Spot gold and silver are trading marginally higher on Friday, but are poised to post their largest single-week losses in more than two months. After last week’s rally, it makes sense that gold and silver spot values would decline, but the rapid decline we saw this week was unexpected to say the least. Upon closer inspection, it was plain to see that most developments being taken into consideration by the market were bearish for precious metals.

Highlighting the bearish news this week was a calming down of tensions in the Crimea region of Ukraine. Last weekend’s referendum didn’t cause an outbreak of violence and in turn proved to deescalate tensions in Ukraine more than anything else. Without the violence that so many people expected, the market quickly lost their craving for safe-haven precious metals.

Fed, Janet Yellen Doesn’t Help Precious Metals

Apart from the market paying close attention to the developments in Ukraine, investors were also preoccupied speculating over what they thought the outcome of this week’s FOMC meeting might be. For the most part, people were expecting to see the Fed reduce Quantitative Easing by another $10 billion, but after recently weak economic data others had their doubts.

The FOMC’s policy meeting kicked off on Tuesday, but investors had to wait until it concluded late Wednesday afternoon until they found out any reliable information with regard to the proceedings of the meeting. Finally, the expectations of the market were met when the Fed announced that tapering would continue by another $10 billion. Now, the Fed is only planning on purchasing $55 billion worth of bonds going further and will more than likely continue to taper QE throughout the duration of the year.

In a somewhat shocking turn of events, Janet Yellen , in her post-meeting press conference, made statements claiming that interest rates in the US may be risen as soon as a year from now. With Quantitative Easing only expected to be completely eliminated early next year, investors were surprised when Yellen claimed that interest rates would rise as early as she said they might. In all, this accumulation of Fed activity worked against the spot values of gold and silver and gainfully aided the US Dollar, which was suffering as of late.

As we head into next week it will be interesting to see just how well, or badly, gold and silver perform. With spot values at new lows, bargain-hunting buying may spur some upward price activity over the weekend.

Gold and silver opened up this final day of the week in impressive fashion and are on pace to make this one of the best 5-day sessions both metals have experienced thus far in 2014. Safe-haven demand for physical gold and silver has been on the rise all week long and with the situation in Ukraine on the verge of complete deterioration, it seems as though this type of demand will stick around for a little while.

As it stands, gold has gained more than $40 for the week while silver is just shy of picking up a whole dollar. With price action this dramatically upward-facing, the only way gold and silver could be delivered a blow is through profit-taking over the weekend.

Crimea Referendum Sparks Tensions

Last week, a major development in the crisis in Ukraine happened in the form of Crimea’s regional parliament voting unanimously to rejoin the Russian Federation. Though the vote was struck down and hailed as illegitimate in the eyes of Ukraine’s interim government and many leaders from Western nations, it was announced shortly thereafter that the citizens of Crimea would be able to participate in a similar vote in only a few days. This vote, commonly referred to as a referendum, is scheduled to take place on Sunday and most of the world is expecting to see Crimeans vote in much the same way that their parliament did. The pro-Russia sentiments run deep in Crimea and with their citizens having to face an uncertain future in Ukraine, many of them would rather flee to the relative stability of their Russian neighbors.

If the vote does go as expected on Sunday, there is no saying what kind of action Ukraine and its allies will take against Crimea, Russia, or both. What we do know, however, is that military action is seeming a more and more likely outcome of this Sunday’s vote. For this reason, many investors around the world are ridding themselves of riskier assets and instead fleeing to safe-haven assets, namely gold and silver. This week’s spike in safe-haven demand was seen in rising spot prices from Tuesday onward with little to no slip-ups in between. We will continue to monitor the situation in Ukraine as it will undoubtedly have some sort of impact on spot gold and silver further along down the road.

FOMC Meeting On The Horizon

In other news, the Federal Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled to kick off next week and as is usually the case the speculation with regard to the meeting’s outcome is already spreading like wildfire. Most market experts agree that tapering will be further intensified, though these same experts disagree on the margin by which the Fed will reduce monthly bond-buying this time around.

There is a strong contingent that believes the Fed will stay on course with another $10 billion reduction, though some other people are under the impression that the FOMC will taper by either more or less than the aforementioned $10 billion amount. Precious metals investors seem to already be factoring in a $10 billion reduction into their day to day dealings and should this be the case, the FOMC meeting will likely have none too large of an impact on spot gold and silver. If, however, the Fed decides to taper by more than the accustomed $10 billion, this could spell disaster for both gold and silver.

Gold and silver are trading slightly down this morning in the wake of February’s non-farm payrolls data. Prior to the release of the data, it was looking like spot gold and silver would, for yet another week, end posting gains for the 5-day session. Now, however, it is much more likely that increased investor risk-appetite will effectively weigh on precious metals’ spot values quite significantly.

Over the course of the past week, the only mainstay in the headlines was the ongoing situation in Ukraine. There have been a few developments with regard to Ukraine, but for the most part tensions this week were only a shadow of what they were a week ago.

US Employment Data Beats Market Expectations…Finally

After the first two months of 2014 yielded sub-par employment data, investors were hoping February’s data would show a change of pace. That wish was granted because it was reported that the US added about 175,000 jobs this past February. This number beat the 150,000 addition that was expected by the market, even if only slightly. With that being said, however, the overall unemployment rate jumped from 6.6% to 6.7%. While the jump in the overall unemployment data is unnerving to some, market analysts are saying it is simply a byproduct of more people confident enough to go out seeking  job. This news only added to already strong investor risk-appetite this week and turned small gains being made by precious metals into decent losses thus far this morning.

In addition to today’s upbeat employment data, the US Labor Department revised jobs figures from the last few months. For January, the payrolls addition was bumped up to 129,000 from a previously low addition of 113,000. December’s data was revised as well, up to 84,000 from a previous reading of only 75,000 jobs added. In all, today’s employment data and revisions worked wholly against precious metals.

Tensions Deescalate In Ukraine

In the early parts of this week, the world was expecting to see tensions in Ukraine boil over into an armed conflict between Russia and the large eastern European nation. Fortunately, however, cooler heads prevailed as Ukraine, Russia, and the West seemed more willing to employ diplomatic solutions to the crisis.

Then, seemingly without warning, Russia declared that it would annex the Crimean region of Ukraine and make it the newest addition to the Russian Federation. Despite opposition from the rest of Ukraine and the West, the Crimean parliament voted unanimously to join Russia. In 10 days, Crimean citizens will participate in a similar vote though because Crimea is dominated by ethnic Russians, it is expected that the vote will yield similar results as the parliamentary vote.

Tensions are now just a shadow of what they were a week ago, though things stand the chance of boiling over at any point going forward. For this reason, we will continue to closely monitor the situation and take note of any and all developments going forward.

Gold and silver are trading up on the final day of the week after a majority of this 5-day trading session was none too favorable for metals. Contrary to what so many people thought would happen, gold and silver were able to continue their rally once markets opened on Monday. Gold was swiftly approaching the $1,340 threshold and, only a day later, profit-taking made an appearance. Though investors were not welcoming the profit-taking with open arms, it was encouraging to see metals only decline slightly before rebounding again today.

This week was light from an economic standpoint, though we were greeted with a few pieces of data from China and the US, as well as some insight into the sentiments of the FOMC with regard to their tapering of QE. In all, metals are going to finish the week just slightly ahead of where they started it. A good sign for those hoping metals can hang on to this near-term momentum.

Mixed Worldwide Economic Data

As was the case last week, this week’s trading session also offered very little in the way of market-altering economic data. With that being said, however, the US did emit quite a few reports this week, the only problem being that the final tally saw some reports beat market expectations while others fell well short. The one piece of data investors did key in on was the weekly jobless claims report. The reason for this being that the number of people seeking unemployment benefits declined for the first time in a few weeks. This news placed some downward pressure on metals Thursday, while giving the US Dollar a bit of a boost.

The other key economic report released this week came from China in the form of the preliminary manufacturing PMI reading for February. After January’s final reading of 49.5 spurred the discussion of possible contraction in China’s manufacturing sector, investors hoped that February’s preliminary reading would show whether January was a fluke month or if it was a sign of things to come. Investors more or less got their answer in the form of a preliminary PMI reading for February of just over 48. This news was not only worrisome for those invested in any facet of China’s manufacturing industry, but worrisome for precious metals investors as well due to the fact that China is the world’s largest consumer of gold and silver for use in manufacturing. Thanks to this preliminary reading, investors will be anxiously awaiting the next batch of Chinese economic data.

Finally, the last noteworthy happening of the week came in the form of the FOMC’s latest minutes. Though nothing major was revealed within the minutes, members of the FOMC made it clear that it is going to take more than a week or two of sub-par economic data for them to consider putting a halt to their continuous tapering of QE. This news was adversarial to precious metals investors who were, up until this week, growing in confidence that tapering would be slowed down.

Despite some of these factors working against precious metals this week, the take-away from this 5-day trading session is that gold and silver are still in a strong position. Hopefully they can continue to build upon their near-term momentum and turn this small upward trend into a more lasting period of gains.

Despite this week being inordinately quiet as far as economic data is concerned, gold and silver have been able to post 5 consecutive days of solid gains. As it stands currently, gold is on the verge of pushing past the $1,320 resistance level while silver is well over the $21 mark. A weaker US Dollar is definitely helping precious metals surge forward, though that is not the only bullish factor working in gold and silver’s favor.

Apart from gold and silver’s solid weekly gains, there really isn’t and hasn’t been too much for investors to discuss this week. Though the newly appointed Fed chairperson made her inaugural address to Congress earlier in the week, the outcome of her remarks ended up not having any major impact on the markets.

Stocks Trading Down After Late Week Surge

US equities have begun the day at a slow pace, dropping yesterday’s gains almost immediately after markets opened for trading. On Wednesday and Thursday the marketplace was surprised to see most major US equities posting gains, and solid gains too. While this price action caused some investors to abandon the notion that US equities are running out of gas, most others believed that this was one last gasp for air before the equity markets in the US corrected themselves lower.

Perhaps even more surprising than the fact that US equities posted some solid gains this week is that those gains did nothing in the way of putting downward pressure on metals. Typically, when equity markets have strong performances, the spot values of gold and silver tank. This time, however, gold and silver were still able to manage positive daily performances on Wednesday and Thursday in the wake of solid stock market gains. Because metals were performing so well directly in the face of surging stocks, many investors are curious to see how gold and silver will fare once they are given some economic data or news that is bullish.

As it stands, the gold and silver bulls have the clear-cut near-term momentum and will be looking to carry it into next week.

Also helping the fortunes of precious metals today is a slightly depressed US Dollar. In fact, the US Dollar has been seemingly under performing all week in comparison to rival currencies such as the GBP. Next week will prove to be a pivotal one for precious metals as it is quickly becoming a true test of whether they can sustain recent gains or if profit-taking will prompt a price correction at or below the $1,300 threshold.

Gold and silver ended the week in positive fashion after a weaker than anticipated employment report caused investors to question the US economy even more. Friday’s employment report was just one of many pieces of US economic data made public this week, though it was also arguably the most important.

As it stands, gold is hovering around $1,270 while silver is sitting right around $20 even. For the week, gold has picked up well over $30 and silver has done its part, gaining close to a dollar over the past 5 days. Next week will be a pivotal one for investors who have been paying close attention to the US economy’s recent woes.

Fewer Jobs Than Expected Added In January

Just a few days after the turn of the year, December’s employment report was made public. The market was high on its recent performance and was expecting a plethora of jobs to have been added during the month of December. When the report actually showed that job growth was significantly weaker than expected, the marketplace began to worry just a bit. That is why this week was so important to investors who have been hoping that January’s job growth bested that of December’s.

With last month’s jobs data still fresh in investors’ heads, the market expected only about 190,000 jobs to have been added in January. The employment data was published Friday morning and came in well short of the 190,000 expectations. Turns out that only a little more than 110,000 jobs were added in January, 113,000 to be exact. This news propelled gold and silver forward while simultaneously putting downward pressure on the US Dollar. Precious metals would have had an even better day to close out the week if the US equity markets had not regained their balance.

On the back end of this employment report is a lot of investor scrutiny with regard to the Fed’s recent decisions to taper Quantitative Easing. Though tapering’s real effects won’t be felt until sometime further down the road, the early signs are none too comforting for investors. All this equity uneasiness should sound like music to the ears of those invested in precious metals. As more questions begin to surface and even more people shy away from US equities, safe-haven demand for more stable assets like gold and silver will almost assuredly be on the rise.

Next week will be important to investors who want to receive a bit more insight into the current strength of the US economy. There are some pieces of economic data due out over the next 5 days of trading, but none that are as important as the reports we saw this week. Most Asian markets will remain quiet next week as the Lunar New Year celebration continues.

Gold will post a weekly loss for the first time in a month and a half after a busy 5-day session. The big news of the week came in the form of another Federal Reserve of the United States decision to taper its primary monetary policy, also known as Quantitative Easing, by another $10 billion per month. In other news, periphery currencies from places like Turkey and India have been under a lot of pressure from the worldwide equity sell-off as well as the Fed’s most recent decision.

Next week will bring with it a boatload of US economic data as to give investors plenty of ammo to take shots at the Fed’s tapering move. The Chinese (and most of Asia) began celebrating the Lunar New Year today which means that trading from Asia will be muted for the first few days of next week.

Dollar Surges Forward on Fed Decision to Taper

As it stands, there is only one clear-cut winner coming as a result of the Fed’s decision to cut QE by another $10 billion monthly; the US Dollar. Ever since the decision was announced on Wednesday afternoon the greenback has been given new life and is gaining value at every turn. Of course, helping the USD along its upward path are declining stocks and decreased interest in currencies from places like South Africa, India, and Turkey. In fact, the sell-off of the aforementioned currencies was so great in the early parts of this week that the Turkish central bank, among others, was forced to call an emergency meeting and as a result raise lending rates. This move did well to calm the sell-off of currencies and world equities, though both entities are not quite out of the woods yet.

In the immediate lead-up to the Fed’s announcement gold and silver were trading up, but only a day later it was clear that safe-haven demand was not nearly strong enough to counteract profit-taking by investors. Through gold was able to cross the $1,270 threshold on two occasions this week, the metal’s spot value is now closer to $1,240. Silver too is edging lower, closer to falling below $19. Investors in precious metals will be paying close attention to next week’s helping of US economic data as it will likely have some sort of impact on the spot values of metals going forward. Despite the fall in value during the last two days of the week, many market analysts are convinced that safe-haven demand for precious metals will be on the rise over the course of the next few weeks and months.

Despite gold posting losses today, the overall outlook on precious metals is looking better now than it did a few weeks ago.

Precious metals are showing signs of increased strength this week as both metals have made gains that will satisfy investors as well as keep them hungry for more. US stocks seem to be losing momentum and in the same breath precious metals are gaining it. With more QE tapering on the horizon this might just be the end of the line for US equities which have been making a comeback since record lows experienced in 2009.

Though gold has finally crossed back over the $1,200 threshold, the real test will be to see if the metal can sustain these gains and possibly even build upon them.

Equities on the Way Out

Up until this week US stocks were posting some impressive gains and the investing world was more readily perking up at the thought of investing in US equities. Just as soon as that extreme bullish run began, however, it seems to be coming to an end. This week saw a huge decline in the strength of US equities which has caused many market analysts to worry about the immediate future of the US marketplace. If stocks are cooling off that can only mean one thing; more room for gold and silver to make gains.

The latter stages of this week showed investors that precious metals were back on the rise. After posting large gains on Thursday, metals were able to add some more value on Friday to make this the 5th consecutive week of gains for gold.

Now, with the Fed on the verge of making another $10 billion reduction to QE, the outlook on stocks could not get much more bleak. This fact is only giving the precious metals bulls more confidence that gold and silver are due to make an extended run. It will be interesting to see how next week pans out. As of now it is shaping up like next week will be the most action-packed week we have experienced thus far in 2014.

Gold and silver are both receiving boosts in the early hours of Friday thanks to a much weaker than expected US jobs report for this past December. Arguably the most highly anticipated economic report of the week, the US jobs data for this past December is what investors have been waiting for for almost two weeks now.

Chinese trade reports did well to complement the disappointing US jobs data as they too came back weaker than the market had anticipated. After what has been a week of ups and downs for gold and silver investors will be happy to head into the weekend with gold on more of an upbeat run.

Disappointing Jobs Data Pushes Gold Forward

Early in the week the ADP employment report for this past December came back beating market expectations by a large margin. Taking that report into consideration the market was then convinced that today’s non-farm payrolls report would show that non-farm payrolls rose by around 200,000 this past December. When the report was released earlier this morning it came back much weaker than what the market had anticipated. Compared to the 200,000 increase in payrolls that was expected, the report showed  that only about 75,000 payrolls were added in December. Even though some market experts are saying that this report was skewed due to the holidays and will be revised by the end of the month, this report has added fuel to the fire that is the debate about Quantitative Easing.

Presently, the weaker than expected employment report for December is putting downward pressure on the US Dollar while propelling gold and silver forward. With that being said, the pace at which precious metals have been climbing this morning is a bit disappointing considering how drastically different the payrolls data was than what was expected.

A report out of China showed that the nation’s trading surplus shrunk to $25.6 billion in December, much weaker than November’s surplus of nearly $34 billion. Market expectations for today’s trade surplus report was around $32 billion which means that this report was viewed as being a bit disappointing. Exports out of China increased by a little over 4% on an annual basis in December while imports improved by over 8%. In all, the reports out of China and the US were viewed as disappointing on the whole.

Gold and silver have posted some solid gains this week, especially considering it was yet another slow, holiday trading week. Over the course of the past two days of the week gold has picked up over thirty dollars while silver gained almost a whole dollar. While these gains are impressive, investors and market experts alike are unsure whether this was an isolated fluke or if it is indicative of a run that will continue next week.

With 2014 finally underway, it is only appropriate that we ponder what the next few months may hold for precious metals spot values.

Debt Ceiling Deadline an Issue…Again

The last time you have probably heard of the debt ceiling and its implications with regard to the US government was probably back in October of this past year. Back then, problems lawmakers had with agreeing on a budget as well as raising the borrowing limit forced the government to shutdown for over two weeks. The shutdown was ended thanks to lawmakers coming to temporary agreements with regard to both the budget and debt ceiling. A few weeks ago, the temporary budget was put back on the table and much to the surprise of everyone in the US, they came to a permanent agreement. Unfortunately, however, the same cannot be said about the debt ceiling, whose temporary deal is set to expire at the beginning of February.

With each passing day, the debt ceiling deadline inches closer and closer. If lawmakers are unable to come to an agreement with regard to the US’ borrowing limit, the government will be forced to focus on only that matter until a solution is reached. Not only that, but the borrowing of funds that helps the US government operate on a day to day basis will be put on hold.

What does this mean for precious metals? At this point it is hard to say. But one thing that is for sure is that the debt ceiling will be something for investors to focus on. Apart from this issue the geopolitical atmosphere in the US has been fairly quiet as of late, and if a deal is not reached that all may change very soon.