Gold Spot Price Open: $1,329
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,339
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$10
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.77
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.86
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.09
Much to the surprise of many, precious metals were able to continue trekking forward on Thursday and added to Wednesday’s post central bank meetings gains. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain another 10 dollars while silver tacked on almost 10 cents. Platinum and palladium both gained more than 10 dollars on the day as well.
Mixed US Economic Data Dealt
A day after some very important central bank meetings in the US and Japan, some US economic data was dealt and brought with it mixed feelings. First up was the existing home sales from the month of August. Though this did not serve as the biggest surprise, it was reported that sales of previously-owned homes fell by just shy of 1%. This brought the seasonally-adjusted average number of existing homes sold to 5.33 million units.
The downturn in August was surprising to some because similar data was recorded during July. After July’s sales data, most experts were anticipating that the housing market would pick right back up. Despite today’s somewhat poor report, CIBC World Economics’ Andrew Grantham seems convinced that this is the last such poor report we will be on the receiving end of. He said, in part, “…the latest reading for pending home sales suggests that there won’t be another deceleration in the near term. Months’ supply, at 4.6, remains range-bound. After appearing to break out to the high side in June, existing home sales are now back within the broad range that has prevailed since early 2015.”
The downturn on the part of existing home sales was something that definitely aided the precious metals market en route to a second consecutive day of nice, healthy gains. As we head into the final day of the week it will be interesting to see if gold and silver can hang on, or if profit-taking will set in and push spot values back downward.
Weekly Jobless Claims Back Down
With precious metals having advanced the way they did today, it might lead one to believe that the weekly jobless claims report was poorer than expected. In reality, however, the opposite was true as the number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell last week by a much larger margin than was expected.
Last week saw the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims settle at 260,000. This week most experts were calling for that number to tick slightly upward, but instead we saw first-time claims fall by 8,000 to bring the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims If you have been keeping up with labor market news, you know that we have now made it 81 consecutive weeks where the seasonally-adjusted average number of employment claims has remained below 300,000. This is the longest streak since the 1970s, and it seems as though this is a fact we will be repeating week in and week out barring any major changes to the employment landscape.
Finally, the 4 week moving average of jobless claims, which represents a more current and accurate depiction of labor market health, fell by more than 2,200 this week. All things considered, the US labor market has been and continues to be performing well despite some struggles being experienced by other economic sectors.
Wrap-Up
Thursday was a surprising day for no other reason than gold and silver still managed to gain even though the employment data we received was so clearly upbeat. For the most part, investors are still reacting to the central bank meetings from Japan and the United States, but a report which indicated that existing home sales are struggling also gave metals a bit of a boost. As we look ahead to the final day of the week, it will be interesting to see if metals can hang on to the last two days’ worth of gains, or if profit-taking, amongst other factors, will push spot values back downward.
