Gold Spot Price Open: $1,204
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,187
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$17
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.33
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.79
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.54
Thanks to better-performing stocks as well as an upbeat US Dollar, gold and silver conceded all of the gains they were able to record on Tuesday. When all was said and done, gold lost more than 15 dollars while silver closed out 2014 having lost more than 50 cents. Platinum and palladium also finished the day down by right around 5 dollars.
US Equities, Dollar Improve Despite Weekly Jobless Claims Report
Straight from the time markets opened today, the US Dollar as well as US equities began adding value. Both asset classes have been performing well as of late and are looking like they will end the year in upbeat fashion. Perhaps lending stocks and the greenback some support was a report released today that claimed pending home sales in the US rose by considerable margins during November. As more people sign contracts to buy new homes, it is clear to see that the US economy is doing much better than what it was a year ago.
Today also brought about a dismal weekly jobless claims report, but not even this could derail stocks nor the Dollar. According to the report, last week saw just shy of 300,000 people apply for unemployment benefits in the United States. This was almost 20,000 more people than the week before. Though this data is nothing to write home about, it did not really have too much of a negative impact on the US nor global marketplaces.
Looking Back on Terrible Year for Commodities
If you are a precious metals investor, you are probably more than well aware that this year was hard on commodities. For oil in particular, 2014 was terrible and saw the commodity lose a lot of its value. Due to the fact that oil is a leading commodity, its recent downward trend has acted as a weight that is dragging all other commodities, including gold and silver, with it.
Though the spot values of silver and gold will not finish the year too far from where they began it, investors will likely want to quickly forget this year. As we look ahead to what 2015 will bring, it is difficult for me to think that things will change for gold and silver. The fact of the matter is that the US economy is continuing to perform well, and so long as that continues and interest rate hikes are on the table, interest in gold and silver will only continue to diminish. With that being said, however, market conditions can change in an instant, and there is no way to say for sure that 2015 will be as hard on metals as 2014 was.
Wrap-Up
With this being our last post of 2014, it is only right that we look ahead to what the next year will bring. Over the course of the first few weeks of 2015, you can expect a plethora of economic data from all over the world. This data will be hawked over by investors who are eager to make investment moves after spending the better part of the last 2 weeks holding their positions. In addition to the next few weeks’ worth of data, investors are also beginning to take into consideration what the next European Central Bank and FOMC meetings have in store.
