Precious metals prices started off the week with an unclear trend and coming Thursday they have plunged along with the rest of the market. The main news of the week came on Friday and was the conclusion of the EU Summit: EU leaders decided to establish a united supervisory mechanism for EU banking system. They have also decided that struggling EU banks (including Spanish banks) will be bailed out by the EU rescue fund and not by the countries with the struggling banks (Spain). This news had an immediate effect on the markets as major commodities, stocks and currencies hiked on the last day of the week. Nonetheless, it will remain to be seen if this decision will stabilize The Euro Zone.
At the beginning of the week the U.S consumer confidence report came out and showed the index declined during the month. On the other hand several U.S related report, mainly related to the housing market, came out during the week and showed the U.S economy is progressing: U.S new home sales went up; pending home sales index also rose; new orders of core durable goods increased last month. U.S jobless claims remained nearly unchanged at 386,000. The Euro and Aussie dollar sharply appreciated against the USD on Friday after the EU Summit news came out; their rally may have helped pull up major commodities prices including bullion rates.
By the end of the week, gold rose by 2.38% and silver by 3.32%.
Here is a short recap of the changes in Bullion between June 25th and June 29th:
Precious Metals Recap:
Gold price increased during last week by 2.38%; alternatively, during said time the average rate reached $1,579.26 /t. oz which is 1.28% below the previous week’s average rate of $1,599.68 /t. oz. Gold finished at $1,604.2 /t. oz.
Silver, even more than gold, rose on a weekly scale by 3.32%; furthermore, the average rate reached $27.12/t oz which is 2.49% below the previous week’s average $27.81/t oz.
During last week, the average daily percent change of gold increased by 0.49%; silver also rose by an average 0.7%.
The chart below presents the changes of precious metals, as their rates were normalized to 100 to June 22nd. Bullion prices have shifted from gains to losses with an unclear trend only to end up the week on a positive note.
The second chart shows the daily percent shifts of precious metals (or in other words the shifts around the trend). Bullion prices shifted from gains to losses and nearly didn’t move during the first three days of the week; on Thursday the bullion, much like the rest of the market including other commodities and U.S stocks tumbled down; on the last day of the week after the conclusion of the EU Summit gold and silver rebounded and hiked along with other commodities prices. Their daily percent changes ranged between nearly 5% gain and 2.7% loss.
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