Gold and silver prices started off the month of December with light changes as they have moderately declined after they had finished November. Today, the U.S. non-farm payroll will be published and the Canada Employment Report. Currently, gold and silver are traded up.
Here is a market outlook of precious metals prices for today, December 2nd:
Gold and Silver Prices –Update
Gold price slightly declined on Thursday by 0.60% to $1,739.8; silver price also slightly declined by 0.14% to $32.76. The chart shows the changes of gold and silver prices in the past couple of weeks (normalized gold and silver prices to November 17th 2011). During the week gold price slightly inclined by 1.5% and silver price by 1.6%.
The ratio between gold and silver prices slightly slipped on Thursday, December 1st to 53.11.
Gold producers also were affected by the recent slowdown in gold price’s rally as their stocks were traded at their lowest level in nine years. Many still anticipate a rally in commodities prices including bullion prices. This outlook was further boosted by Goldman Sachs projection that commodities will rally in 2012.
On Today’s Agenda
U.S. Non-farm Employment Report for November: in the previous report for October, the number of non-farm payroll employment inclined by 80k; the U.S unemployment rate slightly slipped to 9.0%. This report could affect not gold and silver prices (see my last review on the U.S labor report): During the past year there was a negative relation between the U.S. non-farm report and precious metals prices so that as the U.S. employment grew, gold and silver prices tended to decline during that day.
The table below shows the recent announcements and the percent daily changes of gold and silver prices on those days.
Canada Employment Report: In the last employment report for October, unemployment inclined by 0.2 percent points to 7.3%; the employment fell by 54k. If the upcoming report will show an improvement in the labor report in during November, this might strengthen the Canadian dollar against the USD and consequently might affect the prices of commodities (see here previous report);
Forex Trading / Gold & Silver Prices – Update
The Euro to U.S Dollar exchange rate slightly rose yesterday by 0.12% to 1.3462. Other forex currencies on the other hand gained on the US dollar such as the Australian dollar. The positive correlations between precious metals prices and forex exchange rates may further affect the daily percent changes of gold and silver prices.
Current Gold and Silver Prices
The major precious metals are currently traded sharply up in the European markets:
Current gold price per ounce short term future (January 2012 delivery) is traded at $1,754.40 per t oz. a $14.6 or 0.84% increase as of 11:09*.
Current silver price per ounce short term future (January 2012 delivery) is at $33.390 per t oz – a $0.631 or 1.93% incline as of 11:09*.
(* GMT)
Gold and Silver Prices Outlook:
Gold and silver prices started December with moderate changes, but they may start to rise as major commodities players will raise the ante and extend their portfolio. On the other hand today’s U.S. employment report might be positive and if so it might bring down gold and silver prices as was the case in the previous couple of months.
Here is a reminder of the top events and reports that are planed for today (all times GMT):
Today
12:00 – Canada Unemployment Rate and Employment Report
13.30 – U.S. Unemployment Rate Report
For further reading:
About the Author: Lior Cohen, M.A in Economics, a commodities analyst and blogger at Trading NRG.