Gold Spot Price Open: $1,367
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,360
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$7
Silver Spot Price Open: $20.66
Silver Spot Price Close: $20.36
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.30
After making gains on Tuesday, it was back to losing ways for precious metals thanks to an unlike resurgence in the global currency market. When all was said and done, gold lost about 7 dollars while silver conceded just about 30 cents. Platinum and palladium both also lost on the day, but neither metal moved backwards by more than a few dollars.
USD, Crude Oil Claw Back
Gold and silver were in the red almost as soon as the day began mostly thanks to a US Dollar Index that bounced back out of nowhere. Helping the Dollar significantly is a Japanese Yen that is beginning to lose value at a quicker and quicker tick. After a new batch of monetary stimulus was introduced only a day ago, Bank of Japan officials were heard making remarks today in an attempt to drive down the value of their currency even further. Though the Dollar did gain against most of its rivals today, the Yen sped up the greenback’s upward climb.
Also helping push the Dollar forward was the release of the ADP jobs report for the month of July. According to the widely-respected payrolls processor, the US economy added just shy of 180,000 private-sector jobs last month. While, in the grand scheme of things, the 179,000 private-sector jobs reportedly created is not the largest tally we have ever seen from the ADP report, it is definitely a bit higher than what most experts had predicted. Naturally, this report also, in a way, boosts the expectations for the non-farm payrolls report expected to be dealt by the Department of Labor before week’s end. Whether Friday’s data release will actually have an effect on what the Federal Reserve thinks about hiking interest rates or not remains to be seen, we do know that an upbeat report will surely get the speculation train rolling once more.
At this current point in time there are only a select few who expect to see any further interest rate hikes take place this year. After the Fed failed to even really comment on the possibility towards the conclusion of their most recent policy meeting, many investors and market experts see even a December rate hike as something that simply will not happen. As we always say, however, the Fed loves striking when people least expect it, so I would not be at all surprised if a rate hike did occur before year’s end.
In addition to all of this, precious metals suffered today due to a bit of profit-taking after some recent gains. Playing into this perfectly was the spot price of crude oil, which moved upward by decent margins on Wednesday after hitting a 4-month low only a day ago. In recent days, crude oil and metals have been battling back and forth, with crude definitely winning today’s duel.
Wrap-Up
Apart from a surprising number of discussion points from the United States today, there wasn’t really much else for investors to focus on. This is more of what we have come to expect from the month of August, which is typically one of the slowest months of the year. The attention of investors from all over the world is turning to Friday’s non-farm payrolls report from the United States. It is impossible to tell what kind of numbers will emerge from the report, but if the ADP report is any indication (and, quite honestly, it usually isn’t) of what we might get on Friday, things are looking up. With that said, no one is overly confident that July was the best of months for job creation.
