Here is a short overview of the recent changes in gold and silver prices during the week of March 5th to March 9th; this includes a short description of the main news items, decisions and events that may have affected precious metals prices; in this analysis I use charts and a fundamental analysis to examine how if any last week’s events and financial reports affected the direction of gold and silver prices.
One of the main news items that stirred up not only the metals markets but also other financial markets such as the forex markets was related to the developments in the Greek debt crisis. During last week it was reported that investors had agreed to swap nearly 85% of the Greek debt. The Greek debt restructuring with private investors put Greece officially in default. In this “restructuring” Greece managed to cut €105 billion of its privately held debt. This debt cut is also putting Greece one step forward in receiving a €130 billion of international bailout.
Another big headline was the contraction of the EU GDP by 0.3% during Q4 of 2011.
Furthermore, the ECB had announced it will keep the interest rate unchanged; ECB also released its financial reports for 2011. According to the report, ECB’s net profit increased to €728 million.
By the end of last week, the U.S. non-farm employment report came out and showed a 227k increase in non-farm payroll employment. This news didn’t drag down gold and silver prices as they have finished the week rising. This may have been because Gold traders were very bullish in recent days, perhaps in anticipation of next week’s FOMC meeting.
The Euro slightly declined against the US dollar; other “risk” currencies such as the Australian dollar and Canadian dollar also depreciated against the U.S dollar during last week. This direction of the Euro/U.S. dollar may have pulled down gold and silver prices during the first couple of days of last week.
The video link above provides a broad forecast for the major news and events that might affect the path of gold and silver prices during the week of March 12th to March 16th; the video includes reviewing the main reports, events, decisions and news items to be published during the upcoming week. Some of these reports and events include: FOMC meeting and rate decision, U.S. Philly Fed survey, U.S. Producer Price Index, Bank of Japan’s rate decision and monetary policy, U.S. Federal budget balance, German ZEW economic sentiment, U.S. CPI and U.S. jobless claims weekly update (just to name a few).
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