Gold Spot Price Open: $1,288
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,285
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.43
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.46
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.03
Gold and silver moved in opposite directions by day’s end and were feeling selling pressure for a majority of the day. When all was said and done, gold lost about three dollars while silver picked up a few pennies.
US equities have been rallying over the past few trading sessions and were trading sharply up for a second day this week. As US equities continue to build up momentum precious metals are taking hits at every turn. Stronger US stocks in conjunction with an improving US Dollar are two factors hurting gold and silver over the past few days. There were a few pieces of US housing data released today, including the monthly house price index as well as existing home sales, and they both ended up giving the USD index a bit of a boost.
A report released out of China early this morning said that the Chinese central bank lowered the reserve requirement ratio for more rural banks in an effort to stimulate the floundering agricultural sector. This stimulus measure does not affect bigger banks in larger cities but is one step in the right direction for a central bank which has done nothing to help resolve its economy’s compounding problems. While this move did little in the way of affecting precious metals spot values today, China’s April manufacturing PMI, expected to be published tomorrow, is likely to capture the wider marketplace’s attention.
Tensions across Ukraine have deescalated to some extent as a result of reports claiming that Russia and the United States have agreed to resolve the situation via peaceful means. In general, Ukraine is still very volatile but will be overlooked by the market so long as there are no reports of widespread violence. Having said that, however, pro-Russia militiamen still have control of many buildings and towns across Ukraine’s eastern half and are not too keen on simply giving up.
