Precious metals are going to end the week on a positive note, but they will not be able to make this 5-day trading session a third consecutive week of gains. A stronger Dollar through much of the middle parts of the week took a lot of value away from spot gold and silver and ultimately doomed them to suffering minor losses for the week.
In all, there wasn’t too much in the way of economic data due out this week, but what little data was made public definitely had its impact on the marketplace. What’s more, rumors with regard to the ECB’s next monetary policy moves have abounded this week and only worked to give the US Dollar more strength; something that did not help precious metals at all. It will be interesting to see, as we head into next week, whether things will remain as quiet as they were this week or if some fresh economic data will be injected into the marketplace in order to stir things up a bit.
Revised Housing Data Gives Metals a Bit of a Boost
The big news of the week came today in the form of the most recent new home sales from the United States. Not only were September’s new home sales released, but so too were revisions for the previous three months. Those revisions, in fact, proved to be the most important aspect of today’s data release.
According to the figures, September saw new home sales rise, on an annualized basis, by about .2%. This translated into about 467,000 new home sales. Unfortunately for the US Dollar, however, September’s previous new home sales figure of around 504,000 was reduced to a mere 466,000. Not only that, but June and July’s figures were also reduced. As the US Dollar suffered in the wake of these figures, the precious metals market was awarded a modest boost.
Now, the focus of the marketplace shifts to next week and what it may have in store for the wider marketplace. A major theme that will continue to prevail is the speculation with regard to what the European Central Bank will do in order to stave off continuously growing deflationary pressures. Rumor through much of the beginning of the week held that the European Central Bank will soon announce plans to implement more asset purchases through a policy known to the United States as quantitative easing. If such does prove to be the case, the Euro currency is likely going to continue declining in value against the ever-stronger greenback.