Gold Spot Price Open: $1,468

Gold Spot Price Close: $1,457

Change in Gold Spot Price:-$11

Silver Spot Price Open: $23.86

Silver Spot Price Close: $23.76

Change in Silver Spot Price:-$0.10

Gold and silver slipped a bit on Thursday on the news of more interest rate cutting and some downtrodden economic news out of China. At the end of the day gold was down roughly eleven dollars while silver dropped only about ten cents.

Two economic reports out of China were worse than expected which ended up hurting precious metals before US markets even opened on Thursday. First off, China’s Producer Price Index fell by a larger margin than was anticipated which gave some backbone to the thought that the world’s second strongest economy is slowing down. Inflation was the topic of the next headline out of China on Thursday as inflation rose by two tenths of a percentage point more than had been anticipated for this past April. While most central banks are employing loose monetary tactics as of late, these reports may prompt Chinese monetary officials to tighten their stance on their currency. Despite all of this, physical demand for gold in China and most of Asia is still so great that brick and mortar dealers are running out of stock of precious metals at alarming rates.

To put things in perspective, the amount of gold (30 tons) that was sold towards the end of April and beginning of May in Hong Kong is 50% more than was recorded as being sold last year around the same time. While this is a staggering figure, it can be directly tied to the fact that gold has still not completely recovered from its monumental collapse only a few weeks ago.

South Korea is the latest country in the growing game of follow the leader when it comes to slashing interest rates. England was expected to also follow the ECB, Poland, South Korea, and Australia in cutting interest rates, it has yet to make any such move. And finally, while everyone in the eurozone is excited about the new, lower interest rates, the European Central Bank forecasts that the economic situation across Europe will likely get worse before it begins to get better.

A higher USD index was another culprit behind why gold and silver did not fare too well today which adds to a continuing trend of rising dollar, falling gold; falling dollar, rising gold.

With only one day left in the week there is still room for gold to make a slight comeback and turn what is shaping up to be another negative week into a positive one.