Gold and silver sharply fell again during most of last week. As the year is winding down and the U.S is getting closer to the fiscal cliff, the debates during this week between the White House and Congress could contribute to an increase in the volatility of precious metals prices. Furthermore, due to the holidays the trade volume is expected to fall during the week, which might result in an increase in price volatility. Will gold and silver continue to fall? Some analysts suspect the recent weakness of precious metals is due to the news, in which Morgan Stanley and Citigroup advised investors to pull their money out of Paulson’s fund. This raised speculations that Paulson will liquidate some of his investments in gold (his largest position). Up to now, however, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), the largest gold ETF worldwide, didn’t have a drop in its gold position. As I have stated the latest precious metals weekly outlook, several reports may affect precious metals this week. These items include: U.S new and pending home sales, Bank of Japan minutes of recent monetary policy meeting, U.S consumer confidence report and jobless claims weekly update. On today’s agenda: Japan’s CSPI.
Here is a short outlook for precious metals for Monday, December 24th:
Precious Metals – December Update
On Friday, the price of gold increased by 0.86% to $1,659.4; Silver price also rose by 1.78% to $30.15. During last week, gold declined by 2.11%; silver, by 6.66%.
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Current Gold and Silver Rates as of December 24th
Gold (short term delivery) is traded at $1,665 per t oz. a $5.5 or 0.33% increase as of 09:07*.
Silver (short term delivery) is at $30.38 per t oz – a $0.17 or 0.57% increase as of 09:07*.
(* GMT)
Here is a reminder of the top events and publications that are scheduled for today and tomorrow (all times GMT):
Today
23:50 – Japan’s CSPI
Tomorrow
23:50 – Bank of Japan –Monetary Policy Minutes
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