Gold Spot Price Open: $1,238

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,237

Change in Gold Spot Price: -$1

Silver Spot Price Open: $17.79

Silver Spot Price Close: $17.93

Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.14

Gold and silver finished the day Friday mixed, but were up by decent amounts for the week as a whole. When all was said and done on Friday, gold lost about a dollar while silver actually managed to gain a little more than 10 cents. Platinum and palladium also finished the day mixed, with platinum losing 5 dollars while palladium gained more than 10.

Investors Already Looking Ahead to Next Week

Friday was yet another lackluster day across the global marketplace thanks to an absence of noteworthy economic data. In total, the week will be a win for gold and silver, though spot values did not move forward all that dramatically. Stocks and the USD began the week rather somberly, but by midweek were making some decent gains that did well to undermine the growing safe-haven demand. By the time the week came to a close, however, stocks had fallen back down once more and so did the USD.

Looking ahead to next week, President Trump is going to a major focal point for investors. In addition to the number of topics discussed this week, investors will now be paying close attention to his moves with regard to taxes. All throughout his campaign, Trump promised that he would slash taxes, especially those on lower and middle income households. Experts are thinking that he will soon make good on these promises, and it will be interesting to see what actually happens. For now, Donald Trump and his words/actions are driving forward safe-haven demand and there aren’t very many people who see that changing anytime soon.

Economic Data Eyed

A big factor to pay attention to next week will be the release of economic data points from the United States. This week did not exactly bring much of any economic data to the table, so next week is already shaping up to be packed full of information. One of the biggest and most important reports will come early in the week in the form of retail sales data. Retail sales, along with pricing data, will be due out on Wednesday.

Bart Melek, who is head of commodities trading at TD Securities, commented on the importance of next week’s data when he said, “Retail sales will be quite important, mainly because they will set the tone on what demand might be like in the U.S. economy and therefore give markets some sense of what the Fed might do.” That last part is the key. At this point in time, investors will pour over every piece of economic data in hopes of gaining a better idea as to what the Fed plans on doing with interest rates. There is still a strong belief that rates will be raised a few times this year, but we are beginning to see a bit of doubt creep in as economic data from the US is not necessarily living up to expectations. What’s more, President Trump is still a huge wildcard in the eyes of investors. No one really knows what he is planning on doing with regard to tax policy, foreign policy, or anything else.

Wrap-Up

As has been the case all week long, there was not much in the way of fresh inputs to be had. There was almost no noteworthy economic data dealt on Friday, and that meant that the marketplace was fairly quiet. Looking ahead to next week, there is quite a bit to look forward. For precious metals, it will be interesting to see if the upward path can be sustained, or if other factors will enter the marketplace and push spot values down.