This week has proven to be quite interesting for precious metals. Monday and Tuesday saw healthy gains, but before long those gains were whittled away until the week was mostly a wash. On the whole, we really didn’t witness all that much in the way of economic data. Instead, we saw a marketplace that was mostly concerned with the US Labor Department report that was due out today.
Some other US economic data was dealt, but it really failed to move the marketplace all that much. Looking ahead to next week, we will naturally see some delayed reaction to today’s jobs data as well as be on the receiving end of some more economic data from last month.
All Eyes On US Jobs Data
Even before today, the talk across the global marketplace was always relating to what this week’s jobs data would look like. On Wednesday, we were given a small taste in the form of the ADP employment report for April. For those that have done this before, you know that the ADP employment report is not nearly as heavily weighted as the Labor Department’s. Still, investors like to see this report in order to gauge what they can expect to see come Friday.
When the ADP report was released, investors and analysts the world over were shocked to see job growth figures of just over 140,000. Considering expectations were for well over 200,000, you can see why Wednesday’s report unnerved quite a few investors.
Only a day later, on Thursday, nerves were calmed a bit on the word that weekly jobless claims from a week ago echoed the previous week’s 15-year low. Seen as a much more accurate and official gauge on employment, the weekly jobless claims instill some faith that today’s report would, in fact, come near or exceed the growth expectation of 240,000+ jobs having been created in April.
US Dollar Bounces Back to Close Out Week
For the past few weeks, the US Dollar has been bouncing around between gains and losses. Just this week, the USD Index would go from massive loss one day to decent gain the next. While all this price action may be confusing, it seems as though the greenback has, in fact, put in a market top and is slowly but surely correcting itself lower.
While this week’s jobs data may have some impact on the outlook on the USD, the overriding belief is that the near-term future may not be so kind. Still, the Dollar is expected to move well above the Euro by year’s end, so maybe this is nothing more than a momentary hiccup preceding a much longer move forward.
For the most part this week Europe was quiet and devoid of many economic talking points. German 10-year bond yields backed down from record highs upon the release of last week’s jobless claims report, but other than that things remained mostly quiet overseas. Interestingly, no news was emitted from the situation surrounding Greek debt talks. As a very important situation for the entire continent, we will be sure to get you the latest updates on Greek debt negotiations next week.