Gold Spot Price Open: $1,068
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,080
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$12
Silver Spot Price Open: $14.18
Silver Spot Price Close: $14.32
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.14
Precious metals opened the week positively and managed to build upon small week-ending gains from last Friday. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain around twelve dollars while silver picked up more than ten cents on the day. Platinum followed in gold’s footsteps and gained more than fifteen dollars while palladium ended the day in about the same spot as where it started.
Holiday Week is Upon Us
Gold and silver surged out of the gate this week and both metals were able to make Monday a half decent day as far as spot value gains are concerned. With that said, I would not get my hopes up with regard to the rest of the week as economic data and economic activity will be light, at best. The Christmas holiday falls on this Friday and many people have already taken time away from work in order to be with their friends and family. In addition to this, being that we are in the midst of the holiday season, most major government agencies and corporations have decided to hold off on the release of any major data until the market gets back up to speed; something that will likely happen shortly after the New Year.
Today, gold and silver’s gains are being touted as a direct result of a short-covering rebound. Knowing this, it is quite easy to understand why most experts are not only not expecting gains to extend much further, they are, for the most part, not even anticipating that this week’s gains will be sustained for any long period of time. Instead, fears relating to the possibility of gold falling below $1,000/ounce are much more readily on the minds of investors as the yellow metal remains less than $100 above that threshold. While it is nice to see gains being made today, they don’t really count for anything unless they can be sustained.
Weaker USD Index Opens Up Trading
In addition to short-covering, precious metals also benefited from a weaker US Dollar Index. The greenback, which gained a lot of momentum in the wake of the Fed’s decision last week, has since had some of those initial gains pared. Part of the reason behind this is due to the fact that the Bank of Japan decided last Friday that it was not going to intensify already running easy money policies. Despite it being widely believed that Japanese QE measures would be bolstered, the BoJ decided instead to simply extend the country’s QE policies.
If the USD remains week as we venture through this 4-day, shortened trading session, this may lend more momentum to precious metals and may even spur some bargain-hunting buying. With how slow this week is shaping up to be, expect that investors will be hawking over any and all price movements on the part of both gold and silver. Right now on the whole, however, the precious metals market is really up against it thanks to the Fed’s decision to hike interest rates in the US.
Wrap-Up
As was mentioned about 10 times already, Monday was a slow day that offered very little in the way of markets-moving data. On top of that, the holiday week is making sure that things will remain slow. As we look forward, the next 2 (4-day) trading sessions are more than likely going to mimic each other, so if this week is slow you can almost bet that next week will be too. Of course, with that said, anything can happen across the global economy and geopolitical sphere to alter this expected slow run of things.