Gold Spot Price Open: $1,212
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,233
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$21
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.40
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.43
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.03
After mostly struggling through the first half of the week, precious metals jumped forward on Thursday and made nice gains. When all was said and done, gold gained more than 20 dollars while silver picked up about three cents or so. Platinum and palladium exhibited upside potential for much of the day, but finished having not changed all that much at all.
Weekly Jobless Claims Fall Again
For a second straight week, weekly jobless claims in the United States were reported as having fallen from the week before. Last week saw the total number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits fall below 270,000, and this week that number moved downward even further. When the figures hit the presses earlier this morning, it was reported that first-time claims fell by 7,000 last week, bringing the seasonally adjusted average of claims to about 262,000. What’s more, the 4-week moving average of jobless claims fell by 8,000. This was nothing more than icing on the cake as the 4-week moving average is seen as the most accurate window into how the employment sector is performing at any given point in time.
Today’s data was so surprising, and in many ways unexpected, because most experts had called for first-time claims to rise back above 270,000. Rather, we saw the exact opposite happen on a day when the US employment sector was shown in a respectable light. Now, if only most other sectors of the economy were able to replicate what happened today. Unfortunately, even the upbeat employment data made public today was not enough to prevent major US stock indexes from declining.
For precious metals, the fuel for a move higher, according to many, is for interest rate talk to be escalated. When gold and silver’s rally began back in December, it sprung right off the back of speculation that the Fed may not raise interest rates as consistently as once believed. Now that that much is more or less a fact, experts are saying that the view on interest rates needs to take another downward turn for gold and silver to see a rally like we witnessed a week ago. Luckily for precious metals investors, the global economy has not much improved over the last 7 days and is quite frankly looking shakier all the time. It will be interesting to see if this is a trend that continues into March and the Spring.
OECD Slashing Growth Expectations for North America
Rather expectedly, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has cut its growth expectations for the United States and Canada from the beginning of this year to the beginning of 2018. In addition to slashing expectations, the organization also urged governments to aid economic growth in any way that they can.
In its report, the OECD said that “global macroeconomic policy, comprising monetary, fiscal and structural actions, must become more supportive of demand and resource reallocation. Experience to date suggests that reliance on monetary policy alone has been insufficient to deliver satisfactory growth, so that greater use of fiscal and structural levers is required.”
At this point, one is left to wonder just how long it will be until global economic conditions begin to show marked signs of improvement.
Wrap-Up
Thursday was one of the busier days we have seen this week, but all in all was not very busy at all. Looking ahead to the final day of this week, it will be interesting to see what direction precious metals head in. Today’s rally was nice to see, but one cannot help but ponder whether profit-taking will rear its head again tomorrow.
