Gold Spot Price Open: $1,158
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,164
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$6
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.89
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.95
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.06
Precious metals added some value to start the new week thanks to a weaker US Dollar as a result of altered views regarding interest rate hikes in the US. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain a little more than five dollars while silver added little more than 5 cents. Platinum finished Monday having gained in upwards of ten dollars, though palladium accumulated losses that were closer to twenty dollars.
Gold Up On Rate Hike Delay Expectations
The spot values of both gold and silver have been benefiting in recent days from belief that the US Federal Reserve may be forced to delay their hiking of interest rates this year. Now that many investors are expressing doubts with regard to whether or not the Fed will raise rates this year, the value of the US Dollar sunk today to a near 3-week low. After the last few weeks’ worth of economic data failed to impress, the investing world is now all but convinced that rate hikes will have to wait. This new found belief is driving the spot values of gold and silver upward and has been for most of the last week or more. While the upcoming FOMC meeting will slowly but surely draw the attention of investors everywhere, investors are already convincing themselves that they know the Fed is not going to touch rates before the end of the year.
According to Thorsten Proettel, of LBBW, “The idea in the market that the Fed will lift interest rates this year is out of the market. People aren’t expecting an interest rate hike this year, with the bad jobs data from the United States, and the problems in China.” This is a growing belief held by market experts and it is slowly translating into decisive investment decisions being made by investors. For now, this much is coming to the aid of gold and silver. As the week wears on and a strong batch of Chinese economic data is expected to be released, it will be intriguing to see if the outlook on rate hikes will be altered at all.
European Shares Stall After Recent Gains
Europe, whose economy has long been called into question by investors both at home and abroad has gotten the 4th quarter of this year off to a nice start. After posting nice gains through the first few weeks of the quarter, we are today seeing shares in the region cool off and move mostly sideways. Granted, a holiday in the US and another holiday in Japan are not helping matters at all, but we are very interested to see where the European economy heads over the next week or so.
With a healthy slate of Chinese economic data expected to be released this week, it will be interesting to see how Europe reacts as its economy is so closely tied with China’s.
Wrap-Up
Though today offered up a fairly slow start to the week, things will pick up beginning tomorrow thanks to all the economic data that is expected to be made public. Gold and silver are currently faring quite well thanks to changed outlooks on interest rate hikes, but how long this rally will last is anyone’s guess. The FOMC meeting is just around the corner, so I am sure the interest rate saga will continue through this week and into next. For now, investors have multi-week highs for gold and silver to reflect upon.
