Gold and silver performed a bit better this week, though, to be fair, neither metal made any gains worth getting too excited about. After a quiet middle of the week due to the observance of the American Thanksgiving holiday, Friday saw gold and silver make marginal gains thanks to a weaker US Dollar. Market bears are still very much in control of the marketplace, meaning it will be difficult for gold and silver to ever make any gains in this type of atmosphere.
Investors will be happy to see November come to a close as it was a dismal month for both gold and silver.
Better European Union Unemployment Report
Though Friday is expected to be a quiet trading day across the board, some better than expected unemployment figures were released in the early morning hours. Compared to an EU unemployment rate of 10.2% in September, October’s unemployment was recorded as being .1% lower at 10.1%. This may not seem like a major decline, and in reality it isn’t, but its worth talking about because EU unemployment is at its lowest level since April of 2011.
The good news came in abundance on Friday as inflation was reported as up to .9% in November from a previous recording of .7% in October. This news helped alleviate fears that the EU may be slipping into a period of heavy deflation. Though this news was good for most markets, it did not move gold or silver all that much.
As we bring the month of November to a close, investors will be happy to see the calendar turn. All in all this month has done nothing but cause problems for investors as both gold and silver lost fairly significant amounts of value. The spot price of gold has declined by nearly $100 while silver lost over $3. With the upcoming December FOMC meeting at the top of every investors’ list of concerns, expect the speculation to heat up over the next few weeks.