Gold Spot Price Open: $1,079
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,074
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $14.27
Silver Spot Price Close: $14.19
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.08
Precious metals were once again seen following in the footsteps of crude oil by backing down again on Wednesday. When all was said and done, gold lost close to five dollars while silver fell by roughly ten cents. Platinum and palladium fell on the day as well, but platinum’s losses were kept in check while palladium fell by roughly ten dollars.
Crude Oil Falls to New Lows
You know this has been a relatively slow week when all we are talking about is the price action of crude oil. Today saw the spot value of oil move back down to a 7-year low and bring precious metals right along with it. Officially, the price of a barrel of crude oil fell below $37. Now, investors are looking at the $34/barrel price as crude oil’s next key price point. This is a price that we have not seen since 2009.
Overall, the fact that crude oil is performing so poorly likely means that the rest of the global economy is not performing well either. With that being said, it is especially remarkable that the US economy continues to plug along in the face of tough economic times.
A major part of the reason crude oil, gold, silver, and most other commodities fell on the day was due to a rebound on the part of the US Dollar Index. For much of the first half of the week, the greenback was back-tracking and that gave commodities some room to temporarily move forward. Unfortunately, as has been the case recently, any gains made by commodities are gains that cannot be sustained over extended periods of time. That much is due to the fact that current market conditions are stacked heavily against most commodities.
Weekly Jobless Claims Rise Unexpectedly
A week after November’s upbeat employment report was released the market was dealt some somewhat disappointing news regarding weekly jobless claims. According to the US Labor Department, weekly jobless claims last week rose by 13,000 to a new tally of 282,000. A 13,000 rise in claims for unemployment is not necessarily the biggest uptick, but it is seen as disappointing due to the fact that expectations were for this figure to dip.
Before the data was released, most people were expecting weekly jobless claims tallies to fall to about 265,000. Now we are seeing that those expectations were quickly dashed and that perhaps the labor market is not as strong as many people were convinced it was. In all reality, however, the market did not have a very large reaction to today’s weekly jobless claims data as it is expected that the decision to hike interest rates is one that has already been made.
Wrap-Up
Keeping with this week’s theme, Thursday did not offer up much in the way of fresh, fundamental news able to alter the attitude of the global marketplace. Looking ahead to Friday, you can expect the focus of the marketplace to remain more or less the same due to the fact that there really isn’t much in the way of markets-moving data expected to be released.
Now that we are bringing this week to a close, investors are more and more focusing on next week’s FOMC meeting and the expected interest rate hike announcement. Barring any earth-shaking, unexpected economic data being released between now and next week, there are very few people who think an interest rate hike announcement will not be made. For once, I too am convinced that next week will finally bring about an interest rate hike for the first time in more than 8 years.
