The high volatility of gold and silver prices has returned last week. By the end, gold and silver have declined. Albeit these two precious metals have had an unclear trend: They moved from gains to losses almost on a daily basis. Many reports were released during the week that could influence the FOMC members in preparations for the last FOMC meeting of the year, which will take place during December 17-18. These reports will the last significant reports regarding the progress of the U.S economy, Specifically, the GDP growth rate for the third quarter was revised up to 3.6%; jobless claims fell again by 23k to reach 298k; new home sales spiked by more than 25% during October to reach 444k; manufacturing PMI rose again to 57.3 – the manufacturing sectors in the U.S are expanding at a slightly faster pace. Finally, NF payroll report showed 203k jobs were added during November – inline with expectations. All these reports suggest the U.S economy is growing and recovering from its slowdown. This trend may have contributed to fall of precious metals prices. By the end of the week, gold price fell by 1.67% and silver by 2.6%.
Here is a short overview of the recent developments in precious metals prices between December 2nd and December 6th:
Precious Metals Overview:
The price of gold fell by 1.67% last week; moreover, during last week, the average price reached $1,230.62 /t. oz which was 0.9% lower than last week’s average rate of $1,241.74 /t. oz. Gold ended the week at $1,229.60 /t. oz.
The price of silver, even more than gold, plummeted by 2.6%; further, the average weekly rate was $19.42/t oz, which was 1.51% below last week’s rate $19.81/t oz.
During last week, the average daily percent changes of gold were -0.326%; silver had an average daily change of -0.493%.
The chart below presents the changes in bullion prices, in which they are normalized to 100 as of November 29th. Gold and silver have tumbled down on Tuesday only to partly recover from this downfall the following day.
The second chart shows the daily percent shifts of precious metals prices (or in other words the changes around the trend). Silver and gold moved in an unclear trend during last week. Gold and silver prices sharply fell on Tuesday only to rally on Wednesday. The daily percent shifts ranged between 4% gain and 3.72% drop.