June 26th Weekly Silver Market Update

For a majority of the week, gold and silver edged downward slowly but surely. There was a lack of economic data this week, and that ended up taking its toll on precious metals. Now that we are at the end of the week, investors have to come to terms with the fact that both gold and silver are going to conclude the week well-below key price thresholds. Silver finds itself below the $16/ounce mark while gold moved below $1,200/ounce and is continuing to fall.

Looking ahead to next week, I am not so sure we will see much of a change as there isn’t much economic data expected to be made public. You see, we are right in the middle of the summer, and this time of year has been notorious for its lack of fundamental data. Though the next few weeks will bring about plenty of quarter-end economic data, next week is shaping up to be mostly slow.

Greece Remains in the Headlines

For a majority of the last few weeks, we have seen the market’s undivided attention placed on ongoing Greek negotiations with creditors regarding the restructuring of debt repayments. Up to this point, Greece has been defiant in that they are unwilling to bow down to the orders of creditors. This is all fine and good, but the fact that Athens refuses to cooperate with the people to which it owes money is actively preventing the Mediterranean nation from receiving billions of dollars of additional bailout funds. Though we have seen almost no progress whatsoever in recent history, the early parts of the week brought about hopes that that would change.

As soon as markets opened on Monday, investors the world over were on the receiving end of news of a new proposal submitted by Greece over the weekend. The new proposal was said to be different than previous proposals because it outlined many concessions Greece was willing to make; concessions they had previously shot down.

Unfortunately, as the week moved forward, we heard of very little else regarding this proposal. Now, with there being less than a week left in the month of June, we seem to be approaching the 11th and 12th ours of negotiations. Basically, if Greece cannot strike a deal with creditors by this time next week, their exit from the European Union may become a reality. Throughout much of this week, the market has simply not reacted to what is going on in Greece. Most are simply waiting and seeing what happens over the course of the next 5 days or so.

US First Quarter Data Revised Upward

In a somewhat surprise announcement, the Commerce Department this week released their revised readings regarding first quarter GDP growth. While it was originally reported that GDP in the first quarter declined by more than .7%, the Commerce Department changed this downward move to a mere .2% decline.

Though it is still disappointing to see GDP declines, investors were ecstatic to see that the winter months of this year were not nearly as bad as previously believed. With expectations for the next few months extremely high, investors everywhere expect to see the US economy finish the year on a strong note. All of this will, of course, tie into what happens to interest rates going forward. The Fed recently made it clear that they are in no rush to hike interest rates, overly upbeat economic data released over the course of the coming weeks stands the chance of changing that outlook very quickly.