Gold Spot Price Open: $1,247
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,250
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.91
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.87
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.04
Precious metals, despite falling to chart-consolidation on Monday, regained a bit of their footing thanks to some unexpected events which unfolded in earlier this morning. When all was said and done, gold managed to pick up a few dollars while silver lost a few pennies. Platinum and palladium made gains on the day, but platinum was the bigger winner, having picked up about ten dollars.
Brussels Terror Attacks Sparks Safe-Haven Demand
The biggest news event today was a series of explosions that rocked the Belgian city of Brussels. In the early morning hours, it was first reported that a few explosions occurred at the Zaventem International Airport. The initial blasts reportedly only killed a few people, but the death toll quickly rose as investigators and rescue crews arrived on the scene.
Then, only a short while later, there was a separate blast that occurred in an underground metro station. In the wake of the blasts at least 30 people have been killed with hundreds more injured. At this point in time it is unsure who is responsible for the attacks, but many media outlets are, of course, quick to blame Islamic militants. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but that much has yet to be verified. While search and rescue crews comb through the damage and try to locate survivors, more information will stream in about who is responsible, how it was planned, and how exactly it was carried out. There is currently a massive manhunt out looking for surviving attackers, though it is also unclear how many of those there might be.
In the wake of the blasts, spot values of precious metals shot up almost instantaneously. This is what typically happens in the event of a major terror event, and I would not be surprised to see spot values take part in an upward trend tomorrow. While there was definitely safe-haven demand for metals in the wake of the attacks, the global market’s reaction was not necessarily panicky as stock markets saw only mild selling pressure. As the week moves on I imagine that these attacks will be the main focus for the whole world, but it will be interesting to see how they affect equity markets as well as the spot values of precious metals.
US Flash PMI Viewed Positively
Early indications point towards the US manufacturing sector being on the brink of contraction as preliminary PMI numbers really failed to impress.
Markit, a private research firm, released their preliminary PMI Index for March and the results were less than impressive. According to the data, March’s PMI was up to 51.4 in March compared to a reading of 51.3 in February. While the fact that March’s data was better than February’s might lead you to believe that today’s news was good news, the fact of the matter is that that figure needs to be well over the 50 mark for investors to brush aside worries of contraction. In case you are unaware, a PMI reading below 50 suggests that the sector in question is experiencing contraction.
The US manufacturing sector is still definitely growing, but the overriding fear is that the pace of growth is falling off considerably. And as the rest of the global economy lags behind, investors can’t help but wonder if the US economy is next.
Wrap-Up
Naturally, as we open up tomorrow, the biggest event on the minds of investors and the world will be making sense of what happened in Brussels today. As investigators and rescuers piece together the damage, we will hopefully gain a clearer image of what happened and why it happened. I do anticipate gold and silver continuing to receive some upside support, however how strong that support ends up being all depends on how investors feel about the safety of Belgium and the rest of Europe.
