Gold Spot Price Open: $1,327
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,314
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$13
Silver Spot Price Open: $18.89
Silver Spot Price Close: $18.58
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.31
Gold and silver suffered a pullback on Tuesday mostly thanks to a stronger US Dollar. When all was said and done, gold ended up losing close to 14 dollars while silver declined by just more than 30 cents. Platinum finished in more or less the same position it was in when the day began while palladium fell by roughly 20 dollars.
US Dollar Sinks Precious Metals
Immediately after markets opened on the day, the USD Index began climbing. A major contributing factor to today’s gains for the greenback was yesterday’s upbeat consumer spending report. Today offered a complement to Monday’s data in the form of a consumer confidence index which was a bit better than expected. Officially, the consumer confidence index for August delivered a reading of 101.1, which was much higher than what we saw in July. In fact, July’s index reading was revised downward from 97.3 to 96.7. While the downward revision was not the greatest of news, it only served to make August’s reading look that much better. This is especially true when you consider that forecasts were for Augusts reading to be somewhere in the 97-98 range.
For the monetary policy hawks, or those that would like to see interest rates raised sooner rather than later, this news couldn’t have been any better. CIBC Capital Markets’ Royce Mendes commented on the early week data by saying, “Consumers have been the main driver of economic growth this year, and today’s consumer confidence reading suggests that the party isn’t ending. The reading is at the top end of the range seen since 2015 and is the highest level for the index in almost a year.”
US Home Prices Increase at Tepid Pace
Amid all of this great economic data from the United States, we were given a slightly less than stellar report regarding home prices. According to an analysis of 20 metropolitan areas across the United States, annualized home prices rose in June by far less than expected. What’s more, from May to June, median home prices also rose by less than expected.
Despite this singular downbeat report, experts and analysts alike are sticking to the belief that the housing market is still a strong aspect of our economy.
Crude oil fell again today, though this is not the biggest of news seeing as the commodity has been trading within a pretty well-defined range for the past few weeks. The only real things pushing oil in any singular direction are rumors that OPEC may cut production and, on the other side of the spectrum, rumors that the market is still grossly over-supplied—as indicated by oil stockpile reports from major economies. All in all, it is still tough to determine what we can make of oil’s near-term future. We do know that OPEC is rumored to have a meeting within the next few weeks, and that, if it actually takes place, will be closely eyed by investors the world over.
Wrap-Up
The coming days are going to bring about a lot in the way of economic data, specifically as it relates to the job market in the US. Tomorrow will see the ADP jobless claims report dealt, Thursday will bring about the release of the latest weekly jobless claims report, and on Friday the much-anticipated August non-farms payrolls data will be made public. Though we are unsure what the next few days hold, expectations are high, especially after the last few weeks’ worth of upbeat jobless claims reports.