spot silver

It was a choppy end to 2013 as metals saw a broad based decline over the year of 28%. Precious metals have succumbed to selling pressure as Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) holders liquidated in favour of equities.  ETF holdings have fallen back to levels last seen in 2008 before the global crisis. Investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value as equities rallied and an economic recovery prompted the Federal Reserve to pare its $85 billion in monthly bond. Gold fell to a year low of $1182, before recovering slightly to traded and close the year at $1202.

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After a 18 day delay the much anticipated U.S non-farm payrolls and unemployment number was released this morning. It was a mixed bag. September non-farm payrolls grew by 148,000, well below the 182,000 forecast. The August number was revised upwards to 193,000 from 169,000. The unemployment rate came in at 7.2 percent.

It was another wild week for the precious metals market after a 11th hour deal over the debt ceiling Gold put in a knee jerk reaction jumping $40 in overnight trade Wednesday. The metal touched a low of $1276, before turning on short covering and touching a high of $1321 Thursday in the North American session.

What the world was waiting for never happened. The release of the Federal open market committe minutes shocked traders. On Wednesday, the Fed declined to start the unwinding of its monetary easing measures with traders expecting $10 billion cut. The news sent shock waves throughout the market as gold spiked to $1375 in a matter of hours.

It has been a very eventful few weeks for the precious metals markets. We have seen spot gold and silver rally to multi month highs of $1434 and $25.10 respectively. The main drivers for these rallies was the ongoing strife in Syria, which has since subsided . The market has also been fixated one "tapering", will he or won't he. Since Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke’s initial comments on tapering back in June, the market has been heavily focused on one question: when will the unwinding of QE3 start?

Precious metals over the past 4 months have taken a considerable beating. Today we sit at $1280 and $19.80 in gold and silver respectively.

Michael Allan McCrae | April 26, 2013  Mining.com

This time around record gold and silver coin sales is investment driven, says James Anderson from GoldSilver.com.

"People see silver in the 20s and they think that is a great buy," says Anderson who is managing director of the bullion dealer.

Spot gold drifted lower in light trade as the U.S markets geared up for the thanksgiving holiday. Spot gold touched an intraday high of $1730 on the heels of a weaker U.S green back.

Spot gold has remained relatively range bound between $1705 and $1740 as traders squared position on the short work week.

Precious metals have paused after two solid days of gains last week after the after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced further loosening of monetary policy to reinvigorate the sluggish U.S economy launching  QE3 after much anticipation.

Precious metals traded higher ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting slated for September 12-13 and taking currency cues with the Euro pushing to 1.2871.

It was a relatively quiet day on the metals markets as spot gold traded in a narrow range with a  slight bias to the upside. The major focus is on the FOMC meeting slated for September 12-13. The yellow metal moved higher in early trade to $1738 as the Euro strengthened vs. the green back.