Gold and silver are performing a bit better on Friday, but not by much. As most Americans are either participating in the Black Friday shopping holiday or simply recovering from yesterday’s activities, Friday is expected to be a quiet day. Despite that, the speculation with regard to the upcoming December FOMC meeting will begin to pick up.
The only news worth mentioning on Friday is with regard to an unemployment report out of Europe, which came in better than expected.
EU Unemployment Report
While most Americans are preoccupied by the holidays this week, Europeans are still in the office on the final trading day of November. In the early morning hours of Friday it was reported that the EU unemployment rate fell from 10.2% in September to 10.1% in October, on an annualized basis. Though this is not the largest of declines, any improvement to employment in Europe will be taken as a positive by most markets.
In additional news out of Europe, EU inflation rose from .7% to .9% from October to November. The rise in European inflation has, at least temporarily, quelled fears that the EU may fall into a deep period of deflation. We will continue to monitor the EU for any and all signs of economic growth.
As we bring a dismal November to a close, it is time to reflect on how truly bad this month was for precious metals. Since the end of October, gold has lost over $100 while silver lost over $3; both significant losses. Now, with market bears still very much in control of the precious metals market, the outlook on gold and silver is growing bleaker and bleaker. Investors will be looking forward to the December FOMC meeting, at which point they hope to hear a more definite announcement with regard to the future of Quantitative Easing in the United States. Like every other time the FOMC meets, investors will be expecting Quantitative Easing to be tapered immediately or within the immediate future. It is unclear whether or not QE will be tapered at this upcoming meeting, though investors will speculate endlessly nonetheless.