Gold and silver spot values are reeling after some upbeat US economic data was made public today. As it stands, it’s looking like precious metals will be heading for their first weekly loss in more than a month. Regardless of that fact, both gold and silver spot values are still holding elevated positions and are holding on to the near-term technical momentum.
The focus of the past few weeks has almost solely been on the civil war in Iraq, but that wasn’t really the case over the past few days. While there is still plenty of violence and a strong ISIS presence throughout a large part of the country, things have not been nearly as intense the last 4 days as they have been over the past 2 or 3 weeks. Still, it is widely expected that things in Iraq will get worse before they get any better and, as such, I’m sure we will continue to keep an eye on the situation in the Middle East.
Upbeat Employment Report Gives US Dollar a Boost
Due to this week ending a day earlier than normal as a result of the Independence Day holiday, the US non-farms data for June was forced to be released today. As is the case most times the monthly employment report is due out, investors were anxiously awaiting what the numbers had to say. Just a day ago, on Wednesday, the ADP employment report for June was released and showed an addition of more than 280,000 jobs last month. With that said, most people are forced to take the ADP report with a grain of salt as it often yields entirely different numbers than what the Labor Department’s report does.
However, this week offered a change of pace as the non-farms data more or less mimicked what the ADP report showed. Officially, more than 285,000 jobs were added to the economy in June; a number that handily beat market expectations of between 212,000 and 215,000 new jobs. What’s more, the boost in jobs was enough to reduce the overall unemployment rate to 6.1%. As you could have probably guessed, this upbeat data drove the US Dollar upward and, in turn, put some downward pressure on gold and silver.
As a result of this week being shortened, it is likely that we will see further reaction to today’s jobs data during the early parts of next week.