Gold Spot Price Open: $1,141
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,156
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$15
Silver Spot Price Open: $14.77
Silver Spot Price Close: $14.93
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.16
Gold and silver managed to continue gaining on Thursday amid a few reports from economies around the world. When all was said and done, gold gained another 15 dollars while silver appreciated by more than 15 cents. Platinum and palladium both also gained on the day, but platinum had the larger gains of the two.
Jobless Claims Rise by Nearly 10,000
After moving backward last week, this week’s jobless claims report showed that first-time applications for jobless benefits rose by more than 8,000. This brings the seasonally adjusted average of jobless claims up to 285,000. Even though last week’s report was revised backwards, the 4-week moving average of claims moved up by 2,000 this week. Seen as a more reliable gauge of the current strength of the employment market, the 4-week moving average is always weighted more heavily than the weekly report.
For gold and silver, the fact that the weekly jobless claims report came back showing more first-time claims for unemployment ended up working in spot values’ favor.
In other news, it was reported that worker productivity fell sharply during the last three months of 2015. According to the Labor Department, worker productivity on an annualized basis fell by 3%. Productivity is measured by the amount of worker output per hour, and it is not encouraging for economic growth to see productivity fall.
Weaker US Dollar Pushes Gold and Silver Upward
Gold and silver are continuing to benefit from uncertainty regarding global economic growth. Though crude oil prices were higher on Thursday, the trend remains the same and we continue to see investor concerns drive the marketplace into a state of worry.
Also today, the US Dollar moved backward by considerable margins thanks to the outlook regarding future interest rate hikes. Coming to terms with the fact that the Fed may raise rates at a much slower pace than originally anticipated, people are also coming to terms with the fact that the Dollar may remain a bit weaker for the time being. So long as interest rate hikes are not expected in the near future, it is highly likely that the Dollar will suffer as a result. Looking back, the past few months’ of the greenback’s performance has been relatively upbeat. This is the case because the Fed raised interest rates and got rid of loose monetary policy.
It will be interesting to see how precious metals react as we head further into February should the outlook on potential interest rate hikes remain the same. Now, the attention of the marketplace is shifting back to the crude oil market after a marginal recovery was posted this week. If crude oil can continue to gain—something that does not seem very likely—there is no saying what this means for gold and silver seeing as both metals have recently been benefitting from crude oil’s weakness.
Wrap-Up
Looking ahead to the final day of the week, the biggest piece of information on the minds of investors is the non-farms jobs report that will be made public tomorrow afternoon. At this point it is difficult to say what should be expected from this report. For many, they are not anticipating that January was particularly great for job growth, but it this is difficult to say for sure. For now, gold and silver can reflect on a largely positive week, but that could all change by day’s end on Friday.
