Gold and silver continued to zigzag throughout last week, but their jump on Wednesday was enough to maintain their weekly prices elevated. The recent depreciation of the US dollar against leading currencies including Japanese yen and Euro may have contributed to the recovery of precious metals prices. Furthermore, the latest reports regarding the U.S may have affected precious metals: retail sales inched up by 0.3% to reach $427.2 billion; the producer price index fell by 0.3% but the PPI sans energy and food rose by 0.2%; the federal budget deficit grew by 193 billion during February; finally, jobless clams declined by 9k to reach 315k. These mixed signals regarding the progress of the U.S economy may have contributed to the recent developments in the prices of gold and silver. In China, the industrial output growth rate was 8.6%, year over year – the lowest growth rate in the past five years. This news may have pressured down commodities prices. By the end of the week, gold price increased by 3.05% and silver by 2.3%.
Here is a short overview of the latest changes in precious metals prices between March 10th and March 14th:
Precious Metals Overview:
The price of gold increased by 3.05% last week; moreover, during last week, the average price reached $1,362.02/t. oz which was 1.36% higher than last week’s average rate of $1,343.70/t. oz. Gold ended the week at $1,379 /t. oz.
The price of silver, much like gold, rose by 2.3%; on the other hand, the average weekly rate was $21.12/t oz, which was 1.32% below last week’s rate $21.28/t oz.
During last week, the average daily percent shifts of gold were 0.604%; silver had an average daily change of 0.464%.
The chart below shows the shifts in precious metals prices, in which they are normalized to 100 as of March 7th. Gold and silver had an upward trend during last week.
The second chart shows the daily percent shifts of precious metals prices (or in other words the changes around the trend). Silver and gold rose mainly on Wednesday and Friday. The daily percent changes ranged between -0.75% and 2.61%.
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