The US economy is once again on the forefront of this week’s news as it continues to defy expectations. While a rapidly improving economy may be enough for one to think that precious metals would be on the decline, both gold and silver have held their positions fairly well. Unfortunately, hold their positions is about all precious metals did this week.

Chinese Woes

Just in case you didn’t get the message the last few weeks, the Chinese economy has been slowing down and actually posting some very unimpressive numbers. This week there were reports that manufacturing numbers from the large Asian country are not nearly as impressive as they were only 12 months ago. Additionally, unemployment appears to be on the rise too, which is unlike anything we have heard out of China over the past decade.

It will be interesting to see how the Chinese government handles this going forward. While the Chinese situation may not be very bad just yet, if things continue this way it could mean for terrible economic times.

American Economy Booming, Still

This week was yet another good one for both US stocks and the US dollar, adding to a few previous impressive weeks. Not only did the dollar retain its impressive position, but US stocks also had a solid 5 day performance.

All of this news is great for American citizens, but it isn’t so good for precious metals investors. Despite the fact that this news is rather disheartening for gold and silver holders, they should be happy to see that their metals are not taking a nosedive. Typically, when a currency and stock markets improve like the ones in the US have recently, things like gold and silver lose value at an alarming rate. That has not happened, which speaks to the strength of precious metals today.

Moving Ahead

There are not many market-relevant news stories to report for the upcoming week, but an Italian bond auction is going to be weighing on the minds of many. The trading atmosphere in Italy has been quiet to say the least ever since the elections were held a few weeks ago.

Weekly Move

At the end of the week, gold had moved from an opening price of $1,579 on Monday to $1,593 at closing time on Friday. Silver, on the other hand dropped from $29.07 to $28.85.