After 2 consecutive days of losses, precious metals were able to bounce back and record solid gains on Wednesday. Admittedly, there hasn’t been too much economic data on the slate this week, but that will all change come tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, however, the market bears are still in control and spot values are continuing to feel pressure.
Though economic data has been light through the first half of the week, there has been a lot going on on the geopolitical front. Beginning late last week and carrying through to today, citizens of Hong Kong have taken to the streets in protest of what they are calling a lack of democratic reforms. The protests have, at times, turned violent, but in recent days have been somewhat peaceful. Regardless, the unrest in the financial capital of the world has caused world equity markets to move noticeably downward. It will be interesting to see what kind of extended impact, if any, this has on the marketplace.
Market Looks Ahead to A Flurry of Economic Activity
The first half of this week has been fairly quiet from an economic standpoint, but tomorrow will change that as the European Central Bank is set to convene for their monthly policy meeting. In recent weeks, most of the data stemming from the EU has been poor and the world is wondering what the ECB will do, if anything, in order to effectively bring about economic recovery to the European Union. At present, however, no one is really expecting the ECB to make any major policy shifts simply because a policy shift was enacted only a few months ago.
On Friday, the market’s attention will shift to the release of September’s US employment report. As it stands, the market is expecting to see a healthy number of jobs added to the US economy. With that said, however, recent economic data is such that no one can really be confident in the strength of the US economy. Though I imagine Friday’s data will have some impact on the spot values of precious metals, I cannot say with any confidence that benefit will be derived by gold nor silver. Still, it will be interesting to see if metals can hang on to today’s gains as the week plays out.