Gold Spot Price Open: $1,228
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,233
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$5
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.29
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.46
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.17
Precious metals gained ever so slightly on Thursday, mostly capitalizing on a weaker US Dollar for the first time all week. When all was said and done, gold managed to add about five dollars while silver picked up more than fifteen cents. Gains made by platinum and palladium were more modest, but they were gains nonetheless.
Dollar Backs Down, Gold Gains
Thanks to a persisting general consensus that additional interest rate hikes are not going to come anytime in the near future, the US Dollar has backed down, paving the way for precious metals to regain some of what has been lost through the latter part of March. The USD Index, which measures the greenback against a basket of rival currencies, sunk to a 5.5 month low today and that prompted a lot of bargain-hunting buying in the precious metals market. For the last few weeks, the spot values of gold and silver have more or less consistently moved downward, and we are finally beginning to see the market take advantage of such low prices.
Crude oil is also back to its old tricks, as it led most commodities downward on Thursday and for much of this week. Crude oil continues to suffer from a supply-glut that will not simply go away. Despite their best efforts, OPEC nations have failed to make an impact when it comes to cutting oil production, and with Iran back being able to sell to Western markets, any moves made by OPEC are likely to be in vain. All of this turmoil is really only helping gold and silver, especially at a time when spot values are so much lower than they were at the beginning of the month. Now, investors are gearing up for Friday’s jobs data, where it is not clear what we can expect. Modest job growth is what is being echoed by economic experts, but no one seems to agree on what “modest” actually means. After the midweek ADP report really failed to impress, most people are thinking that tomorrow’s non-farms data will do the same.
Jobless Claims Rise
Naturally, the last week of the month is always important for those who want to get a better idea of what the employment sector of the United States looks like. Today, the Labor Department reported that first-time claims for unemployment benefits climbed last week, giving an even more ominous tone to tomorrow’s non-farms data.
For the second time in little more than a month, weekly jobless claims came in at over 270,000. It was reported by the Labor Department that such claims rose by more than 10,000 last week, bringing the new seasonally-adjust average well above 270,000 and even further from the target of less than 250,000. This has people thinking that perhaps tomorrow’s data is not going to be very good. If that does prove to be the case, you can expect those who think interest rates are going to be raised in April or May to fade into the background very quickly.
Wrap-Up
All in all, today wa dominated by speculation as to the strength of tomorrow’s jobs data. With so many people absolutely obsessed with how many jobs were created last month, investors do not have much time to talk about other things. Should tomorrow’s data miss the mark, you can expect that gold and silver very well may benefit and finish the week on a positive note. As it stands, preliminary expectations are that non-farm jobs grew to the tune of 200,000. Whether we hit or miss that mark, however, remains to be seen.
