Gold Spot Price Open: $1,341

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,350

Change in Gold Spot Price: +$9

Silver Spot Price Open: $21.35

Silver Spot Price Close: $21.50

Change in Silver Spot Price: +$0.15

Gold and silver both improved by small margins after being given aid by a declining USD index as well as some bargain-hunting buying. When all was said and done, gold picked up about 9 dollars while silver gained fifteen cents.

There were a few pieces of US economic data released today, highlighted by the weekly jobless claims report. In all, today’s economic reports ended up on the weaker side of market expectations and served as a minor bullish factor for gold and silver. With today’s slightly sub-par economic data now out in the open for investors to mull over, the real question becomes whether or not tomorrow’s non-farm payrolls data will also come in weaker than expectations or if we will, for the first time in about three or four months, be greeted with an upbeat report.

The widely accepted belief held by the marketplace is that 150,000 non-farm payrolls were added in February. Compared to recent months’ expectations this is a low forecast and one that many think will be achieved. With that being said, however, a report that beats market expectations will likely work against spot gold and silver and instead fuel recently growing investor risk-appetite.

In other news from around the world, gold and silver were given a boost thanks to some more hawkish remarks made by European Central Bank president Mario Draghi. Draghi’s remarks boosted the euro currency which in turn put noticeable downward pressure on the US Dollar. Enticed by the lower value of the Dollar, bargain-hunters were out in full force buying USD-denominated physical gold and silver.

We are still keeping an eye on the situation in Ukraine, though it seems to have calmed down significantly. Tensions continue to deescalate despite Russia’s claim that it will absorb the Crimea region of Ukraine and make it part of the Russian Federation (yet again). In its announcement today, the Kremlin said that Crimea’s parliament voted in favor of joining Russia. In a little more than week the citizens of Crimea will be able to vote on the matter, though the results of the vote are fairly predictable as Crimea’s population is dominated by ethnic Russians. The US imposed some sanctions on specific Ukrainian and Russian officials as a retaliation for recent actions, though these sanctions seemed to have had little affect thus far.

Ukraine’s interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk claimed that Russia is incapable of simply taking Crimea from Ukraine, but Russia’s mounting military presence and support from Crimean citizens says otherwise. It will be interesting to see how this situation plays out over the next few weeks as tensions stand the chance of escalating once again at any given time. Should tensions reach the level they were at earlier this week or even boil over, spot gold and silver will almost certainly receive a boost from safe-haven demand.