Gold Spot Price Open: $1,141
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,144
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.01
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.98
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.03
Gold and silver continued to perform decently on Wednesday in what was, admittedly, a slow day of end of year trading. When all was said and done, gold managed to add about 3 dollars while silver actually lost almost 5 cents. Platinum and palladium both fell on the day, however both metals lost less than 5 dollars apiece.
Crude Oil Lends Support to Metals
A theme this week has been the elevated spot value of crude oil in the wake of OPEC’s decision to cut daily crude production. This plan, which actually involves non-OPEC member countries as well, is set to go into effect on the 1st of January. Even though this was the agreed-upon plan, there are plenty of skeptical investors out there who think that the plan will go awry. This would not be the first time OPEC set forth a plan that ended up not actually working out, but it would be especially surprising considering the attention this situation has gotten in the wake of more than a year of a global crude oil supply glut.
Though crude oil prices have been on the up and up recently, the fact of the matter is that the US Dollar is still maintaining an elevated position. Right now, the USD Index is trading up near a 13-year high. This is something that is pressuring metals and will continue to do exactly that.
Investors are still, to some extent, expecting stock markets to correct themselves shortly after the New Year. Equities have been trading at or near record highs since early November and there are major expectations that equity markets will correct themselves lower. This is something that one would think would come to the benefit of precious metals, but we will just have to wait and see how that pans out.
Light Day of Economic Data
While Tuesday brought with it some pieces of economic data, Wednesday brought with it the exact opposite. There were no major pieces of US economic data dealt, and that made an already-slow day of trading even more lackluster.
For precious metals, the past week or so has been a bit encouraging for investors who have seen spot values beaten down at every turn for the past 4 to 6 months. Many are seeing the renewed strength as a sign that, perhaps, metals might open up 2017 with some nice gains, however that much remains to be seen. In the eyes of many, Donald Trump assuming the office of President of the United States is something that remains a wildcard. No one is quite sure what campaign promises he intends to live up to and which ones were nothing more than nicely-timed sentiments.
Until we get a feel for what Trump is going to do in DC, it is tough to say what the long-term future has in store for metals. If he is as pro-business as many people claim, this may keep stock markets elevated and continue to pressure metals. On the other hand, if he acts unpredictably as some folks claim he might, this could end up providing a safe-haven boost for metals. There are a lot of question marks currently, and until they are answered all we can do is speculate.
Wrap-Up
As was mentioned a few times already, today has been quite slow. As such, metals did not move entirely too much and the day, as a whole, can be chalked up as a wash. As we look ahead to tomorrow, the weekly jobless claims report will be something to keep an eye on, but other than that there is not too much in the way of economic data on the slate. By midweek next week the hope is that the level of activity will have picked back up to near normal levels in most every marketplace around the world. After that, you can expect to be on the receiving end of many pieces of year-end economic data from the US and elsewhere.
