The prices of precious metals shifted gear and rallied during the week. Moreover, due this rally, the prices of gold and silver ended the week higher than they were a week back. Bernanke’s speech from last week didn’t seem to influence traders. I guess we will have to wait for the next FOMC meeting at the end of the month and see if the Fed will adjust its policy. Several reports were published last week and may have also affected forex and commodities markets: China’s GDP expanded by 7.9% in the forth quarter; U.S retail sales rose by 0.5% in December; Philly Fed index changed direction and declined in the January survey; the U.S jobless claims declined by 37k to reach 335k; housing starts spiked in December; both the core PPI and CPI inched up in December. The report on China may have helped rally commodities prices; the U.S reports showed a mixed signal as to the progress of the U.S economy, but were mostly positive and may have also contributed to the rally of commodities including gold and silver. Finally, the Euro/USD edged down last week by 0.16%; the Canadian dollar and Aussie dollar also slightly depreciated against the USD. The depreciation of these currencies may have curbed the rally of precious metals prices.
By the end of the week, gold rose by 1.6%; silver, by 5.07%.
Here is a short recap of the developments in precious metals prices between January 14th and January 18th:
Precious Metals Recap:
Gold price increased during last week by 1.59%; moreover, during said week, the average rate reached $1,682.86 /t. oz which is 1.35% below the previous week’s average rate of $1,660.52 /t. oz. Gold ended the week at $1,687 /t. oz.
Silver, even more than gold, rose during the previous week by 5.07%; moreover, the average rate also increased by 3.83% to reach $31.56/t oz compared to last week’s average $30.40//t oz.
During last week, the average daily percent change of gold reached 0.32%; silver had an average daily changed of 1%.
The chart below presents thedevelopments of precious metals, as their prices are normalized to 100 as of January 11th. Bullion prices have had an upward trend during most of the week.
The second chart demonstrates the daily percent changes of precious metals (or in other words the changes around the trend). Silver and gold had an upward trend during the previous week. During last week, precious metals rates daily percent changes ranged between nearly 2.3% gain and a 0.22% loss.
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