Gold Spot Price Open: $1,275
Gold Spot Price Close: $1,252
Change in Gold Spot Price: -$23
Silver Spot Price Open: $15.62
Silver Spot Price Close: $15.60
Change in Silver Spot Price: -$0.02
Gold and silver both had less than stellar days on Friday as a global equity market rebound meant poor news for the precious metals market. When all was said and done, gold lost more than twenty dollars while silver fell by just a few pennies. Platinum and palladium finished the day mixed, with platinum losing close to ten dollars while palladium gained roughly the same amount.
US Import Prices Down in February
According to the US Department of Labor, the average price of imports to the United States fell during the month of February. After falling by a revised tally of 1% in January, the Labor Department’s import pricing index fell once again in February—this time by .3%. While this was the case, the data mostly missed the mark as experts were anticipating to see import prices fall by nearly 1% for a 2nd consecutive month.
In addition to import pricing moving downward, the pricing of exports did as well. This news did not necessarily have a major impact on the precious metals market, but is very interesting to consider for a number of reasons. As we head forward through this month and the months to come, you can bet that even the most obscure pieces of US economic data will be heavily hawked over by investors and market experts alike. This is especially true if we are talking about the weekly jobless claims report or any other piece of employment news.
Global Equity Markets, Oil Rebound to Close Out Week
Global stock markets are performing extremely well to close out the week and are rebounding after what was, in truth, a lackluster first half of the 5-day trading session. Crude oil is also on the up and up today, which helps to explain why precious metals are struggling to gain much momentum. In addition to these factors, gold and silver are seeing some mild profit-taking after overnight highs. For gold, the yellow metal hit a 13-month high during the overnight hours before opening up solidly lower.
In the aftermath of yesterday’s European Central Bank meeting, where it was announced that the ECB would be employing even more aggressive monetary easing measures, major currencies were hit hard. Both the USD and euro moved lower almost immediately following the meeting, but currencies have rebounded a bit on Friday.
What is really sticking with investors is a comment made by ECB president Mario Draghi, where he alluded that the ECB may not have to lower interest rates any further. This small comment led many people to believe that the move made this week by the ECB was a last-ditch effort to spur some sort of lasting growth in the region. If these easy money policies do not begin to have some sort of lasting, tangible impact, the European economy may be headed for even darker times before this year is through. For now, all we can do it wait and see what is going to unfold with regard to Europe.
For precious metals, the uncertainty created by the EU’s economic struggles has thus far proven to be a good thing, and will likely continue to be as time moves forward.
Wrap-Up
After just barely making some gains this week, it will be intriguing to see how gold and silver begin next week’s 5-day trading session. As it stands, metals have plenty of momentum and are continuing to benefit from uncertainty regarding the global economy. While risk-appetite was higher today, there are few people who believe that this will be sustained over the weekend and into next week.