Gold Spot Price Open: $1,311
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,304
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$7
Silver Spot Price Open: $20.01
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.80
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.21
Gold and silver continued to trade lower on Wednesday as the marketplace was mostly devoid of any new pieces of economic data or geopolitical developments. When all was said and done, gold lost about 7 dollars while silver lost a little over 20 cents.
One of the biggest news stories today was that of Barclays revising their price forecast for gold by the end of 2014. Compared to original price forecasts of $1,205 by year’s end, Barclays now expects spot gold to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,250. While it is a good sign to see a major financial institution positively revise their outlook on gold for 2014, it is unnerving to see that forecast fall below current spot values.
In other news on Wednesday, the market was still digesting St. Louis Federal Reserve bank president James Bullard’s comments, which he made on Tuesday. Mr. Bullard made it clear that the US economy is continuing to grow and and he believes that it will continue to do so throughout the duration of 2014. He also went on to say that he expects the overall unemployment rate to fall below 6% by year’s end too. These are bold statements but are none too different than the ones spoken by Janet Yellen roughly a week ago. All of this Fed talk has given the US Dollar a boost which has put even more downward pressure on gold and silver.
Currently, gold is at a 6-week low and is hovering just above the all-important $1,300 threshold. Silver isn’t faring much better after having dropped below $20/ounce today. If the rest of the week is as uneventful as the first half has been, it is likely that spot gold and silver will only continue to drift downwards. With that being said, bargain-hunting buyers may be enough to help stabilize spot values and prevent them from declining further.
