Gold Spot Price Open: $1,235
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,225
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$10
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.51
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.04
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.47
Precious metals ended the week on a sour note by posting losses that brought both gold and silver to the range where this week can be chalked up as a loss. When all was said and done, gold lost about 12 dollars while silver was down by more than thirty cents. Platinum and palladium also lost on the day, but platinum, having lost more than twenty dollars, was definitely the day’s bigger loser.
Jobs Data Surpasses Expectations
The US Dollar ended the week on a positive note thanks to non-farms figures that really worked in the greenback’s favor. After the mid-morning, the Labor Department came out and announced that about 215,000 non-farm jobs were created during the month of March. Expectations were for roughly 200,000 jobs to have been added, so it is easy to see why this figure was welcomed with open arms by investors. This also does well to counteract any negativity that might have been created thanks to Thursday’s less than impressive weekly jobless claims report.
Now, as jobs data does every time, the market is forced to ponder what the future holds for interest rates. Though most people are in agreement that April will see rates kept in the same position that they are in now, the real question is whether or not May will bring about the first rate increase in a while. If you ask James Bullard or Charles Evans, April or May seem like the perfect time to raise rates, but the fact of the matter is that Janet Yellen made it quite clear earlier in the week that she is not going to raise rates unless it is absolutely necessary to do so.
Regardless of what happens to interest rates in the future, we do know that today’s data played heavily in the favor of the greenback, which had been moving up and down all week. Now, with precious metals continuing to slide, it will be interesting to see just how far spot values drop by the time markets open up on Monday.
Other US Economic Data to Contend With
In other US economic news on Friday, it was reported that construction spending surprisingly took a downward turn during February. This is so surprising because most people thought that, with the dawn of Spring, builders would be out in full force. The news was not all bad, however, as January’s construction spending data was given a boost; something that more or less evened out the two reports.
Officially, the US economy is said to be on pace for .7% growth during the first quarter of 2016. Though this is not the best growth figure in the world, no one was expecting any massive quantities of growth. If you consider this, and most people are, it seems as though it would be impossible for the FOMC to justify raising rates in April. In many ways, the first-quarter data might not even be enough to justify raising rates in May either. Between now and when the FOMC convenes for their monthly meeting, you can expect that there will be a lot of speculation with regard to what will happen to interest rates.
Wrap-Up
All in all, this week was a bit of a wash for precious metals as both gold and silver finished right near, or right below where they began the week. As we flip the calendar page and begin the first full week of April trading on Monday, expect interest rate talk to continue to dominate. With the mixed messages we have been sent recently, investors are not quite sure what the next best move is to make, and the Fed is not making that decision process any easier with their contradictory statements.
