Gold Spot Price Open: $1,135
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,135
Change in Gold Spot Price: NO CHANGE
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.12
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.91
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.21
Precious metals performed on Wednesday in much the same way that they did on Tuesday, not moving very far in any one direction. When all was said and done, gold managed to tack end the day in roughly the same position it was in when things began while silver conceded a little more than twenty cents. Platinum and palladium, on the other hand, did not gain nor lose value by the time markets in the US closed.
Housing Data Reads Positive Yet Again
Both the US Dollar and most US equity markets trended downward for a majority of the day, likely suffering from pullbacks after recently impressive, if not historic, performances. Despite today’s pullback, the near and medium-term futures for both of the aforementioned asset-classes looks promising. This belief was bolstered today by a piece of economic data released by the National Association of Realtors indicating that, yes, the housing market in the US is still performing quite well.
According to the NAR, November brought with it a .7% uptick in the number of existing homes sold. Though this may not mean much to those not following the statistic, the seasonally-adjusted average number of existing homes sold this year has now been bumped up to just over 5.6 million units. Considering initial estimates had called for the seasonally-adjusted number of existing homes sold to be right around 5.5 million units, this data was perceived as being very positive. Still, the US Dollar and equities suffered from profit-taking on the day, so this particular piece of data did not mean much of anything. In fact, it did not really impede gold and silver and allowed them to mostly hold their own on Wednesday.
With activity across global markets progressively slowing down over the course of the coming days, it will be interesting to see if precious metals can continue to sustain their current positions.
Markets Quieting Down Ahead of the Christmas Holiday
As we have been saying, the week is going to continue to get quieter and quieter as the days wear on. In the US and Europe especially, there was a noticeable lull in the level of activity on Wednesday. In Asia, however, stock markets were firmer after a securities company from China announced that it would honor what were being call fraudulent bond activities perpetrated by two employees. Prior to this announcement, Asian—and particularly Chinese—investors were worried and jittery.
As Christmas and New Years approach, and as things quiet down, we will begin to look at what 2017 might have in store. One major and spreading belief is that equity markets in the US and elsewhere will see a corrective pullback shortly after the calendars have been turned. With most equity markets trending near record highs since the US Presidential election of Donald Trump, experts have made it clear that they would be the least bit surprised to see profit-taking ring in the New Year. This is something that could play its way into the hands of precious metals, however with such bearish markets at the present moment in time it will likely help stop losses more than it will contribute to any lasting gains. As we saw already, gold and silver are shrugging off events that would normally end up seeing spot values boosted by safe-haven demand. Markets are so bearish that even two so-called terrorist attacks on the same day in Europe did not boost spot values at all.
Wrap-Up
I feel like we will be saying this every day, but today offered up a perfect example of how market activity begins to wind down as the Christmas holiday approaches. With New Year’s following so closely afterwards, things are going to be mostly subdued until the end of the month. What this means for gold and silver is probably nothing good, but at the same time, perhaps it will mean an alleviation of some of the pressure that has been stacked up on precious metals for the past month and a half or more.