Precious metals are playing part in a bit of a corrective pullback on Wednesday thanks to profit-taking stemming from early week gains, but the metals are still in a better position today than they were at any point 3 or 4 weeks ago. With stock markets in the US calming down a bit thanks to some upbeat corporate earnings, it is preliminarily looking like metals will be in for an uphill battle throughout the latter half of the week.
To be truthful, this week is not set to bring about too much in the way of markets-moving economic data, and this much is causing investors to shift their attention to the progress, or lack thereof, of the currency and stock markets. While we did receive some upbeat economic data from China yesterday, it did nothing more than reaffirm the growing belief that the Chinese economy is, in fact slowing down. At present, the US economy is one of the few in the world that is performing at what some are calling a high level. Whether that continue to be the case or not, however, remains to be seen.
Upbeat Corporate Earnings Revitalize Stock Markets
In case you weren’t around to witness it, last week saw equity markets in the US take a massive downturn. While most of the stock market movement in the US was downward facing a week ago, the even bigger issue was how extremely volatile equity markets in the US and elsewhere around the world were. So many people were under the impression that equity market rallies were complete and that stocks would be pegging themselves downward over the course of the coming days and weeks.
As such, precious metals were able to turn last 5-day trading session into a second consecutive week of gains; something that hasn’t been done for quite some time. Shortly after this week got underway, the word on the street was that metals would be adding even more value, but today is showing that such may not actually be the case. As we look ahead to the last two and a half days of this week, there is no doubting that the attention of global investors will remain firmly fixated on stocks as well as the currency markets.
At present, there is a growing belief that the European Central Bank will soon be introducing a quantitative easing package for the Euro Zone, but there is so far no solid facts to back that belief up. We will keep a close eye on any and all ECB developments as they will be extremely important to investors from all over the world.