Gold and silver spot values are trending downward for yet another day as a result of a positive week of US economic data, While there have already been a number of upbeat reports made public this week, there are more on the way. In addition to all this, there are quite a few geopolitical events that are continuously catching the attention of investors the world over.

US Stocks, Dollar Rise After Positive Data

This week is being touted as one of the busiest and most important weeks of the summer from an economic data standpoint. Already made public was the United States second-quarter GDP report from this year. Beating expectations easily, the report showed that the US economy grew by more than 4% on an annualized basis this second quarter. As you could have probably guessed, this data worked to boost US equity markets as well as the US Dollar.

Shortly after the GDP data was made public on Wednesday, the FOMC concluded their most recent policy meeting. That said, the FOMC offered very little in the way of markets-moving data as they announced their plans to continue with the tapering of Quantitative Easing. Though investors were hoping to find out some more information with regard to the potential for raised interest rates in the United States, the Fed provided little insight on the matter.

Today, the positive US economic data continued as it was reported that July played host to the fewest number of unemployment benefit applications in the last 8 years or more. Rounding out the week tomorrow will be the US employment report for July. As of now, it is widely believed that job growth in July will have exceeded 230,000. After last month saw more than 280,000 jobs added to the economy, it only makes sense that this month’s job growth is also expected to be robust. If things go as planned through the last day of the week, it is extremely likely that precious metals will continue to trend downwards.

At this point, the only factors helping precious metals at all is the wide variety of geopolitical tensions around the world. With violence raging in Ukraine and Gaza, there is a strong possibility that safe-haven demand for gold and silver will once again play a role in the marketplace. For now, however, most ongoing geopolitical situations are sitting comfortably on the back-burner of the marketplace’s attention.

Precious metals are losing a lot of value as of midday on Thursday, thanks to an increased risk-on attitude as well as improving equity markets around the world. Despite continued attention being placed on the number of geopolitical flashpoints from around the world, these are doing more in the way of limiting selling pressure than they are fueling safe-haven purchases. As we head into the final day of the week, it will be interesting to see if precious metals can recover from today’s losses or if things will continue in the direction they have gone for a majority of this week.

Geopolitics Remain Focal Point of Market’s Attention

For the last 2+ weeks, investors the world over have been paying extremely close attention to a number of developing geopolitical incidents. Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, Russian-Ukrainian tensions on the rise, and today’s crashing of a passenger flight over Western Africa are all preoccupying investors to some extent. However, unlike last week, the continued focus on geopolitical happenings has not really translated to an increased interest in precious metals. In fact, this week has seen risk-appetite steadily creep its way back into the market.

In fact, just today, a positive preliminary PMI reading from China in July has caused most Asian equity markets to shoot upward. What’s more, US equity markets have traded upward for a majority of the week and are continuing to do so today. On top of all this, the US Dollar has also been seen making gains against the euro as a direct result of looser monetary policies across the EU. Preliminary forecasts hold that the euro currency will continue declining throughout the remainder of the year.

Unfortunately for precious metals, it seems as though market bears have effectively taken control of the marketplace. With equity markets doing so well despite all this turmoil, investors are remaining cautious, but realistic with regard to their investing decisions. So long as US equity markets, treasuries, and the USD remain as valuable as they currently are, it is fairly easy to see why gold and silver may have a rough few weeks ahead of them.

During the last day of the week i expect the market to remain relatively quiet as investors await answers with regard to what happened to the Air Algerie flight that crashed earlier this morning in Africa. While no foul play is expected just yet, the fact that the flight was cruising over a warzone leaves this crash shrouded with suspicion-at least for now.

Precious metals are seeing significant gains through the first half of the day on Thursday, mostly thanks to an increase in safe-haven demand. Up until today, this week was generally pretty quiet and lacking any major markets-moving news. While Federal Reserve chairperson Janet Yellen made two semi-annual addresses to Congress over the last two days, her remarks were quickly overshadowed by some unforeseen events today.

Malaysia Airlines Flight Reportedly Shot Down Over Ukraine

Up until little more than an hour ago, risk-appetite in the US and across the world was seen rising steadily in the wake of remarks made by Janet Yellen, chair of the US Federal Reserve. Now, safe-haven demand has more or less taken control of the day after it was reported that a Malaysia Airlines flight was shot down over Eastern Ukraine. Preliminary reports from high-ranking Ukrainian government officials are saying that surface-to-air missiles were responsible for the downing of a flight that originated in Amsterdam and was headed for Kuala Lumpur.

While no one is quite sure who or what brought the plane down, many people are looking towards either Russia or pro-Russian separatists as the culprits. With tensions in the region already at all-time highs, this event only stands the chance of making things worse. It must be said, however, that there have been no confirmed reports of missiles being shot, only the words of Ukrainian officials and news agencies. This tragedy marks the second loss of a Malaysia Airlines flight in only a matter of a few months. All told, 295 lives were lost during the tragedy.

While the downed plane in Ukraine is taking up a lot of the headlines, there is also a lot of attention being paid to the continuous escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas. Now, as Israeli forces contemplate a ground invasion of Gaza, the market is really beginning to pay close attention.

As we head into the final day and a half of the week, what was once looking like an awful 5-day trading session for precious metals is now becoming one that may only play host to minor losses. As it stands, gold is now safely above the key $1,300 threshold while silver has once again crossed over $21/ounce. It will be interesting to see if safe-haven demand and continued bargain-hunting will keep these prices locked in and climbing, or if risk-appetite will once again pick up. While this may be a bit preliminary, tomorrow is shaping up to be an exciting last day of what would have otherwise been a fairly lackluster trading week.

Gold and silver spot values are trading significantly higher today as a result of some turbulent economic data coming from both China and the European Union. US markets are generally quiet today, though equity markets are continuing to feel pressure. In fact, equity markets from around the world were seen selling off at a fairly fast rate today.

Increased risk aversion coupled with safe-haven demand is being credited with providing precious metals with quite a boost this week.

Equities Decline, Par Losses By Day’s End

After recovering a bit on Wednesday, US equity markets took part in a major sell-off shortly after markets opened today. Fueled by weak economic data out of Europe and fears that their sovereign debt crisis might not be completely solved, investors rushed to safety in the form of the US Dollar, US treasuries, and precious metals.

While the afternoon did offer some respite from early morning losses, the day was still pretty rough on US stocks. As you could have probably guessed, today’s weak economic data from Europe also caused sell-offs in European equity markets.

On top of it all, fears with regard to the banking system in Portugal surfaced when it was reported that a company associated with the country’s second largest bank missed debt payments. Portugal’s central bank was quick to defend Banco Espirito Santo SA in the wake of their parent company not making loan payments. In an official statement, the central bank of Portugal was quoted as saying Espirito Santo is fully “protected” in this type of situation. Still, it is clear to see that Portugal, and the rest of Europe for that matter, is on edge with regard to their financial stability.

Violence In The Middle East Spurs Safe-Haven Demand

No more than a week ago, the market’s primary focus was on the Iraqi civil war and its ramifications on the precious metals market. Now, investor attention is still focused on the Middle East, but the epicenter of that focus has shifted to Israel and the Gaza Strip.

In response to recent reports of rocket fire from Palestinian forces, the Israeli military launched an air and rocket offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip. With both sides throwing threats back and forth, this Israeli offensive stands the chance to turn into something a bit more severe. With many nations around the world having a vested interest in the region, it should come as no surprise that the market will continue to pay close attention to Israel, Iraq, and the man other regions of the Middle East experienced increasing amounts of violence as of late.

The last day of this week is expected to be quiet from a US economic data standpoint, but I am sure we will see plenty of investors and market experts continuing to mull over the FOMC’s latest minutes as well as the European economic data and crises that surfaced today.

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.

Gold and silver spot values are edging slightly downward in the early morning hours of Thursday despite there not being too much in the way of important economic data to talk about. While the 1st quarter GDP report for the US acted as an underlying bullish factor for metals on Wednesday, a shocking discovery in China may be doing the opposite for spot values today.

In other news, the civil war in Iraq continues to remain in the headlines as violence there only grows worse by the day. US military advisers are now in Baghdad, but they are more than likely not going to provide too much in the way of real help when it comes to fighting off ISIS. The Islamic militant group is simply too strong and too spread out for a few hundred military advisers to make that much of a difference. Then again, crazier things have happened in the past and the market will just have to continue watching and see how the next few days and weeks unfold. As it stands, ISIS is closing in on the capital city of Baghdad as they move further south into the country.

Light Day Of Economic Data Pushes Spot Values Downward

Today didn’t yield much in the way of economic data, but it did bring about the beginning of a two-day EU summit with regard to Ukraine and Russia. EU leaders are going to be discussing how they should go about handling the situation in Ukraine as the bankrupt nation is finding it more difficult to pay their debts. If something is not done soon, the dire situation in Ukraine will only grow worse as pro-Russian rebels continue to wreak havoc everywhere.

An interesting report from China is circulating with regard to a $15 billion illegal gold financing scheme that was broken up by authorities. This is an interesting bit of news for the gold and silver market because it may have a somewhat lasting effect on spot values. A similar copper financing scheme was broken up in China not too long ago, and it ended up pushing the spot value of copper downward. We will continue to pay close attention to the market in order to find out if they are going to be shying away from the yellow metal as a result of this report from China.

As we head into the final day of the week, things will likely remain quiet and the market’s attention will remain on Iraq, Ukraine, and the ongoing EU summit.

Gold and silver spot values edged noticeably higher on Thursday, fueled by new safe-haven demand and short-covering by investors. This week has proven to emit little to no economic data and will likely remain quiet through the last day.

Last week saw the European Central Bank, in their meeting on Thursday, decide to finally implement new monetary stimulus. The ECB decided to both reduce the refinancing rate by 10 basis points as well as introduce a new -.1% deposit rate. This news prompted the euro currency to decline in value, but most people were expecting that. What did come as a surprise, however, was the uplift given to gold and silver. Apart from today, metals have not seen much of any gains made since last week.

Violence Begins To Flare Up In Iraq, Fuels Safe-Have Demand

Beginning towards the end of last week, it was reported that Kurdish rebels were at the center of a flare up of violence in Iraq’s north. Since then, the violence has only intensified as the rebels have since take over a large part of the northern part of Iraq, including a few key cities with populations totaling more than 4-5 million.

Now, as Iraqi security forces struggle to maintain order, there is no saying what the next few weeks hold in store for Iraq. The Iraqi government is pleading for US military support, though early indications is that those pleas will fall upon deaf ears. As violence becomes more of an issue in Iraq, safe-haven demand for precious metals is beginning to pick up. In fact, safe-haven demand for metals is being credited as the only reason metals are making such an impressive rally today. The real question, however, is whether or not today’s gains will be able to be retained through the end of the week and into next week.

While we’re looking forward, it is important to note that next week, in all likelihood, will bring about a bit more economic data than this week did. That data, combined with rising tensions and violence in Iraq will definitely make next week a bit more eventful than this week has proven to be.

Gold and silver spot values are edging higher through the early morning hours of Thursday. The biggest news of both today and this week was the European Central Bank’s monthly policy meeting, which wrapped up earlier this morning. The meeting went as expected but has not had an expected outcome on the spot values of gold nor silver. Now, as we head towards the last day of the week, the market’s attention will shift to the US non-farms payroll data for May.

This week has been a fairly busy one thus far and, apart from this morning, has been generally adversarial to precious metals. While it looks now like things are beginning to change, there is no guaranteeing that gold and silver’s minor gains made this morning will be sustainable over the next coming days and weeks. As investors digest today and tomorrow’s data, it will be interesting to see in what direction gold and silver will head.

European Central Bank Introduce Fresh Stimulus, As Expected

Shortly after markets opened today it was announced that the European Central Bank did, in fact, introduce new monetary stimulus to the European Union. This move was widely expected by the market after deflationary pressures have been plaguing much of Europe for the last year or more. Officially, the ECB announced that they would be reducing the refinancing rate by 10 basis points and also introducing a -.1% deposit rate. Also as expected, the news caused the euro currency to drop to a more than 4-month low while simultaneously giving the Dollar even more strength.

What wasn’t expected, however, was the surge gold and silver would end up making. Now, as gold is up by nearly 10 dollars and silver is up almost 25 cents, it is looking as though the precious metals market had factored in the ECB’s decision ahead of time. As the wider marketplace continues to digest today’s data, it will be interesting to see whether metals can hold on to or even build upon these gains or if they will fall right back down to where they were through Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

Finally, rounding out the week is tomorrow’s non-farm payrolls data for May. If tomorrow’s data is any resemblance of the ADP employment report we saw a day ago, gold and silver may receive yet another boost to close out the week.

For the third consecutive day this week, precious metals spot values were edging lower and feeling added pressure from technically related selling. As it stands, silver is just barely hovering above $19/ounce while gold is holding steady somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,250/ounce. The last few days of this week are not expected to yield too much in the way of economic data and investors will more than likely hold their positions ahead of next week’s ECB meeting.

The crisis in Ukraine is continuing to deescalate and fade to the background of the marketplace’s attention. Last weekend, Ukraine saw its first official presidential elections since Yanukovich was ousted and the early results are pointing towards Petro Poroshenko as the likely person to take office as president of Ukraine. Despite Poroshenko making it clear that his intentions are to work with both Russia and the rest of Europe in order to bring back a sense of normalcy to Ukraine, pro-Russian rebels are still taking up position in large parts of the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine. Up until recently, the widespread violence between rebels and the Ukrainian military was fueling safe-haven demand for gold and silver. Now, however, investors are becoming more or less disinterested with the crisis as it has not changed much at all in the last few weeks.

US GDP Data Falls Short of Expectations

Despite most recent US economic data coming in on the positive side, today’s preliminary first quarter GDP report for the United States disappointed most who were paying attention. Officially, the US’ first quarter GDP was down 1%, a number that fell short of the positive growth expected by the market. While this poor data did well to slow precious metals’ decline this morning, that slow down was only temporary as metals’ spot values were on the decline once again by the mid-afternoon.

The final day of this week is expected to be quiet as most investors, especially those in Europe, await next week’s European Central Bank policy meeting. Currently, the wider market is expecting to see the ECB implement, or at least discuss the implementation, of some sort of new monetary stimulus policy. Recently growing deflationary pressures are causing the European marketplace to become jittery and apprehensive with regard to the next few months. Under normal conditions, new monetary stimulus measures implemented by the ECB would be beneficial for the spot values of precious metals. Currently, however, we aren’t dealing with normal conditions and a large number of market experts believe that new ECB stimulus will end up hurting spot values more than it would help them.

The reasoning for this is due to a chain reaction of a few events. Typically, monetary stimulus in Europe will work to drive down the value of the euro currency. Once the euro has declined in value, it is a strong possibility that the US Dollar will make significant and noticeable gains. So long as the USD is edging higher, it will be difficult for gold and silver to make many gains without the help of some other, bullish news. It will be interesting to see how these next few weeks play out because as of now it is looking like metals are on their way to pegging lower in value.

Gold and silver are both trading down on what was quite an unusual day in the marketplace. A few economic reports, reports which were not expected to have much of an impact on metals at all, ended up putting a lot of downside pressure on gold and silver. The marketplace is still very much concerned with the crisis in Ukraine, but it has not had any real impact on spot values for a majority of this week.

As we head into the last day of the week and the weekend, however, it is likely that the investing world will once more fixate their attention on any and all developments stemming from the crisis in Ukraine. Seeing as last weekend’s referendum vote unofficially determined that the Donetsk region of Ukraine would be independent, there is likely to be more turmoil just around the bend. Pro-Russian rebels still have a very firm foothold throughout eastern and southern Ukraine, despite the Ukrainian military’s best efforts to oust them.

US Economic Data Shifts Spot Values Slightly

When this week began, investors were not expecting to pay too much attention to any of the week’s economic reports. That all changed today thanks to a weekly jobless claims report that showed the lowest number of claims in more than a year. What’s more, today’s release of the latest consumer price index showed that prices did not change much. This news prompted the US Dollar to post some gains while simultaneously putting downward pressure on precious metals.

Now, as the week draws to a close, it is clear to see that investors are expressing more of a risk-on attitude. Market analysts are confused about this risk-on attitude as the ongoing crisis in Ukraine should be fostering nothing other than safe-haven demand for precious metals. Instead, some market analysts think that the growing deflationary concerns in Europe and growing possibility that the ECB will implement some sort of monetary stimulus measures in the near future are driving this risk-on attitude.

Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see how investors are acting towards the end of the day tomorrow as that will give us some sort of insight as to what direction metals will head in over the weekend. If the crisis in Ukraine brings about any new developments over the weekend it will undoubtedly have some sort of impact on the precious metals market.