Gold Spot Price Open: $1,079
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,077
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$2
Silver Spot Price Open: $14.43
Silver Spot Price Close: $14.22
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.21
Gold and silver continued their respective slides on Tuesday as market conditions remain more or less the same now as they have been for quite some time. When all was said and done on Tuesday, gold lost about 2 dollars while silver fell by another 20 cents or so. Platinum and palladium finished the day mixed, but did not end the day too far from where they started it.
Gold’s Losses Pared Thanks to Lower USD Index
The US Dollar backtracked a bit on Tuesday and, as a result, gold and silver’s losses were mostly kept to a minimum. With that being said, crude oil fell to a new low today and that was a major part of the reason behind why gold was unable to post any gains whatsoever. As has been made plainly clear over the past few weeks, the price action of gold and silver is being heavily influenced by outside markets such as US stock markets, the USD Index, and crude oil.
Crude oil is something that has recently caught the attention of global investors because it is losing value at every turn. Now priced at under $37/barrel, the leading commodity is not looking like making gains anytime soon. Though there are a host of factors currently working against the progress of crude oil, today’s losses came mostly due to the fact that Chinese export data remains weak, and so too does the outlook on Chinese economic growth.
Weak Chinese Data Brings About Renewed Global Growth Concerns
For China, November was another month of poor economic data as it was reported during pre-market hours that exports out of the country fell for the fifth consecutive month during November. On an annualized basis, Chinese exports during November fell by nearly 4%. Though China’s problems are assuredly their own, there remains worries that an economic growth slowdown in such a prominent economy may end up affecting other economies from around the world.
Thanks to the weak Chinese data, stocks in the US declined, oil prices declined, and precious metals were forced lower as well. As far as economic data is concerned, this week is going to remain mostly light, however the remainder of the 5-day trading session will bring about some corporate sales reports and producer price reports. What this means for gold and silver is that both metals are likely to be doomed to trading between a well-defined range of small gains and small losses barring any significant change in the economic and geopolitical news stream. This is especially true so long as crude oil prices continue to fall, which they are expected to.
Wrap-Up
Tuesday was another mostly quiet day across the global marketplace and precious metals suffered as a result of that. As redundant as I may sound, there isn’t much changing across the global marketplace that suggests gold and silver may post sustained gains anytime soon. Next week is what investors are already looking forward to as the Federal Open Market Committee is set to hold their two-day policy meeting, after which it is expected to be announced that interest rates in the US will be risen for the first time in more than 8 years.
