Gold Spot Price Open: $1,206
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,202
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$4
Silver Spot Price Open: $16.33
Silver Spot Price Close: $16.29
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.04
Precious metals continued along their gradual decline on Wednesday mostly thanks to a noticeably stronger USD Index. When all was said and done, losses were kept to a minimum with gold having lost about 4 dollars and silver declining by just a few cents. Platinum and palladium also lost on the day, but only by a few dollars apiece.
Outside Markets Continue to Work Against Precious Metals
The day’s big news and major contributor to the losses incurred by metals was a USD Index that struck an 11.5 month high. As is typically the case, precious metals moved in the opposite direction of the greenback, though not as drastically as some might have expected. Now that we have moved through Wednesday though, it is clear to see that the market bears are slowly but surely taking control and driving spot values downward. Gold’s spot price is in jeopardy of once again moving below the $1,200 threshold.
Another factor working against precious metals this week has been crude oil prices. Though spot values moved upward a bit today, the overall technical posture of crude oil is particularly weak, and this brings about a burden for all commodities. Unless crude oil proves that it has, indeed reach a price bottom, the weak posture of the commodity will continue to weigh on gold, silver, and all precious metals.
US Employment Data Trickles In
Though the US Labor Department’s non-farm payrolls report is not due out until later this week, the market was dealt an appropriate precursor today in the form of the ADP employment report for February. Though the ADP employment report is always taken into consideration by investors, it is often outweighed by the Labor Department’s report.
According to ADP’s report, however, just over 212,000 new jobs were created by the US economy during February. Expectations for this particular report were for an increase in jobs of 215,000, so today’s figures were not all that big of a miss. Due out Friday, the US non-farm payrolls report is already being touted as the most important piece of the economic data puzzle for the month of March. As it stands, conservative estimates are that non-farm payrolls in the United States grew by 240,000 last month. For gold and silver, anything less than 240,000 will likely help propel safe-haven demand, though a payrolls growth figure of more than 240,000 may push spot values down even further.
India, China Make Further Monetary Policy Alterations
During the overnight hours, India’s central bank made the surprising announcement that they, like many other global central banks, would be lowering interest rates.
In other news from that part of the world, China made additional changes to their monetary policy by easing up on borrowing costs associated with businesses. Even though China just recently announced rate cuts of their own, word on the street is that they may be making even further changes sometime not too far down the road. At the present moment in time, the shape of global monetary policy is shifting, seemingly with each passing hour. With each country trying to economically outperform the next, I bet that we will only see more monetary policy shifts as the year plays out.
Wrap-Up
Looking ahead to the last few days of the week, all eyes are slowly but surely shifting to the release of the latest non-farm payrolls report, due out Friday. Additionally, the eyes of the market will be kept on the USD simply because it has done particularly well both today and this week. Should the Dollar’s momentum continue to build, precious metals may very well be destined for further losses.
