Gold Spot Price Open: $1,316
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,324
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$8
Silver Spot Price Open: $21.72
Silver Spot Price Close: $21.88
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.16
Gold and silver finished the day Friday in more or less the same positions they were in at day’s end on Thursday. When all was said and done, gold gained about 8 dollars while silver was able to pick up more than fifteen cents. By the end of the day today, gold and silver spot values had both improved from where they were at the beginning of the week.
As opposed to what was going on a week ago with US equities, this 5-day trading session saw most stocks make significant gains. Despite this, gold and silver still seem to have the near-term technical momentum as worries with regard to the strength of the US economy continue to circulate. Today yielded a disappointing US economic report in the form of the most recent US housing data. Highlighting the report was the fact that sales of previously owned homes declined in January to its lowest point in nearly 12 months. This news, among other pieces of recent sub-par data, have been part of the cause for the revival of safe-haven demand for gold and silver.
During the overnight hours yet another truce was called between protesters and police forces in Ukraine’s capital of Kiev. Protests in the large Eastern European city have been going on for months but have just recently boiled over into a situation that is quickly deteriorating. As the tensions in Kiev continue to grow, one can only wonder how stable this truce really is. What is for certain, however, is that the ongoing events in Ukraine are fueling safe-haven demand for precious metals.
In the wake of recent gains made by precious metals, it is important to know where market experts stand on the long-term prospects of both gold and silver. The past few weeks’ gains have been encouraging for many, but may have also deluded a lot of investors into thinking gold and silver will perform this well for the rest of the year. Westpac Banking, in a report released on Thursday, forecasted that the spot value of gold would end 2014 just barely over $1,000/ounce. Goldman Sachs echoed Westpac’s report, forecasting that gold would finish the year right around $1,050/ounce.
The forecasts aren’t all bad, however, as UBS thinks spot gold will finish somewhere between $1,200 and $1,300. As we head into the final week of February, you can expect investors to continue to closely monitor any and all economic data out of the US and China.
