Precious metals spot values moved marginally higher on Thursday, fueled initially by a weaker than anticipated employment report from the United States. After some time, however, spot values parred early morning gains and ended up closer to where they began the day. Also making news today was some economic data from Europe, though this did not have too much of an affect on equity markets.
Light Economic Data Attracts A lot of Attention Today
The big piece of news making rounds today was that of the weekly jobless claims report from the United States. According to the report, more than 310,000 new claims were filed this week, up from 295,000 a week ago. This news prompted the US Dollar to concede value while the spot values of precious metals shot up. Unfortunately, as the day moved on, early gains were parred and turned back for gold and silver.
Out of Europe, it was reported that the EU’s second-quarter GDP remained unchanged from the first-quarter. On an annualized basis, however, the EU’s GDP was up by about .7%. This data fell far short of expectations and put some pressure on the Euro currency. This, in turn, allowed the US Dollar to make gains such that losses compiled earlier in the day were reverted. Unfortunately, this also put some pressure on precious metals, causing them to concede what little value was added during the morning hours.
As we head into the final day of the week, expect the investing atmosphere to remain as quiet and subdued as it has been all week long. There are still a number of ongoing geopolitical events for the investing world to pay attention to, but most of them are not gaining nearly as much attention now as they were a few weeks ago. It is the hope of many that next week brings about a bit more in the way of markets-moving economic data, but it is more likely that next week will be quiet.