Gold Spot Price Open: $1,250
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,244
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$6
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.87
Silver Spot Price Close: $18.81
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.06
Gold and silver continued to feel downside technical pressure on Monday as a result of a lack of any bullish fundamental inputs and a less than appealing trading week ahead. When all was said and done on Monday, gold lost about 6 dollars while silver declined by little more than a nickel.
Gold and silver were dealt a blow shortly before US markets opened due to a strong US Dollar coming in the wake of a sub-par EU manufacturing report for May. The EU’s May manufacturing PMI came in at a reading of just over 52, down from April’s reading of 53.4. While any reading over 50 is indicative of a growing sector of the economy, the weaker data still put pressure on the euro currency. From an economic data standpoint, the next few days will prove to be quite busy. That said, no piece of economic data will be more highly anticipated than the European Central Bank’s monthly policy meeting, scheduled to take place on Thursday.
As has been the case for the past few weeks, many market analysts and investors are expecting the ECB to announce fresh monetary stimulus in the wake of their meeting on Thursday. This news is of bearish nature for precious metals simply because new stimulus is expected to put more pressure on the euro currency which will, in turn, give the US Dollar even more momentum. The prospect of an even stronger US Dollar coupled with the growing risk-appetite exhibited by investors will, in all likelihood, not bode well for precious metals spot values.
Finally, rounding out the day today was the United States’ ISM manufacturing report for May. An initial report released earlier in the morning showed weaker than expected data, but this report was later proven to be errant. When mistakes were corrected, the ISM data came back almost right in line with market expectations. The errant report worked to ease the pressure being felt by metals but by the time things were corrected, any gains made in the morning were more or less mitigated and reversed.