Gold Spot Price Open: $1,339
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,340
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$1
Silver Spot Price Open: $20.92
Silver Spot Price Close: $20.86
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.08
Gold and silver moved in inverse directions on Monday but finished the day experiencing similar fates, ending not too far away from where they started the day. When all was said and done, gold picked up about a dollar while silver lost close to a dime.
Putting some pressure on spot gold and silver in the early parts of the day was a particularly weak batch of economic data from China released over the weekend. On the table first was report claiming that Chinese exports declined in February by 18% year on year. As if that wasn’t enough, the $32 billion trade surplus realized in January was done away with and transformed into a February deficit of more than $20 billion. As is typically the case when China’s economy seems to be sputtering, this news put heavy downward selling pressure on gold and silver.
Luckily, however, the damage incurred by the weak Chinese data was undone by investor short-covering and bargain-hunting after spot gold and silver finished the week in disappointing fashion last Friday.
The crisis in Ukraine is still lingering in the background and seems to be changing shape with the passing of each and every hour. Over the weekend there were numerous reports and video evidence of unmarked pro-Russian troops moving further into Crimea and arbitrarily storming buildings and compounds along the way. We are only 6 days away from the vote in which Crimeans are asked whether they want to rejoin the Russian Federation or remain part of Ukraine. If you can recall, Crimea’s parliament unanimously voted to rejoin Russia last week, a vote that is expected to matched by the citizens of Crimea.
Should Russia try to take over complete control of the region, there is no saying how Ukraine and the rest of the world will react. For this reason we will continue to keep an attentive eye on any and all developments coming out of Ukraine.
