Gold Spot Price Open: $1,231
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,226
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.85
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.58
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.27
Gold and silver declined slightly for a second day in a row mostly due to a stronger USD index. When the day was through, gold lost about 5 dollars while silver replicated yesterday’s 27 cent loss.
Before markets even opened, gold and silver were feeling downward pressure from a US Dollar that surged to month and a half highs overnight. Gold regained some of its losses throughout the day but was doomed to post losses the second the day began. Today marked the release of the first of three US employment reports expected to be made public this week; the ADP employment report for this past December. The report indicated that almost 240,000 jobs were added a month ago, a number that handily bested market expectations of around 200,000 additional jobs.
This afternoon is when the investing world really perked up thanks to the release of the latest FOMC minutes. In the lead-up to the minutes’ release most investors were hoping to hear more information regarding why the Fed decided to taper QE last month as well as whether or not they plan on pursuing further reductions anytime in the foreseeable future. When the minutes were made public they made it clear that most members of the Fed were in accord with the decision to taper. The minutes also painted a picture of a Fed who is much more confident in the overall strength of the US economy. In all, the minutes did little in the way of moving precious metals spot values in one direction or another. In the immediate wake of the minutes’ release gold and silver declined even further but were able to regain some of their losses before the day was through.
Tomorrow, the European Central Bank will meet for their monthly policy meeting and even though no one is expecting any major alterations in policy the investing world will still pay close attention to the content of the meeting. Investors are also expecting trade and inflation reports out of China sometime either tomorrow or Friday.
