Gold Spot Price Open: $1,310
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,308
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$2
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.63
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.65
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.02
Gold and silver are experienced mixed results on Tuesday but have been, for the most part, trading near even all day. When all was said and done on Tuesday, gold lost about a dollar while silver improved by a few pennies.
The market was continuing to focus on the crisis in Ukraine today, but no major developments were reported overnight. Instead, we have been seeing much of the same as pro-Russian rebels continue to remain held up in towns and buildings across southern and eastern parts of the country.
Despite there not being a large amount of US economic data set to be released this week, there are a few EU reports to talk about. Today, the EU was given the most recent PMI reading and it ended up pushing the euro currency even higher while putting more pressure on the struggling US Dollar. April’s PMI reading came in at 54, up from a reading of 53.1 in March. Though a PMI reading may be as good as a foreign language to most investors, all that needs to be known is that any reading above 50 suggests that the economy in question is growing. Another report showed that retail sales had improved by .3% in April, another encouraging sign for the overall EU economy.
Declining prices are another major concern for Europe as deflation has been and continues to threaten the region. For this reason, investors will be paying close attention to the European Central Bank policy meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday of this week. It is widely expected that ECB president Mario Draghi will mention possible monetary stimulus measures in the wake of Thursday’s meeting, but I am not holding my breath. Investors have long been waiting to hear about possible monetary stimulus in Europe but have thus far been given very little insight into what, if anything, the ECB is planning to do.
