Gold Spot Price Open: $1,289

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,258

Change in Gold Spot Price: -$31

Silver Spot Price Open: $18.12

Silver Spot Price Close: $16.93

Change in Silver Spot Price: -$1.19

Precious metals performed extremely poorly on Thursday and posted some pretty hefty losses. When all was said and done, gold lost more than 30 dollars while silver declined by nearly a dollar and twenty cents. Platinum and palladium had equally poor days, with platinum losing close to forty dollars while palladium lost a little more than 20 dollars.

US Stocks Gain On Day When Outlook Diminishes

Though there hasn’t been too much going on this week from an economic standpoint, we have been dealt a good bit of earnings reports. Unfortunately, most earnings reports, with the exception of Apple’s, have been far weaker than what was expected. Companies like Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, and McDonalds have all reported Q4 (2014) earnings that fell far short of expectations. Looking ahead to the rest of the year, the outlook on global equities is bleak, but stocks in the US gained today thanks to a better than expected weekly jobless claims report.

Officially, weekly jobless claims came back at their lowest level in about fifteen years. Though this is positive, market analysts and experts warned that these figures could be skewed due to inclimate weather and holidays. Of course, we will continue to keep a close eye on any and all developments with the overall US employment situation. Still, the outlook on stocks remains bleak and far from what it was a few months ago.

Clashes In Ukraine Intensify, Death Toll Mounts

The fighting is still taking place in Eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian military forces. Though the situation has been ongoing for quite some time, fighting has just recently intensified thanks to the failure of a proposed ceasefire agreement. The market is not paying too much attention to the situation in Ukraine at present, but as things snowball and become more violent, investors will have no choice but to pay attention.

USD Index Day’s Big Winner

With stocks faltering and precious metals on a sharp decline today, it should not come as much of a surprise that the US Dollar performed so well. With currency wars still ongoing, it is difficult to read too much into the Dollar’s upward movement today. With that said, however, the USD is looking like it will be one of the only currencies appreciating as other major central banks around the world actively look to devalue their currencies.

Wrap-Up

As has been the case for much of the week, tomorrow will see investors pay close attention to equity and currency markets. We are not expecting too much in the way of economic data, but with how volatile this week has been, there is no saying what tomorrow will bring. Despite today’s profit-taking, there is a strong belief that as currency wars continue, precious metals will benefit from the uncertainty those wars breed. It will definitely be interesting to see how a number of different situations, including oil prices, currency wars, global economic growth, and the actions taken by global governments, play out.