Gold Spot Price Open: $1,328
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,330
Change in Gold Spot Price: +$2
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.51
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.52
Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.01
Gold and silver both squeezed out gains on Monday, but seeing as most North American markets were closed the day was more of a wash than anything else. When all was said and done, gold managed to gain about 2 dollars while silver finished in more or less the same position it was in when the day began. Platinum and palladium also finished the day in the green, but neither metal finished more than ten dollars better than where it started.
Monetary Policy Confusion in Japan
The US Dollar fell against the Japanese Yen on Monday as the country’s finance minister let investors down with regard to further easing that was expected to come later this month. After hitting a more than 5-week high against the Yen on Friday thanks to hopes that the Fed will still move to raise interest rates at some point this year, the Dollar slipped again to begin the week.
On Monday, the Bank of Japan’s Governor Haruhiko Kuroda failed to impress investors who were hoping to hear solid evidence that the already huge stimulus program would be expanded before the end of September. Though expansion still does seem likely, very little in the way of fresh clues were provided to support that notion on Monday. The Dollar’s weakness is due, in part, to US markets being closed in observance of the Labor Day Holiday. What will be interesting is to see how the greenback fares upon markets’ opening on Tuesday.
Head of UBS’ current strategy department, Constantin Bolz, commented on today’s activity by saying, “The US labor market wasn’t great … so that took out a bit of steam from the dollar side, and then Kuroda didn’t say anything too clear about further easing at the end of September and so now markets have to level out their bets a little bit.” Once again, what happens during the early stages of Tuesday will likely be indicative of how the Dollar fares over the course of the week.
Russia, Saudi Arabia Commit to Stabilizing Crude Market
Despite this same exact thing having been said multiple times in the past, it seems as though Saudi Arabia and Russia are finally going to cooperate in working to stabilize the crude oil market. Amid the ongoing G20 summit in China, Russia and the Saudis have reportedly signed a deal that will be tasked with the creation of a task force aimed at pursuing methods by which they can stabilize the crude oil market.
There was not much in the way of specifics discussed about this deal, but the two massive producers of crude oil seem dead-set on reducing the current supply-glut that has been driving down crude oil prices for well over a year at this point.
Now, with an OPEC meeting in Algiers slotted for the end of the month, all eyes will be on the crude oil market. If other OPEC countries agree to work to stabilize the market as well, this could prove to be a major turning point. Of course, we have seen many OPEC meetings come and go over the past year, so very few people are holding out hope that any sort of resolution will happen this month.
Wrap-Up
Being that today was a holiday in the United States, market activity was more muted than anything. As we look ahead to tomorrow, it will be interesting to see what happens to precious metals spot values. Both gold and silver have recently been trying to move upward, but outside market forces are preventing big moves from being made.
