Gold Spot Price Open: $1,244
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,245
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$1
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.25
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.20
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.05
Gold and silver did little moving on the last day of what has been an inordinately turbulent week for metals. When all was said and done on Friday, gold picked up roughly a dollar while silver lost closer to five cents. As for week on week progress, gold posted its first weekly loss in six.
As it stands, precious metals are currently being pushed around by two different factors. For one, the Fed’s decision to further taper QE means that less dollars will be injected into the marketplace on a monthly basis and thus the US Dollar will continue to accrue value. As it stands, the greenback is hovering near a 2-month high and is on the verge of pushing higher. Should the value of the USD continue to rise as a result of more tapering, the downward pressure being placed on gold and silver could too.
On the other hand, however, gold and silver have seen safe-haven demand make its way back into the marketplace this week. As investors become increasingly uneasy with regard to emerging markets such as Turkey and India, precious metals could see a significant boost in safe-haven purchases. Because the Turkish central bank, among others, decided to raise its key lending rate this week, the currencies and markets that were in free-fall on Tuesday and Wednesday have since stabilized. Nonetheless, it is unclear whether the decision to raise interest rates will be a permanent solution or simply a temporary fix to a much larger, widespread liquidity issue.
Next week will bring with it a plethora of US economic data that will undoubtedly have some sort of affect on the run being made by the USD. Because most of Asia began their celebration of the Lunar New Year today, trading from Asia will be quieter than normal throughout the first few days of the week.
