Gold Spot Price Open: $1,259
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,259
Change in Gold Spot Price: NO CHANGE
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.39
Silver Spot Price Close: $18.27
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.12
Metals lost some ground and momentum on Wednesday as investors gear up for what is expected to be a very strong employment report. When all was said and done, gold ended up closing the day where it began it while silver conceded about 12 cents. Platinum and palladium finished the day up, but neither metal gained much more than a dollar or two.
ADP Report, Dollar Index Pressure Metals
Right from the time markets opened on Wednesday, gold and silver were feeling pressure thanks to a USD Index that continues to recover. After being beaten down through the latter half of March, the greenback has managed to regain some of the ground lost to its rivals. So long as the prediction that interest rates will be hiked once more in June continues to gain momentum, conventional thought would lead us to believe that the Dollar has some more upside potential.
In addition to a stronger Dollar weighing on precious metals, we have seen investors take particular interest in an employment report that is, more often than not, most ignored. Today, the payrolls processor ADP released its reading on private-sector job growth during March, and the figures their report showed shocked many people. According to ADP, more than 263,000 private-sector jobs were added to the economy in March, which is a number that far exceeds the expected 180,000 jobs that most thought to have been created.
Normally, the ADP report does not get a lot of attention from investors, but being that we cannot stray too far from interest rate hike talk, it has been weighted a bit more heavily. Thanks to the much, much better than expected data, investors can grow just a tad more confident that perhaps the next rate hike announcement is coming sooner than later. What’s more, today’s ADP report gives people some reason to believe that the non-farms data, due out Friday, will also handily beat expectations. If this does, in fact, prove to be the case, precious metals may be looking at a rough end to this week.
FOMC Minutes Deemed to be a Miss
Being that we are so entrenched in the interest rate debate, it should come as no surprise that investors the world over would be paying attention to the release of the minutes from the FOMC’s most recent meeting. Though the meeting has long since passed, investors were hoping that the minutes would provide insights as to how specific members of the Fed felt about further rate hikes and when they might take place.
Unfortunately, the minutes were as bland as ever and did not really offer up much in the way of fresh information. Though there was plenty of support for further rate hikes to take place this year, that support did not come without contingencies. Generally speaking, most influential members of the Fed made it clear that the economic data stream—as it relates to the US economy—must remain as upbeat as it has been. So long as report after report remains in line with, or above expectations, the case for more rate hikes becomes more appealing. Understanding this, it makes sense that this week’s non-farms payrolls data report is so interesting to investors.
Wrap-Up
All things considered, the big news of the day came in the form of the ADP report. Now, investors and market watchers alike are pointing towards Friday, as that will be the day when we find out just how much the US labor market grew last month. The ADP report is keeping expectations elevated, but only time will tell if the actual data lives up to expectations or not.
