Gold Spot Price Open: $1,321
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,317
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$4
Silver Spot Price Open: $21.92
Silver Spot Price Close: $21.99
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.07
Gold and silver experienced mixed results to close out what proved to be a positive week for both metals. By the time markets closed on Friday, gold lost about 4 dollars while silver managed to pick up about 7 cents.
Gold and silver did little moving to close out a week that saw gold pick up about 40 dollars and silver gain roughly a half dollar. Investors and market experts are somewhat split on what direction they think precious metals will head once next week begins. Some investors are wary of the spike gold made Thursday and feel as though the spot value of the metal may inch downward or stagnate next week. Other investors, however, see the declining US Dollar and diminishing likelihood of an alteration to monetary policy by the end of the year as signs to invest in metals for safe-haven purposes.
With the budget and debt ceiling issues preparing to reappear during the early stages of 2014, the US Dollar is becoming decreasingly appealing.
In news from Asia, China’s third-quarter GDP rose by 7.8% when compared to 2012’s third-quarter. This increase was about what was expected and is being touted as an underlying positive factor for precious metals. Even though the United States’ economic and governmental problems have been the only thing to talk about for the past two weeks, it is important to consider the fact that the EU is still entrenched in problems of their own. Spain’s economy continues to lag as unemployment remains inordinately high.
There wasn’t any US economic data released on Friday as government agencies are still working to catch up after being stagnant for over two weeks. Perhaps towards the middle to end of next week is when we can finally expect to see some of the reports we missed during the government shutdown. This crucial economic data will serve the purpose of illustrating how the shutdown impacted the US economy, though most are expecting its impact will be a sternly negative one.
