Gold & Silver Market 5-10-2015
Last week was good overall for precious metals; while rhodium fell slightly all the others made gains. Some of them were small but palladium had a reasonably good week, and some positive trends seem to be emerging from the earlier confusion. There’s a lot of volatility in other markets right now, but metals seem to be building themselves some decent support at current prices and could be set for a steady rise over the next few weeks.
Gold fell sharply through the end of April, but recovered early in May, and that recovery continued last week. It wasn’t all smooth sailing, with a rapid drop on Wednesday and Thursday, but by Friday the spot price was heading in the right direction once more and by the time the markets closed it stood almost $10 up at $1,187.50. That certainly isn’t a dramatic rise but it indicates there’s no firm downwards trend for now.
The performance of silver has remained patchy so far this year, although it’s been a lot better than what we saw for much of 2014. Last week was slightly more reassuring though; from Monday through Wednesday, as the stock markets fell, silver headed consistently upwards. It did buck Friday’s trends and fall back again but it still closed the week 30 cents up at $16.395.
Platinum started out looking much more sluggish than gold; although boosted by weekend trading it barely rose at all through the first part of the week, then fell on Wednesday as the Dow began to pick up. It bottomed out just above $1,130 before joining the general recovery on Friday, finally closing at $1,138. Overall it still managed to gain though, picking up $9 across the period. There’s no clear trend in platinum prices right now, with volatility still seeming to rule, but there also isn’t any reason for it to fall below where it is now and a recovery is a strong possibility.
The news was much clearer for palladium. This metal returned to its place as the sector’s strongest performer, picking up $23 and closing at $795. It’s had better weeks but last week wasn’t bad by any standard, and continues an upward trend that’s now been in place for almost a month. With industrial demand as strong as ever we’d say palladium looks like an excellent choice for a medium or long term portfolio.
Lastly as always, there’s rhodium. Sluggish all year, there’s been little movement except for the occasional downwards lurch, and we saw another one of those on Monday. The drop in equity prices doesn’t seem to have helped rhodium at all, because it fell $9 to $1,056 then stayed there for the rest of the week. Unless you’re looking at a long term investment it’s probably time to consider moving out of rhodium, because it just doesn’t seem to have any momentum behind it.
So, with the exception of rhodium, all the spot prices seem to be responding to equities as we would expect. That’s no guarantee of positive movements, of course, but it does make the market slightly more predictable and that can’t be a bad thing.
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. 
