Gold Spot Price Open: $1,348
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,368
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$20
Silver Spot Price Open: $20.84
Silver Spot Price Close: $21.34
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.50
After a somewhat rocky first few days of the week, spot gold and silver have turned things around and ended up making fairly large gains on Wednesday. When all was said and done, gold gained about 20 dollars while silver improved by 50 cents.
Tensions throughout Crimea remain high as the presence of pro-Russian forces seems to be growing by the day. The all important referendum, which will essentially decide whether Crimea remains part of Ukraine or if it rejoins the Russian Federation, is scheduled to take place on Sunday. Many feel as though the citizen vote on Crimea’s future is not even necessary as a majority of the region are ethnic-Russians and see a brighter future for themselves with Russia than they do in the currently unstable Ukraine. Regardless of what happens before or after the referendum this weekend, safe-haven demand for gold and silver will continue to benefit from rising tensions.
Another bullish factor for precious metals today was the downward price action of the US Dollar. By the afternoon, the greenback had fallen to a 2.5 year low against the euro currency. The Dollar trading lower is being attributed to a bleaker outlook on the Chinese economy. Also falling as a result of China’s recent performance was spot copper. Copper is used in a plethora of different industries and is purchased by China more than any other country in the world. There is little doubt that the eyes of the investing world will continue to pay close attention to any and all economic data from China in the coming weeks.
Looking ahead to next week, investors are already gearing up for the latest meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. The speculation has already begun as it is widely believed that Quantitative Easing will be delivered another $10 billion reduction.
