Gold and silver did a lot of moving this week, but all in all they finished on Friday close to where they started the week on Monday. Asian markets were a recurring theme this week much like they always are, and just as you would have expected the news was mostly negative for the region. The possible ending of easy money policies across the globe has been dictating a lot of investor action lately, and with a big meeting in the US next week, the speculation is already flying.
Asian Markets, Japan
Though to many investors it seems like a year ago, only one month ago the Japanese Nikkei Index was putting out some of its best numbers ever. This was great for those invested in the Japanese stock market and even prompted people to venture into an unfamiliar market. Shortly after those impressive gains, however, the Nikkei Index began to slip. At first the declines were minimal, 1 and 2 percent at a time, but the snowball effect kicked in and in a matter of no time the Nikkei Index was but a shadow of itself only a month ago.
Now we have seen the Nikkei Index lose over 20% of its value from last month’s highs and things are not looking like they’re getting any better. In addition to this, the Chinese stock market has been struggling as well. The only good news we can take out of Asia this week is the fact that the Japanese Yen made some decent gains against the US Dollar.
Easy Money has a Limited Lifespan
The main worry weighing on investors’ minds is the fact that easy monetary policies around the world may be coming to an end soon. If there is a widespread abandonment of easy monetary policy you can bet your bottom dollar that this news will be negative for gold and silver.
This issue is the biggest in the United States where Quantitative Easing has been the topic of conversation for the past few weeks. A couple weeks back it was announced that there is a strong possibility that QE will be brought to an end sometime this summer, though no actual timeline was ever announced. The Federal Open Market Committee (the people who dictate monetary policy in the US) is scheduled to meet this upcoming Wednesday, which means investors will be hanging on every last word from that meeting.
Weekly Move
Gold and silver did a bit of moving this week, but all movements were more or less mitigated come Friday because both gold and silver ended the week very close to where they started it.
Gold started the week at $1,381 and by the end of the day Friday it was sitting at $1,390.
Silver started the week at $21.65 and finished the week at $22.09.