Gold and silver are on their way to finishing what has been a positive week in impressive fashion. Now that the US government shutdown is in the rear-view mirror, investors have begun to place their attention on other matters. After some of the delayed economic reports from the US started making their way to the public, it became instantly clear that the US economy was negatively impacted by the shutdown.
Now, investors are looking forward to the possible long-term impact that the shutdown will have on the US economy.
Delayed US Economic Reports Surfacing
The US government shutdown, which lasted over two weeks, essentially put the US economy on hold. With most government employees out of work, the economic data which investors rely so heavily upon simply wasn’t available. Now that the shutdown is over, however, many of these delayed reports are making their way into the news.
The first, and arguably most important, delayed report is that of September’s employment report. When it was released on Tuesday, it was already about 18 days late, and the figures in the employment report were not nearly up to the market’s expectations. While the market was anticipating an almost 200,000 increase in non-farm payrolls, the actual figure came in at 148,000. Despite this figure being weaker than what was expected, the overall unemployment rate in the US fell by one tenth of a percentage point to 7.2%. Nonetheless, investors began ditching their US currency and US stocks as it was clear the economy of the United States was not operating at the level which we witnessed only a few months ago.
As investors more readily abandon the declining Dollar and US stocks, precious metals are being seen as a great alternative. We will continue to monitor the news as more and more delayed reports are making their way out. To that end, however, it is becoming increasingly obvious that some reports are going to be foregone altogether due to the end of October approaching quickly and reports coming due.
For the next few months, it is expected that safe-haven demand for gold will be on the rise, though an ongoing interest rate crisis may change that slightly.