This week started out looking like it would be a positive one for precious metals, but after Wednesday that belief began to change a bit. An increase in violence in the Middle East seems imminent as a plethora of Western nations have begun to fixate their attention on the previous and ongoing atrocities in Syria.

Apart from the looming potential of war, this week was also characterized by some better than anticipated economic data. First, we saw the Business Confidence Index in Germany rise significantly for the fourth consecutive month while second quarter GDP in the US was reported as being markedly better than the first quarter. The Labor Day holiday, which takes place this upcoming Monday, is the official end of summer in the US and will likely mark the beginning of a busy economic and geopolitical news season.

Tensions in Syria Fluctuating

For the past two years or so, Syria has played host to a civil war which has claimed thousands and thousands of lives. The civil war is currently being fought between rebel fighters and the current government regime. The death-toll is already staggering, though what is even more frightening is the number of innocent civilians who have been killed by both sides in the fighting.

Many of the civilians who have not been killed have been displaced and are forced to live thousands of miles away from their homes in the absolute worst conditions imaginable. Though it seems as though Western nations should have stepped in in order to help the many civilians a while ago, it wasn’t until very recently that nations decided to get involved.

Recent allegations, which accuse the Syrian government of firing chemical weapons at their own civilians, have been brought to the attention of both the US and the UN. In response, the US and its many allies have decided that it is time to take some action in Syria. At the beginning of this week many people were convinced that a US-led attack would take place in Syria by the week’s end. This looming prospect of violence in Syria helped devalue the dollar and put selling pressure on stocks; both of which helped boost spot values of gold and silver.

As the week wore on, however, the seemingly imminent attack became less imminent and now Obama and his allies are unsure what their course of action will be. We will continue to monitor this situation and bring you all the latest developments once they are reported.