Gold Spot Price Open: $1,254
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,259
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.57
Silver Spot Price Close: $17.47
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.10
Gold and silver finished the day on Thursday mixed, but neither metal moved too far from where it began the day. When all was said and done, gold accrued about 5 dollars while silver back-tracked to the tune of aabout ten cents. Platinum and palladium were both down, both to the tune of roughly 10 dollars.
Weekly Jobless Claims Come Back Better Than Expected
As we fast-approach December and a possible last-minute rate hike, every bit of economic data from the United States is going to be important to investors of all types. Beyond that, data relating to jobs will be particularly important as the strength of the labor market has long been touted as one of the primary factors influencing whether rates are hiked again or not, and when the hike will happen.
Today, the Department of Labor in the United States released their weekly jobless claims report. If you look at last week’s numbers versus those dished out today, there was a decline in the number of first-time applicants for unemployment benefits to the tune of 3,000. With that being said, however, last week’s number was revised downward by 3,000 and today’s data showed that there was no change between last week and the week prior. Right now, the seasonally-adjusted average number of jobless claims is sitting at 246,000. As for what market experts anticipated, most forecasts called for the seasonally-adjusted average to jump above the 250,000 mark.
Even though this data is being interpreted as wholly positive for the labor market in the US, gold and silver are not reacting as such. Both metals have been resilient through the last few days, withstanding both a stronger US Dollar as well as this above-average weekly jobless claims report. Wirth that being said, the ever-lingering idea that rates will be raised in December is something that is preventing metals from making too many strides forward.
Bargain-Hunting, Weaker Dollar Support Metals
Even though it did not look like the best of days for precious metals, when you consider the circumstances both gold and silver performed quite well. In the same breath, however, last week’s massive losses must be highlighted due to their influence on bargain-hunting buying on the part of cash investors in metals. That has been a major theme this week and though it may not be translating into a significant recovery from last week’s losses, it is helping alleviate some of the downward pressure metals are under.
The greenback finally took a step backwards today, and that too helped gold and silver. What’s more, major US stock indexes finished the day in the red, and that is something that will almost always help precious metals. Unfortunately, the poor run by stocks did not help precious metals entirely too much mainly because weakness on the part of US equities—as it is with metals—is due to the growing belief that the Federal Reserve will move to raise interest rates come December. The current likelihood of seeing a rate hike at the December Fed meeting is above 60%. Of course, this number is one that assumes a Clinton presidential victory in early November. If that does not pan out the way it is currently expected to, metals may see a significant push forward. For now, however, we are living in a world that assumes US rates will once again be hiked come this time in 2 months.
Wrap-Up
Despite the fact that we are in no way expecting a massive surge by metals on Friday, this week so far has to be viewed with positive takeaways. There are plenty of bullish outside factors, and metals seem to be withstanding them for the most part. Unfortunately, however, this is going to continue to be the case so long as the US economic data stream remains as positive as it has been recently.