Gold and Silver Market Update (10/27/14) – Golden Eagle
Most analysts are having a hard time finding any clear direction in the precious metals market after last week. The bread and butter of the sector, gold and silver, saw small losses; the platinum group did slightly better. The uncertainty seems to have afflicted most market sectors, perhaps heralding a general loss of confidence, but that isn’t helping to clear up the picture around metals.
First off, gold. We’d been hoping to see a strengthening recovery last week, and an initial jump on Monday looked encouraging. Unfortunately the spot price fell back on Tuesday as the stock markets showed a strong performance, and it never really recovered from that. The final price for the week was $1,231, a fall of just under $8 on the previous period. Compared to some recent losses that’s not too much of a drama but still slightly disappointing. Gold now looks to be poised for a recovery, but that depends on where equities go.
Silver is in a very similar position to gold, having just managed to end a long losing streak and stabilize just above the $17 mark. Again we’d hoped to see it rise last week after a small drop the period before, but instead it fell another 7 cents to close at $17.27. This is the second week in a row we’ve seen silver slip back after its brief recovery, although it’s still above $17 and hopefully some support is forming to keep it there. Some analysts are concerned that resistance is also forming at about $17.35, although others aren’t feeling that pessimistic yet.
Platinum also fell over the week, and unlike gold and silver it didn’t even jump when the markets opened – it just started sliding right away. It finished $8 down at $1,245, but the last hours of trading on Friday showed it starting to strengthen and we think it’s likely to perform better over the next few days.
The other platinum group metals, however, are a different story. Palladium rose strongly for most of the week, apart from one dip on Wednesday, and by Friday afternoon was trading at $776 per ounce. That’s a full $25 up on the week before, exactly the sort of healthy recovery we’ve been hoping to see. With continued strong industrial demand there’s no reason why it shouldn’t do as well this week.
Finally, rhodium. Progress here was more modest that for palladium, but there was still progress – the spot price gained about $10 to close just above the $1,200 point. It looks like September’s spectacular collapse in rhodium prices has run its course and we hope to see it pick up more over the next few weeks.
So overall a mixed week for precious metals. The biggest news was the stagnation of gold and silver, which we’re blaming very firmly on the stock market’s relatively good performance. The steady recovery of palladium and rhodium is much more welcome; both of these are still significantly undervalued considering the demand for them. In fact all five main precious metals are still very attractively priced.
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. 
