this upbeat data, precious metals were still able to perform mostly well to start off the new week of trading.
Trump Spurs More Safe-Haven Demand
In addition to bouncing back from multi-week lows realized last week, precious metals are also being aided by a bit of safe-haven demand. After a recent halt on refugee immigration was handed down by newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump, the American public took to the streets once more.
With all sorts of protests happening at airports and other public venues across the country, the world looked on. To outsiders, the US is as unstable now as it has been in years. Though, comparatively, the US is still one of the most stable and safest places in the world, there are some underlying fears as to what more Executive Actions might mean for the fate of the country. This uncertainty, as has been the case for some time now, is almost always going to play in the favor of precious metals.
The Executive Order is still in effect and there is still plenty of vocal outrage, but if President Trump has made anything clear thus far, he has made it abundantly clear that he is not very willing to negotiate on issues he feels strongly about; and immigration is precisely one of those issues.
A weaker USD Index also helped push gold and silver towards gains on the first day of the week. The USD Index spent most of last week recovering from almost a month of losses, but we are seeing the greenback experience pressure once again. For gold and silver, this is a major factor that contributed to the decent start to the week.
Wrap-Up
One of the biggest talking points this week will assuredly be what to expect from President Trump regarding the ban on immigration. Though no one is expecting him to budge on his stance, there is still going to be a lot of focus placed on it. Apart from that, we will also be looking forward to some US economic data now that the first month of the New Year is more or less under our belts.