Gold and silver slightly rose during most of last week. Their price volatility was very low despite all the major reports and decisions that were made during last week. ECB left the Euro cash rate unchanged. This news may have contributed to the rally of the Euro on Thursday. Other leading central banks including BOC, BOJ, BOE and RBA also kept their respective monetary policy unchanged. In the U.S several reports were published and showed some signs of progress to the economy: during February, 236 thousand jobs were added based on the recent non-farm payroll report; jobless claims declined again by 7k to reach 374k. The rise in employment may have pushed the Euro and other currencies down on Friday. During last week, the Euro currency edged down while other currencies such as the Aussie dollar appreciated against the USD. The mixed trend in the forex markets may have also partly affected the little movement of precious metals. By the end of the week, the Euro/USD declined by 0.13%; the Aussie dollar appreciated by 0.32% against the USD. Finally, gold inched up by 0.32%; silver rose by 1.66%.
Here is a short recap of the changes in precious metals prices between March 4th and March 8th:
Precious Metals Recap:
Gold price edged up during last week by 0.32%; conversely, during said week, the average rate reached $1,574.84 /t. oz which was 0.9% below last week’s average rate of $1,589.18 /t. oz. Gold ended the week at $1,576.9 /t. oz.
Silver, even more than gold, rose during the previous week by 1.66%; on the other hand, the average rate decreased by 0.35% to reach $28.71/t oz compared to last week’s average $28.81/t oz.
During last week, the average daily percent changes of gold reached 0.064%; silver had an average daily changed of 0.331%.
The chart below shows the changes of precious metals, as their prices are normalized to 100 as of March 1st. Gold and silver prices have had a moderate upward trend during the week.
The second chart presents the daily percent changes of precious metals (or in other words the changes around the trend). Silver and gold slightly rose during last week. Precious metals prices daily percent changes ranged between nearly 0.7% gain and 0% change.
For further reading:
- Why Gold Isn’t Pulling Up?
- Gold and Silver Outlook for March
- What Could Impede This Gold Company?
- Is the Big Gold Rally Behind Us?