Gold Spot Price Open: $1,392

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,413

Change in Gold Spot Price:+$21

Silver Spot Price Open: $22.50

Silver Spot Price Close: $22.78

Change in Silver Spot Price:+$0.28

Thursday saw both gold and silver make healthy gains thanks to a hefty serving of disappointing economic data from around the world. When all was said and done gold picked up a little over 20 dollars while silver's gains came incredibly close to 30 cents. It must be mentioned that at certain points throughout the day silver was trading at daily gains of over 50 cents which is flat-out impressive.

The first economic factor that did well to help propel gold and silver forward was a substantial decline in the value of Asian stocks. The Japanese Nikkei Index dropped over 5% on Thursday, a number that brings its weekly losses to over 15%. The large-scale selling of Asian stocks helped turn gold into a safe-haven asset and thus improved its value. With monetary policy in Asia, specifically Japan, as aggressive as it is, market watchers are unsure if these dismal results are an isolated event or the start of an ongoing issue. My bets are that these massive sell-offs are directly linked to the surge in Asian markets we have seen over the course of the past three weeks and that daily losses of 5% and more will not become commonplace anytime soon.

A fair amount of economic reports were due out on Thursday, the most heavily watched being the 2nd quarter GDP report and the weekly jobless claims report. Both reports came in worse than expected, though not by much. If anything, these negative reports helped precious metals out today, but their impact was undoubtedly a small one as Asian markets dominated news stories for much of the day.

If gold and silver can replicate today's results on the final day of the week, these past four or five days might go down as some of the most profitable days for precious metals in the entire month of May.