Gold & Silver Market 11-23-2015
The precious metals sector was confusing last week, with a mixed bag of performances and no clear pattern visible. The two big investment items, gold and silver, didn’t show a lot of movement. Neither did platinum, while palladium managed to rise. With the equities markets also rising quite strongly, propelled mostly by gains in defense stocks following the Paris terror attack, metals have actually done better than many analysts expected. We should have seen significant falls across the board, so it could indicate that the commodities market is close to bottoming out. A recovery would definitely be welcome right now.
Firstly, gold. The spot price wavered through the week, losing value at first then gaining most of it back Thursday. Friday’s closing price was $1,077.20, a drop of $6.70 over the week before. That’s not really significant, and means that for two weeks now gold has hardly moved. That does add credibility to the market watchers who think it’s got about as low as it’s going to, so this could be a good time to start buying in – it’s probably not going to get much cheaper than it is right now.
Silver followed a very similar track to gold overall, but the details of its movements varied. It held up quite well at the start of the week but showed more downward movement over the last two days. Still, the total fall was just 6.5 cents, leaving it at $14.195. Again that’s not a significant move and it means the gold-silver ratio stayed pretty much unchanged last week. There are some concerns about weak industrial demand right now though, so silver bears watching.
Platinum lost $6.50 to close at $853; this was another sub-one percent fall, and again it’s slightly surprising because of the rise in shares. We’d normally have expected platinum to drop a lot more than it did. More evidence for an end to the commodities slump? Perhaps. Industrial demand does seem stronger here though, and that’s going to have an effect.
Getting to palladium, things looked better here. After very serious losses the previous week it managed to pick up $11.50, ending the period at $560. That’s nowhere near what it lost but it’s definitely a shift in the right direction and suggests the market knows it overcorrected before. We expect palladium to climb again this week, because it’s definitely undervalued.
It’s unlikely anyone’s paying much attention to rhodium right now because it’s been so lifeless for so long, and there’s no change to report; it’s still sitting at $740, with no movement at all.
So not an easy week to draw predictions from, and the increasing chances of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates is a worry, but the picture isn’t totally black. If China is starting to recover, as many experts believe, industrial demand for metals should start to pick up. That should help nudge them upwards. It’s also interesting that last week’s equities gains had so little effect. Perhaps buyers realize that metals are well below the price they should be? Let’s hope so.
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. 
