Gold Spot Price Open: $1,377
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,388
Change in Gold Spot Price:+$11
Silver Spot Price Open: $21.72
Silver Spot Price Close: $21.82
Change in Silver Spot Price:+$0.10
After yesterday’s turbulent world marketplace shook things up a bit, Wednesday greeted precious metals with a welcomed calmness. During the relatively calm day gold picked up about 11 dollars while silver traded closes to even having only picked up about a single dime on the day.
Bond yields have been rising with some regularity all over the world lately. Yesterday we saw Greek bond yields jump about 10% while today in Europe we saw German bond yields hit their highest point since this past February. It isn’t only Europe that is seeing a rise in bond yields either as US Treasury bonds have also hit multi-month highs recently.
Today we received some positive economic news out of Europe as it was reported that euro zone industrial production is up by about half a percentage point from March to April. This is the third straight increase in the month to month industrial production output, which is causing some people to question whether or not Europe is really in the dire straights it seems as though they are in. It must be kept in mind that while industrial production is a major part of any large economy, it is not the only number we should be looking at. Over the past few months very few good things can be said about European economies, and that lack of good news should be more alarming than an increase in industrial production is pleasing.
The USD Index was weaker today, which is likely part of the reason gold was able to make the gains it did. This is probably not going to come as a surprise but the Japanese Nikkei Index was back down in the dumps on Wednesday, bringing their decline from last month’s record highs to about 16% as of now. This number is better than the 20%+ we saw the decline hit last week, but very far from encouraging. No news to report out of China today as the country was taking the day off in observance of a public holiday.
As we head into the final two days of this week the hope, as it always is, remains that we see gold surpass the $1,400 mark by the end of the day on Friday. There are not many major economic stories to look forward to on Thursday or Friday, so investors will keep their eyes on both currencies and stock markets.
