Gold Spot Price Open: $1,285
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,295
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$10
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.50
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.58
Change in Silver Spot Price:+$0.08
Gold and silver made some small gains on Friday amid a much quieter marketplace. Gold picked up about ten dollars while silver gained a few pennies under a dime.
The outside markets helped gold and silver make gains today as the US Dollar Index was down and crude oil prices were up. After Ben Bernanke spoke to the Senate yesterday, and his remarks were none too different than the ones he made on Wednesday, the marketplace seems to still be digesting what he had to say.
In case you missed it, Bernanke’s address to both the House and the Senate reiterated that monetary policy in the US is by no means on a predetermined course. He went as far as to say that if the economic situation in the US becomes bleak, him and the rest of the Fed have no problems taking into consideration the boosting of monthly government bond-buying, also known as Quantitative Easing.
As the US Dollar Index finishes the week down, gold was able to gain enough ground to not make this week a complete and total loss. Investors will be hoping for a more stable USD Index next week as the highly volatile one this week made making any sort of investment decisions that much more difficult.
Perhaps another reason the marketplace was so quiet on Friday can be attributed to many European and North American traders beginning their summer holidays. The end of July is a popular time for people to vacation and fewer people making trades in the marketplace will almost always translate into a quiet atmosphere.
One bit of news that may be expanded upon next week is a recently begun Chinese investigation into the possibility of Shanghai gold retailers participating in price fixing. We will report more on this story as the news comes to us.
