Gold Spot Price Open: $1,337
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,337
Change in Gold Spot Price: NO CHANGE
Silver Spot Price Open: $21.21
Silver Spot Price Close: $21.22
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.01
Gold and silver did little moving on what ended up being a fairly quiet Wednesday. When all was said and done, gold closed the day in the same position it was in when markets opened while silver was able to gain a single penny.
Today’s major headline was that of yet another disappointing slate of US jobs data. It was reported that only about 139,000 jobs were added in February, roughly 11,000 shy of market expectations. Though the data was not too much weaker than market expectations, it does mark the third consecutive month this year that the US has seen job growth fall below what the market had expected.
In other news from around the world, China was reported as having increased their forecast for economic growth this year. Now, the Chinese are expecting their economy to grow by a healthy 7.5%. With most recent Chinese economic data being sub-par at best, it was surprising to many to see such an upbeat outlook on economic growth for the duration of the year. This piece of news, as well as the downbeat jobs data from the US, worked as bullish factors for precious metals.
While there were plenty of bullish underlying factors for metals today, increased investor risk-appetite as a result of calming tensions in Ukraine more or less counteracted them. US equities traded up for a majority of the day and stole the spotlight from gold and silver.
As we head into the final two days of the week, investors will continue to keep an eye on the situation in Ukraine as it plays out. There are still talks of the US and other Western powers placing sanctions on Russia for their actions this week, but these talks are more preliminary than anything at this point. So far, the US is the only country seriously planning on taking action against Russia, as the EU has taken a step back from the situation it seems.
