Gold Spot Price Open: $1,221
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,220
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$1
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.33
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.19
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.14
Monday was a slower day thanks to the Easter hangover, but the fact of the matter is that precious metals are continuing to experience a lot of selling pressure. When all was said and done, gold lost about two dollars while silver fell by almost tfifeen cents. Platinum and palladium both also finished down on the day, but neither metal declined by much more than five dollars.
Bargain Hunters Help Keep Gold Above $1,200/ounce
As was expected, heavy losses incurred over the past few weeks have brought out bargain-hunters looking to take advantage of temporarily weak metals prices. Despite suffering some small losses today, gold is still managing to hang on above the key psychological $1,200/ounce threshold. Looking ahead to the rest of the week, it will be interesting to see what happens to the precious metals market. I would not be surprised to see both gold and silver facing more selling pressure in the wake of a strengthening Dollar and increasingly optimistic view towards April rate hikes, but in the same breath, gold and silver have been holding pretty steady at or near current price points for most of the year so far.
Crude oil continued to lose momentum on Monday, and this caused a bit of havoc across global stock markets. By the end of the day, US stocks finished mixed, as did stocks across Europe. So long as crude oil continues to exhibit signs of weakness, it is going to be difficult for stocks, especially energy stocks, to gain much of a foothold.
In addition to the continued focus on crude oil prices, the US was also dealt some economic data on Monday that handily beat expectations. According to the data, pending home sales in February rose by roughly 3.5%, bringing the index’s reading to a reading of little more than 109. This shows that the US housing market is continuing to show signs of strength, and is yet one more factor that may tell the Fed that April is a decent time to enact another rate hike. With that being said, no one is entirely confident that a rate hike is coming next month. In reality, a good majority of investors are convinced that May may be the absolute earliest juncture at which we see rates climb at all.
Dollar Gains Against Yen, Other Currencies
The greenback made nice strides forward to begin the week. This was something that did not help precious metals at all, and actively worked to keep investors interested in selling gold and silver. Initially, the USD Index was seeing the greenback gain against most rival currencies, but before long a downwardly revised report ended up pulling the Dollar from near 2-week highs.
Officially, the Commerce Department revised January’s consumer spending figures down .1%, and this had a negative impact on what investors think about the possibility of April or May interest rate hikes. This single report is not going to be enough to sway the Fed one way or another, but as we receive more and more first-quarter data, the picture is being painted and it is showing a US economy that performed somewhat poorly through the first three months of the year. With the end of March fast-approaching, expect an increasing number of economic reports to be dealt with each passing day.
Wrap-Up
All in all, trading volumes were light on the day seeing as most people had not yet returned from their Easter holiday. As the week wears on, the number of markets-moving economic data will increase as the end of the month and quarter draws ever nearer. In addition, the dawn of April will also see interest rate speculation pick up considerably ahead of the Fed’s monthly meeting.
