Gold And Silver | Weekly Recap for July 29 – August 2

Despite the many items that unfolded during the week, both gold and silver prices didn’t do much on a weekly scale. During the week the US dollar sharply appreciated against the several currencies including the Aussie dollar and Canadian dollar but remained nearly unchanged against the Euro. This unclear trend in the forex market may have also contributed to the slow movement of precious metals prices. By the end of the week, the Euro remained nearly unchanged against the USD; the Aussie dollar tumbled down by 3.82% against the USD and the yen depreciated by 0.74%. The FOMC meeting concluded last week with no big headlines or changes to policy. Investors are still waiting to see when and if the FOMC will pull the trigger on tapering QE3. Until then the progress of the U.S economy may influence not only forex investors but also bullion investors. In the U.S several reports came out: the GDP growth rate for the second quarter reached 1.7%, which was lower than anticipated; non-farm payroll report showed a rise of only 162k jobs – lower than expected; jobless claims fell by 19k to reach 326k. These reports showed a mixed trend that could also partly explain the mixed trend in the bullion market. In Europe, ECB left its policy and interest rate unchanged but ECB President   Draghi reiterated his pledge to maintain low interest rates. 

Here is a short review of the latest developments in precious metals prices between July 29th and August 2nd:

Precious Metals Review:  

table weekly gold and silver  prices July 29- August 2  2013The price of gold slid by 0.86% last week; moreover, during last week, the average price reached $1,317.20 /t. oz which was 0.82% below last week’s average rate of $1,328.10 /t. oz. Gold ended the week at $1,310.20 /t. oz.

During the previous week silver price, unlike gold price, slightly rose by 0.76%; conversely, the average weekly rate was $19.74/t oz, which was 1.96% below last week’s rate $20.13/t oz.

During last week, the average daily percent changes of gold were 0.171%; silver had an average daily change of 0.76%.

The chart below shows the changes in precious metals prices, in which they are normalized to 100 as of July 26th. Gold and silver prices moved in an unclear trend during the week.

weekly precious metals chart   July 29- August 2 2013The second chart shows the daily percent changes of precious metals prices (or in other words the shifts around the trend). Silver and gold slightly rose on Monday only to keep falling during the rest of the week. Silver bounced back on Friday, while gold price continue to fall. Precious metals prices daily percent changes ranged between 1.5% gain and 0.9% decline.  

weekly precious metals chart July 29- August 2 2013 percent changeFor further reading: