Gold Spot Price Open: $1,314
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,317
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$3
Silver Spot Price Open: $20.92
Silver Spot Price Close: $20.95
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.03
After falling victim to some profit-taking from recent gains earlier in the day, gold and silver spot values were able to finish the day having made some small gains. When all was said and done, gold picked up about three dollars while spot silver was able to add a few pennies, inching closer to the $21/ounce mark.
Despite profit-taking driving spot values down earlier in the day, gold and silver made it very clear that they still possess plenty of upside momentum. The focus of the market today continued to be the violence in Iraq, which has been escalating for more than two full weeks now. Over the weekend, it was reported that the Islamic militant group ISIS took control of even more Iraqi cities and towns. This news, as it has been doing, provided more fuel to the safe-haven demand fire. So long as violence in Iraq continues to escalate, the market is expecting safe-haven demand for metals to grow.
In other news, China’s HSBC preliminary manufacturing PMI was due out today and displayed the best reading we have seen so far this year. Compared to May’s reading of just over 49, June’s preliminary manufacturing PMI came in at 50.8. This might just perhaps be another sign that the Chinese economy is improving with each passing month. Due to China being the largest annual importer of gold and silver, the upbeat economic news was yet another bullish factor for gold and silver spot values.
There is not too much in the way of meaningful, market-impacting economic data due out this week, which in all likelihood means that the market will continue to focus on the violence in Iraq.