Gold Spot Price Open: $1,323
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,311
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$12
Silver Spot Price Open: $21.95
Silver Spot Price Close: $21.48
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.47
Gold and silver spot values retreated today amid a quieter marketplace and in the wake of the latest FOMC minutes. When all was said and done, gold lost 12 dollars while silver was down by nearly 50 cents.
While the FOMC minutes were not entirely eventful, a few members did make it clear that it will take more than a small batch of weaker economic data to affect the ongoing tapering process. These sentiments were in stark contrast to the feelings held by most of the marketplace prior to this afternoon. In the wake of more than a month of seemingly nonstop sub-par economic data, a lot of the marketplace was convinced that the Fed will have to put a halt to the monthly tapering of Quantitative Easing. This news did not favor precious metals and likely helped contribute to their late afternoon losses.
In other news from around the world, violence in Ukraine’s capital of Kiev continues to grow more severe as protesters and police clash in the streets. As of earlier today, the death toll from these clashes was approaching 30 as leaders from around the world called upon Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych to put a stop to the senseless turmoil. While the unrest in Ukraine is just recently beginning to make major headlines, the protests have been going on in full force since this last November when Yanukovych decided to cut ties with the EU in exchange for a $15 billion bailout from Russia. As the violence worsens, the the overall stability of the large European country will be threatened. As is the case with most occurrences of civil unrest, safe-haven demand will likely increase as a result.
It will be interesting to see if metals can bounce back from today’s losses or if profit-taking will drive the spot values of gold and silver down even further.
