Gold And Silver | Recap for February 3-7

Gold and silver changed course and rallied during last week following the recent news regarding the slow progress of the U.S economy: Nonfarm payroll report for January increased by only 113k jobs were added – lower than expected; the manufacturing PMI fell by 5.2 percentage points to 51.3 – this means the manufacturing sectors are growing at a slower pace than in the previous month. This could have been due to the cold weather. Conversely, jobless clams fell by 20k to reach 331k. In Europe, the ECB left its rate unchanged; in Australia, the RBA left its rate flat but the outlook seems grim, which could suggest there won’t be additional rate cuts. This news led to a sharp rise in the Aussie dollar. These developments could have contributed to the rally of precious metals prices. By the end of the week, gold price rose by 1.9% and silver by 4.3%.

Here is a short overview of the recent developments in precious metals prices between February 3rd and February 7th:

Precious Metals Overview

table weekly gold and silver  prices February 3-7 2014The price of gold rose by 1.9% last week; moreover, during last week, the average price reached $1,257.74/t. oz which was 0.48% higher than last week’s average rate of $1,251.72/t. oz. Gold ended the week at $1,263.2 /t. oz.

The price of silver, even more than gold, increased by 4.35%; further, the average weekly rate was $19.70/t oz, which was 1.54% above last week’s rate $19.40/t oz.

During last week, the average daily percent shifts of gold were 0.377%; silver had an average daily change of 0.858%.

The chart below presents the changes in precious metals prices, in which they are normalized to 100 as of January 31st. Gold and silver have rallied during last week.

weekly precious metals chart February 3-7 2014The second chart shows the daily percent shifts of precious metals prices (or in other words the changes around the trend). Silver and gold declined mainly on Tuesday and Thursday. The daily percent changes ranged between 0.91% gain and 2.2% decline. 

weekly precious metals chart  February 3-7 2014 percent changeFor further reading: