Gold Spot Price Open: $1,278
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,284
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$6
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.51
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.43
Change in Silver Spot Price:-$0.08
Gold and silver experienced mixed results on Thursday as Bernanke was set to conclude his speeches for the week by addressing the US Senate. At the end of the day gold picked up about six dollars while silver lost a few pennies shy of a dime.
Ben Bernanke wrapped up his two day tour of speaking appearances in front of the US Congress by speaking to the Senate. As you might have guessed, Bernanke’s remarks on Thursday almost identically echo the ones he made on Wednesday. He reiterated that the end of Quantitative Easing is not on a preset course and will remain in tact for the foreseeable future. He also stated that QE could even be bolstered if economic conditions in the United States take a turn for the worse. The news that QE is not quite done and dusted was mildly positive for precious metals, though in reality it had little to no effect on today’s spot values.
After two consecutive days of hearing the Federal Reserve Chairman speak, the marketplace has determined that his words were neutral in regards to precious metals.
Bernanke shed some light on why gold and silver values are just a shadow of what they once were citing the fact that many major world economies are beginning to improve. Gold and silver are used by investors as a way to protect their wealth in times of economic turbulence and so long as economies are improving, precious metals are seen as less desirable by investors. While demand for physical gold and silver has shot up over the past week or so, it is not at the peak we would expect it to be at with such low spot values.
European stocks posted mixed results on Thursday while Asian stocks were mostly higher in the wake of Bernanke’s two-day speaking tour of the US Congress.
