Gold Spot Price Open: $1,211

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,208

Change in Gold Spot Price: -$3

Silver Spot Price Open: $15.38

Silver Spot Price Close: $15.34

Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.04

Precious metals slid ever so slightly on Wednesday, but losses were kept to a minimum thanks to a weaker US Dollar. When all was said and done, gold declined by about three dollars while silver lost nearly 5 cents. Platinum and palladium finished the day mixed, though neither metal moved too far from where it opened.

Fed Minutes Made Public

One of the biggest stories of the day came in the form of the Fed minutes from their most recent meeting, which were released during the early afternoon. The minutes made it clear that the Fed was very much concerned with the state of the global stock market at the time of their last meeting. The minutes showed that the Fed listed tumultuous, unpredictable global markets as a major contributing factor behind interest rate hikes that are delayed.

The clear consensus is that most members of the Fed are not going to act in favor of additional interest rates until it is made indisputably clear that market conditions warrant. On top of it all, the Fed’s anticipated level of inflation is likely not going to live up to expectations thanks to crude oil prices that have slumped quite a bit over the past six months or so.

On top of the Fed minutes, some other housing data was dealt today. Housing starts for the month of January missed the mark, and that only adds to concerns that a number of factors, including higher interest rates, are going to threaten the US housing market as we move forward. According to a report from the Federal Reserve, January industrial production bested expectations by a long shot. Officially, industrial production during the month of January rose by just one tenth of a percentage point shy of 1%. The same figure fell during December, so it is fortunate to see some sectors of the US economy performing decently. Utilities output picked up the pace in January and was a major reason why today’s data showed such an impressive display in January.

Dollar Falls vs. Yen

In the wake of the Fed’s minutes, the US Dollar lost some value against the Yen. This is part of the reason why gold and silver did not see such large losses on the day.

To put it simply, the state of the Japanese economy can best be described as in shambles. With newly instituted negative interest rates just beginning to take hold, banks are slashing interest rates on new deposits and some insurers are refusing to sell plans. Life insurance policies are seeing the biggest and most immediate impact of the negative deposit rates, as major insurers are saying that they plan on either limiting sales of life insurance policies, or simply reducing the guaranteed payout tied to such policies. Either way, this is leaving a lot of frustrated people in its wake.

With savings interest rates hitting near all-time lows, people do not want to put their money in a bank and are quite frankly running out of places to conserve and protect their wealth. It will be interesting to see what direction the Japanese economy heads in once newly instituted changes begin to have a wider impact. Like most of Asia, Japan’s economy has been struggling recently and is not really looking like it will improve anytime soon. This is not unique to Asia, though, as we are seeing many of the same problems surface in other economies around the world.

Wrap-Up

The Fed minutes were perhaps the biggest happening of the day Wednesday, and they really did not tell investors anything they did not already know. We are not anticipating that interest rates will be raised for some time, and that much was more or less confirmed by today’s minutes. Looking ahead to tomorrow, one of the biggest pieces of economic data will be released in the form of the weekly jobless claims report. After first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell by a considerable margin last week, many will be hoping to see the same tomorrow.