Gold Spot Price Open: $1,199
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,199
Change in Gold Spot Price: NO CHANGE
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.51
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.34
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.17
Precious metals stalled a bit on Wednesday after performing very well over the last few weeks. When all was said and done, gold finished the day about where it started while silver managed to lose more than 15 cents. Platinum and palladium also lost on the day, with their losses being more negligible than anything else.
Yellen Speaks Regarding Threats to US Economy
Janet Yellen, chair of the Federal Reserve, spoke on Wednesday regarding the multitude of threats that face the US economy and its prospects for growth. If outside factors are successful in inhibiting the growth of the US economy, Yellen made it clear that the Fed may have to alter the course of further interest rate hikes. In many respects this has happened already as the ending of 2015 and beginning of this year have shown that the global economy is just barely inching along.
Yellen was giving her semiannual report to Congress, and in her speech she highlighted the fact that China’s poor performance is sending a ripple effect through the rest of the global economy. China’s weak currency and expectations for 2016 growth that pale in comparison to earlier estimates are just two reasons why global equity markets have been sent into a state of shock recently. Basically, when it comes down to it, Yellen made it clear that while the Fed does intend on gradually raising interest rates, they are not sticking to one solid agenda, but are rather assessing things as they come up.
For this reason, many people are not exactly expecting interest rates to be touched at the Fed’s next policy meeting. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find someone who knows what they are talking about tell you that they are anticipating rate hikes anytime in the near future so long as economic conditions remain as they have been.
Gold, Silver Weather Corrective Pullbacks After Recent Gains
Wednesday brought about a bit of a corrective pullback for precious metals after doing so well throughout the whole of last week and the early parts of this 5-day trading session. Though we are seeing an uptick in risk-appetite on Wednesday, the overall attitude of investors is one that desires to avoid risk at all costs. The uncertain nature of global equity markets, which have stabilized a bit today, is keeping investors increasingly interested in safe-haven assets such as gold and silver.
As we head into the latter stages of this week, the real tests will be whether gold and silver can continue along their recent uptrend or if recent price points are as high as the rally will take them.
Tomorrow is set to bring about the most recent reading on weekly jobless claims in the United States, and as it always does this report will catch the undivided attention of the marketplace, especially due to the lack of other pertinent economic data. Clearly, the fact that China is out of the equation due to the celebration of the Lunar New Year is causing the marketplace to be a bit quieter this week than normal.
Wrap-Up
On the whole, Wednesday was a quiet day that did not bring about too much in the way of fresh talking points for investors. Janet Yellen’s address to Congress was the big news of the day, but it did not end up having too much of an impact on the overall attitude of the investing world. Looking ahead to the last few days of the week, there isn’t much on the slate for investors to get excited about. The only real tangible piece of economic data will be delivered tomorrow in the form of the most recent weekly jobless claims report from the United States.
