Gold Spot Price Open: $1,348
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,339
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$9
Silver Spot Price Open: $19.82
Silver Spot Price Close: $19.57
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.25
Gold and silver continued to pullback on Thursday as even more people decided to cash in on recent gains. When all was said and done, gold ended up losing about 9 more dollars while silver fell by about 25 cents. Platinum and palladium both also lost on the day, but neither metal backtracked by more than 10 dollars, so losses were marginal to say the least.
Weekly Jobless Claims Hurt Metals
After last week’s dismal reading on job growth during the month of August, no one was expecting this week’s jobless claims data to impress. While there weren’t many high hopes, today we were on the receiving end of some upbeat jobless claims data yet again. So, while the pace of job growth may be slowing, the number of people able to hold down jobs for longer periods of time is growing.
Officially, the US Department of Labor said that last week saw 4,000 fewer people file for first-time unemployment benefits than the week before. This brought the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims down to 259,000. As you may or may not be aware, today’s data also marks the 79th consecutive week where the seasonally-adjusted average number of claims came in below 300,000.
Even the 4-week moving average of claims, which is said to provide an even clearer image of how the job market is doing fell by almost 2,000. All in all, the labor situation in the US is doing quite well. For gold and silver, of course, this is not the best news in the world and did not at all help in limiting today’s losses.
Stocks, Dollar Finish the Day Mixed
Stocks in the US were mostly down on Thursday, but the USD Index managed to regain some ground. Stocks were down due to inaction on the part of the European Central Bank, which held its monthly meeting today. Investors the world over are curious to see if the ECB is going to continue to pursue further easing measures, or if they are going to call it quits when the program runs its course in a short while. Today offered absolutely nothing in the way of clues on the matter, and that is frustrating for so many people.
Right now, the prevailing belief is that QE measures will be kept in place for the time being, but the fact is that no one knows for certain what the ECB is going to do—if they do anything at all.
In addition to this, members of the US Federal Reserve were heard delivering some hawkish statements with regard to monetary policy in the US, and more specifically about what the future holds for interest rates here. The president of the Richmond Federal Reserve, Jeffrey Lacker, was quoted as saying that things are looking up for a rate hike announcement this month. Him and the president of the Kansas City Federal Reserve, Esther George, both commented on the strength of the labor market as being the primary driver behind the likelihood for a rate hike. As far as actually getting into details, however, that much did not take place. September’s FOMC meeting is just around the corner though, and there are a few people who think that a rate hike just might come to fruition sooner rather than later.
Wrap-Up
All in all, Thursday was a fairly active day across the global marketplace considering the ECB was meeting, jobs data was dealt, and commentary from the Federal Reserve surfaced. For gold and silver, however, losses are continuing to pile on after early week gains. It will be interesting to see, on Friday, if metals can sure things up and finish the week on a solid note.
