It seems as though gold and silver can’t catch a break this week either. Despite seemingly hospitable economic environments around the world, specifically in the US, precious metals have seen no major breakthroughs. As a matter of fact, gold and silver had a worse run of things this year than they did last year. Fears are everywhere in the precious metals markets and until those fears are quelled, gold will be unable to make any sort of major positive moves.

More Significant Losses

When we ended last week, we thought that gold and silver had reached the lowest point they possibly could. The reality is that gold started this week in even worse shape than it handed ended the week before. Because of Cyprus selling off most of its gold holdings, investors everywhere feared that other central banks would do the same. Because of this fear investors were selling off their gold in order to prevent themselves from falling in a hole they could not get out of.

There is no viable evidence that says central banks will be taking these measures, but as with any other market event, people will always speculate. While other nations are in need of cash much like Cyprus was, they have other means of raising money whereas the small island nation was left with limited options.

US Fading

There are a number of different reasons why gold and silver should be doing well, and one of them is the declining US economy. After a few weeks of positive form many thought that the stock markets in the United States were invincible. This was foolish because the economy in the United States has cooled off as quickly as it heated up.

Now, unemployment numbers are rising, retail sales are falling, and manufacturing data is flat-out pathetic. Despite this, gold and silver have not been too reactive to US economic news due to puling factors from elsewhere in the world.

Moving Ahead

As we move into next week we will obviously be watching the ever-changing spot price of silver and gold. These past few weeks have taught us that even when we think the worst is over, the worst may still be yet to come.

While North Korea took a back seat to many other news stories this week, it is still something we must keep our attention focused on. Don’t be too surprised if the tiny Asian country begins making the headlines yet again next week.

Weekly Move

Gold started the week at $1,488 and finished up at $1,404; posting a loss of $84. Silver opened the week at $25.98 and closed at $23.28..posting a loss of $2.70.