Gold and silver are trading slightly up after conceding a lot of value on Tuesday. Sub-par US economic data in conjunction with an upbeat forecast for annual Chinese economic growth are working in gold and silver’s favor. With that being said, however, investor risk-appetite is undoubtedly on the rise today and is preventing precious metals from making too large of strides forward.
As we head into the latter stages of the week, investors will continue to keep an eye on the situation in Ukraine. Over the last few days, tensions between Ukraine, Russia, and the West have declined but are still quite high. With crisis talks scheduled to take place in Paris over the next few days, the overriding hope is cooler heads will prevail and that we can finally put this situation to rest.
February Jobs Data, Increased Chinese Growth Forecast
Though it seems like things are working in gold and silver’s favor today, gains as of noon were very small.
Earlier today, the non-farm payrolls data for February was released and came back slightly below market expectations. The market was expecting to see about 150,000 jobs added this past February, but the report showed that only about 139,000 jobs were added. Though this number is only slightly below what the market expected, it ended up being a bullish factor for precious metals, as is the case whenever non-farm payrolls come back below expectations. This is the third consecutive month in which payrolls came back below market expectations, and is rightfully beginning to worry some investors.
In other news from around the world, Chinese officials have stated that they expect their economy to grow by nearly 8% this year. In light of recently sub-par economic data from China, this upbeat of a forecast was definitely a surprise to some. Nonetheless, the increased growth forecast for China this year ended up being a bullish factor for gold and silver. It will be interesting to see if precious metals can build upon today’s small gains or if they will feel more pressure from outside factors such as continued risk-appetite.