Gold Spot Price Open: $1,317
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,341
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$24
Silver Spot Price Open: $22.29
Silver Spot Price Close: $22.74
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.45
Gold and silver continued their recent run of positive form on Tuesday as the latest US jobs data helped boost the spot values of precious metals. By the time the day ended, gold had picked up almost 25 dollars while silver gained almost half of a dollar.
September’s US jobs data, which is now over two weeks delayed, came back weaker than expected. Investors were anticipating that September’s non-farm payrolls would have risen by nearly 200,000, though the actual figures came in just less than 150,000. This news not only weakened investors’ immediate outlook on the US economy, but also has larger implications for the future of monetary policy. Despite the fact that figures came in a bit weaker than expected, the overall unemployment rate in the US still managed to fall by .1% to 7.2%.
Before the shutdown occurred, the widely held belief by both members of the Fed and the general public was that Quantitative Easing, the Fed’s currently employed monthly bond-buying initiative, would be wound down by the end of 2013. Now the sentiment is a much different one as 4th quarter GDP growth is expected to be negatively impacted by the government shutdown. Nonetheless, investors continue to speculate about the future of monetary policy which is expected to remain unchanged until at least the early parts of 2014.
The US Dollar continued to decline in value today as few outside factors are giving the greenback any real room to make positive gains. Investors will maintain their focus on the delayed economic reports which are being released over the coming days.
In news out of Asia, Chinese officials are reporting that housing prices are steadily increasing. Such a rise in the average price of houses has caused Chinese monetary officials to entertain the thought of altering their monetary policies in the near future. As we enter the second half of the week it will be interesting to see if gold and silver will be able to maintain or build upon the gains they have made over the past week or so.
