Gold Spot Price Open: $1,350
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,351
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$1
Silver Spot Price Open: $22.85
Silver Spot Price Close: $22.59
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.26
Gold and silver finished off what ended up being a positive week in pretty dull fashion. By the time markets closed on Friday, gold had managed to gain about a dollar while silver ended up losing a little over a Quarter. While gold and silver were able to make a decent recovery from losses suffered shortly before and during the government shutdown, profit-taking and a technical correction prevented precious metals from making larger gains this week.
The US Dollar is retaining its downtrodden position on Friday, as US stocks began to turn their decline around. Gold and silver investors are now turning to the Federal Reserve for any signs regarding what their next move(s) regarding Quantitative Easing will be. Many market experts are still latching onto the fact that the $80+ billion monthly bond-buying program will have to be downsized to some extent in the near future. The problem however, is that these market experts cannot agree on what the near-future means for them.
Some experts are anticipating a tapering of QE to happen before the end of the year still, while other see the government shutdown as the reason behind why QE cannot be touched until the latter stages of 2014’s first quarter. Regardless of all this speculation, we will have to wait to see if the Federal Reserve and its members offer any clues regarding what their next actions will be.
The rising short-term interest rates in China continue to catch the attention of investors as it is unclear what, if anything, Chinese monetary officials are going to do regarding the matter. As the housing market continues to heat up, and short-term interest rates continue to rise, it is unlikely that the Chinese government will simply sit on its hands. As of now, the expectation is that we will witness some sort of tightening of China’s monetary policies, a situation which would be bearish for precious metals.
