Gold & Silver Market 8-30-2015
Last week was a mixed one for precious metals, with gold and silver down significantly but generally lower drops across the platinum group. In the background to these movements was the most disruptive week on the equities markets since the 2008 crash, with China’s economic troubles sending waves of chaos through the exchanges through at least Wednesday before confidence-building measures kicked in. It looks as if most of the key precious metals were dragged down by the general market panic then recovered with varying degrees of success – pretty well for platinum, not so great for silver.
By all conventional rules gold should have had an excellent week, with the major stock exchanges all plummeting as soon as trading opened Monday. The downward pressure was strong enough to take everything except oil with it though, and by Wednesday gold was significantly down at around $1,117. Thursday saw a gradual recovery though, and that picked up pace on Friday morning. By the time the markets closed the spot price had risen to $1,133. That’s $27.40 down on its previous close, disappointing but better than it could have been given the overall volatility.
Silver had a worse week even than gold, with its initial nosedive slashing close to 10 percent off its value. Again it stabilized later in the week though, and Thursday saw a major upward correction to near the $14.50 mark. That rising trend continued more modestly on Friday and by close of trading the spot price was sitting at $14.405. That’s still $75.5 cents down though, a sign that confidence in the metal is still worryingly soft.
On the other hand platinum did much better. In common with everything else it fell rapidly early in the week before rebounding strongly from a sub-$980 low. It ended the week at $1,016, $10 down on the previous period but above where it had started on Monday. At this price point $10 isn’t a significant move, so platinum survived the week more or less unharmed.
Palladium followed very much the same track as platinum did, although it was already sliding faster in weekend trading. By the time markets opened Monday it was already heading down fast and by mid-week it was below $540 – an even bigger drop than silver experienced. Thursday saw it bounce back fast though, and despite a small blip early Friday it managed to get back to $586 by the end of trading. That’s still $16 down over the previous Friday, and at almost 3 percent enough to say that palladium didn’t have a great week, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t get back above $600 this week.
And lastly rhodium, which has been showing a bit more activity recently. Unfortunately last week all the activity was down, with the spot price seeming to stabilize midweek before resuming its slide. Overall it ended $30 down at $815.
So losses across the board, but some of them not as severe as could have been expected with the global volatility that characterized the period. If equities slide again this week there’s a lot of potential for metal prices to recover.
About the Author: Clint Stelfox
Clint is the director of marketing at Golden Eagle Coins. Son of Richard Stelfox, co-founder of the company, Clint has been living and breathing coins his entire life. After trading for a Philadelphia Stock Exchange firm for several years Clint returned to give Golden Eagle the online presence it has today. 
