Gold Spot Price Open: $1,072

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,071

Change in Gold Spot Price: -$1

Silver Spot Price Open: $14.00

Silver Spot Price Close: $14.03

Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.03

Gold and silver didn’t do much moving on Tuesday and ended up finishing not very far from where they began the day. When all was said and done, gold remained near even by day’s end while silver ended up adding about 3 cents. Platinum and palladium gained on the day, but neither metal posted gains of more than ten dollars.

Stronger Than Expected US Economic Data Dealt

The US Dollar performed better than almost all of its rivals thanks to some better than expected economic data that was dealt earlier this morning. First on the upbeat stream of economic data was a home prices index that handily beat the expectations of market experts. The S&P Case Shiller home price index indicated that the price of homes in 20 major metropolitan cities rose in October. Officially, the index rose by .8% during October, complementing an upwardly revised reading of .5% in September. An October rise of .6% was expected, and though 2 tenths of one percent may not seem like much, it was encouraging to see, especially after recently weak economic data.

Despite November seeing consumer confidence take a dip, December saw that same statistic move upward, according to the Conference Board. The Conference Board said earlier today that consumer confidence rose to 96.5% in December after only being recorded at 92.6%. Economists had expected the index to only barely eclipse the 93% mark. On the back of these two reports the Dollar made some nice strides forward. For gold and silver, this almost immediately meant that gains were going to be incredibly difficult to come by. As we move further into this week, I am not so sure that we will see much more economic data from the United States, so it is likely that today’s data has set a tone that will last through the next few days.

Crude Oil Bounces Back

After a few consecutive days’ worth of losses, crude oil managed to bounce back and, in turn, force stocks to do the same. After signs of weakness from the Chinese economy forced oil downward on Monday, Tuesday’s upbeat economic data pushed oil and stocks back upward.

For gold and silver, this good news was a major part of the reason losses did not compile. You see, when the US Dollar surges like it did today, that is almost always a death sentence for precious metals. But, because crude oil is a leading commodity, its positive performance today ended up preventing gold and silver from making any significant losses.

A low volume of trading happening across the whole of the global marketplace is making all of these data points very difficult to gauge accurately. When things begin to normalize at the beginning of next week it will be truly interesting to see what happens to gold and silver spot values. For now, however, it seems as though both metals are going to trade within a well-defined range until new, fresh, fundamental data is released.

Wrap-Up

Looking ahead to Wednesday, I expect that things will quiet down even more than they have already. The New Years holiday is held on Friday, but many people will begin party prepaerations a few days early and that is likely going to account for the quieter marketplace we have seen and will continue to see through the remainder of this abbreviated trading week.