Gold Spot Price Open: $1,207
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,190
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$17
Silver Spot Price Open: $17.19
Silver Spot Price Close: $16.83
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.36
Precious metals continued to slide to open up the new week of trading, though things were generally quiet across the global marketplace. When all was said and done, gold lost more than 15 dollars while silver finished down by more than 35 cents. Platinum and palladium also finished down on the day, with platinum losing more than twenty dollars while palladium had more modest losses of about 1 or 2 dollars.
USD Index Surges to Open Trading
Straight from the time markets opened on Tuesday the US Dollar was seen making nice moves forward, building on gains made last week. By the time the day was through, the greenback index moved forward by more than 1% against rival currencies. The Greek debt crisis is what is coming to the aid of the Dollar, as currency traders ditch the Euro in search of safe-haven with the Dollar. Against the Japanese Yen, the Dollar today hit an unprecedented 8-year high while hitting a 1-month high against the Euro.
As far as longer-term outlooks are concerned, the US Dollar is beginning to take on a more attractive appeal for investors. Many market experts suggest that today and last week’s movement forward could be the beginning of a longer rally. Of course, it is going to take more than a few days’ worth of gains to prove that the USD is, in fact, moving forward, but early indications are not looking favorable at all for gold and silver.
Greece On Verge of Going Cashless
After the long holiday weekend in the United States, investors came back to the news that Greece may soon be out of funds. According to official releases from the Greek government, Greece will assuredly run out of available funds prior to their next debt repayment coming due. This has been a topic of discussion for some time now, and the belief of many has proven to be exactly what is going on. If Greece’s negotiators are unable to strike a deal with EU/IMF creditors, we may be witnessing the last days of Greece as a European Union member.
As it stands, Greece is in the midst of talks with lenders about extending the time the country has to pay, but the deal would be contingent on a complete overhaul of the Greek economy–something their new government is not too keen on. Because of this fundamental disagreement between the two sides, very little progress towards a deal has been made over the past few weeks. With the end of May fast-approaching, and Greece’s bank account consistently diminishing, something will have to be done, and soon.
This is becoming a Greek problem that affects far more than Greece alone too, because leading European Central Bankers have made it clear that the anxiety caused by Greek debt talks could very well diminish the outlook of trading in Europe in general. This type of attitude shift could possibly mean a death blow for certain European equity markets. Of course, as the week plays out you can bet that we are going to continue paying close attention to anything and everything stemming from Greek debt talks.
Wrap-Up
Though it is already Tuesday, the marketplace has not gotten off to a fast start at all. Many Americans have opted to extend their extended holiday vacations, so the movement we witnesses today may look nothing like what we will witness tomorrow. Despite the slow nature of today, the same cannot be said for the rest of the week as investors the world over have plenty to keep them occupied. In addition to focus on Greek debt talks, investors will also be beginning to turn their focus to May’s FOMC meeting, though it is not widely expected that that meeting will produce much of anything worth talking about.