Gold Spot Price Open: $1,244
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,254
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$10
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.87
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.11
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.24
Gold and silver were both able to make healthy gains on Thursday despite the European Central Bank meeting going exactly that way most investors thought it would. When all was said and done, gold was able to pick up roughly ten dollars while silver’s gains were just a penny or two shy of 25 cents.
Shortly before US markets opened today, it was made clear that the European Central Bank did, in fact, follow through with the implementation of new monetary stimulus measures. Highlighting the ECB’s stimulus moves was the reduction of the refinancing rate by 10 basis points as well as introducing a -.1% deposit rate. As was expected, the euro currency declined to a nearly 4-month low in the morning hours while the US Dollar was able to make small, yet noticeable gains.
Surprisingly enough, precious metals spot values began trading up shortly after the ECB’s new stimulus measures were announced. By the time ECB president Mario Draghi was set to make his post-meeting statement, both metals and the US Dollar were looking like they were going to have a great day today. During his post-meeting address, however, Draghi’s comments were perceived as being more dovish and, in turn, pushed the Dollar back down while allowing the euro to regain some of the ground it had lost earlier in the day. Metals investors looked favorably upon Draghi’s comments and saw both gold and silver retain their early morning gains by the time markets closed today.
Rounding out the week this week is tomorrow’s release of May’s US non-farm payrolls data. On Wednesday, the ADP national employment report came back far weaker than market expectations and ended up giving gold and silver a small boost. If tomorrow’s non-farm payrolls data comes back weak as well, precious metals might just be looking at a favorable end to the first full trading week of June.
