Gold Spot Price Open: $1,386
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,367
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$19
Silver Spot Price Open: $23.70
Silver Spot Price Close: $23.08
Change in Silver Spot Price:-$0.62
Gold and silver both recorded fairly large losses on Tuesday as investors seem to be more apt to taking risks in the current economic atmosphere. When all was said and done, gold had lost almost 20 dollars while silver’s losses were just a few pennies over 60 cents.
The geopolitical atmosphere today, on Tuesday, was a whole lot different than what we experienced only 2 weeks ago. In a matter of 14 days, we went from expecting an imminent military attack by the US on the Syrian regime, to it not looking like the US will attack the Middle Eastern nation at all. The reason behind this most recent, more docile, development is the fact that Russia has urged Syria to relinquish control of its chemical weapons to the international community, a request Syria seems to be OK with.
President Obama also weighed in on Russia’s request to Syria by suggesting that a move to give chemical weapons to the international community would greatly reduce the likelihood of US military intervention in in the civil war-torn country. Unfortunately for precious metals holders, this news means that the value of gold and silver have nowhere to go but down. As tensions decline, safe-haven assets like gold and silver become less appealing while riskier stock market investments become increasingly enticing. In addition, the FOMC’s monthly meeting is next week, a factor that has also worked to put selling pressure on gold silver.
In other world news, more positive economic data was released out of China. On a year to year basis, Chinese industrial output rose by over 10%, compared to an expected sub-10% increase. Chinese retail sales also beat market expectations as they increased by over 13% from August of last year.
Finally, Indian gold imports in August were down by over 90% from August of a year ago. This can be directly attributed to newly-instituted tariffs being placed by the Indian government on gold imports.
