Gold Spot Price Open: $1,256
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,288
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$32
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.33
Silver Spot Price Close: $20.20
Change in Silver Spot Price:+$0.87
Gold and silver improved upon the small gains they made yesterday after a speech by Ben Bernanke helped ease the monetary policy firestorm. When all was said and done on Thursday gold picked up about 32 dollars while silver’s gains were only 13 cents shy of a whole dollar.
Today’s main story focuses on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke making a speech yesterday after most markets were closed. In his speech he stated that the US Federal Reserve needs to maintain accommodating monetary policy for the foreseeable future in order to sustain economic growth. Going hand in hand with this, Bernanke also announced that interest rates would not be risen “for some time.” This speech has altered the tide of how people are viewing the future of US monetary policy. Only a few weeks ago there was a general consensus saying that monetary policy needs to be altered and interest rates need to be risen, though now we are hearing a mixed-bag of feedback as some see the US economy growing further while others feel as though it has maxed out its growth potential. While we could debate until we are blue in the face about the state of the US economy, only the upcoming months of economic data and activity will be able to sway monetary policy one way or another.
This was the most talked-about news story of the day which helped gold and silver make positive gains but also put a dent in the recently strong US Dollar Index. As long as easy money policies are being employed by central banks around the world, which they are now, gold and silver will be in good shape. Other central banks from places like Europe and Asia have also recently seen their presidents make announcements regarding how accommodating policies are what is necessary going forward.
Keep your eyes and ears peeled on the last day of the week for any stories that may push precious metals one way or another. As we have been for the past week or so, we will be keeping our attention locked on Egypt as that powder keg could blow up at any point in time.
