Gold Spot Price Open: $1,271
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,274
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.77
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.91
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.14
Gold and silver spot values traded sideays for a majority of the day but were eventually able to add some marginal gains by the time markets closed. When all was said and done, gold picked up a few dollars while spot silver posted gains of nearly fifteen cents.
The big news of the day came in the form of the FOMC’s announcement that they will continue to taper Quantitative Easing by $10 billion per month. This decision was widely expected by the market and, as such, ended up having little to no impact on the spot values of precious metals. Now, the market is anxiously awaiting what Fed chairperson Janet Yellen has to say in her press conference with members of the media.
As you probably could have guessed by now, the violence in Iraq continues to be stealing most of the market’s attention. It is currently fueling a growing sense of risk-aversion which, in truth, is one of the only factors giving gold and silver spot values a boost this week. As recently as earlier this morning, it was reported that ISIS militants have taken over large portions of Iraq’s largest oil refinery. Such reports sent the value of crude oil to multi-month highs as everyone fears a decreased amount of oil being exported from Iraq over the course of the next few weeks or more.
Apart from investors patiently awaiting what Janet Yellen has to say, there isn’t much in the way of big economic data due out to close the week. Tomorrow will play host to the weekly jobless claims report, but it is widely expected that this will have little to no impact on the spot values of gold and silver. For this reason we will continue to keep a close eye on any and all developments in Iraq and Ukraine as they will more than likely have an immediate impact on the spot values of gold and silver.
