Gold Spot Price Open: $1,275

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,291

Change in Gold Spot Price: +$16

Silver Spot Price Open: $20.15

Silver Spot Price Close: $20.26

Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.11

Gold and silver built upon yesterday’s gains on another light day of trading on Tuesday. When all was said and done, gold gained about 16 dollars while silver made gains of a little more than a dime.

For the second day in a row, the marketplace both home and abroad experienced a much quieter atmosphere. There were no major pieces of economic data released today, something that will end up being a recurring theme this week. What did catch the attention of the marketplace, however, was an address to Congress given by the newly appointed head of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen. This was the first such address Yellen has given since taking over Ben Bernanke’s role as Fed chairperson, and the market tuned in for obvious reasons.

While investors and market analysts alike were hoping to be given some insight into whether the Fed is thinking about altering their tapering plans or not, Ms. Yellen’s speech disappointed in that regard. Her remarks ended up toeing the line between bullish and bearish for precious metals, and in the end had very little affect on gold and silver spot values. Ms. Yellen remains optimistic about the state of the US’ economy despite the recent batch of sub-par data we have seen over the past two weeks.

Safe-haven demand for gold was reported as being on the rise in China, a surprising report given that the Chinese just returned from a holiday yesterday. In all, safe-haven demand for gold and silver is on the rise not only in China and the US, but in most other parts of the world as well. If poor equity performance continues to develop into a lasting trend, gold and silver will likely continue to benefit. As it stands, gold is approaching the $1,300 threshold, something it hasn’t done for well over three months. If metals can perform this well amid a market with few new fundamental inputs, it will be interesting to see how well they do should bullish factors for precious metals arise in the near future. One potential factor that may give gold and silver a boost this week is the weekly jobless claims report, due out on Thursday.