After more than a week of consecutive losses, gold and silver are finally seeing a day of gains. Bargain hunters have hit the market with full force in light of recently declined spot values, but bargain hunters alone are not enough to keep the spot values of gold and silver trending upward. If the marketplace continues to see a lack of bullish news with regard to gold and silver there is no saying how far spot values could decline.
This week is going to be bust as far as economic data is concerned thanks to a number of reports coming out of the US and Europe. Arguably the most important report of the week will come Friday in the form of March non-farm payrolls data. After recent remarks from members of the Fed the market is expecting payrolls to have jumped up by a considerable margin during March.
The Week’S Economic Data
Today is only Wednesday and the marketplace has already been dealt its fair share of US and world economic data. Earlier in the week it was reported that China’s manufacturing PMI moved upward for the first time in half of a year. Though its move upward was very slight, this is good news from a manufacturing sector that has recently been hit with a lot of scrutiny. We will continue to analyze any and all economic data out of China in order to gauge whether the uptick in the manufacturing sector was an isolated improvement or something indicative of a more lasting trend.
Europe’s manufacturing PMI declined during March which in turn spread rumors that the EU may soon be facing intense deflation. Though this is only a speculation, it is a valid one and one that the European Central Bank will have to carefully mull over at their meeting this Thursday. As it stands, the predominant thought is that the ECB will have to institute some sort of monetary stimulus measure in the near future; some are even pointing to tomorrow’s meeting as a possible time for new stimulus measures.
Finally, today marked the release of the latest US ADP employment report. Though this report is not hawked over nearly as much as the non-farm payrolls data will be, it is important nonetheless. The report indicated that about 191,000 jobs were added to the US economy this past March, a number that was below expectations. Still, most investors were happy to see any sign of healthy job growth and will take today’s report as being positive. Having said that, it will also bolster expectations for the payrolls data due out on Friday.