Gold and silver are on their way to heading into the weekend up for the week. After the first four days of this week were full of ups and downs for precious metals, today’s weaker than expected employment report for December solidified precious metals’ positive week. Somewhat disappointing economic reports out of China also helped gold and silver move forward, even if only slightly.
Though silver and gold are on the rise at the present moment, investors are somewhat disappointed by metals’ slow growth pace in the wake of what was an awful employment report.
US Employment Report Shocks the Market, Boosts Silver
The ADP employment report made public earlier this week indicated that well over the market expectation of 200,000 jobs were added to the US economy in December. The better than anticipated report on Wednesday led investors to believe that today’s non-farm payrolls data would emit similarly strong growth in December. Compared to market expectations of around a 200,000 rise in non-farm payrolls, the 74,000 jobs that were actually added in December fell far short of what the market was anticipating.
The 125,000 payrolls disparity between what was expected and what actually occurred almost instantaneously pushed gold and silver forward while simultaneously putting heavy downward pressure on the US Dollar. In the immediate wake of the report’s release most investors were more confused than anything as the gap between what numbers were reported and what were expected was far larger than anyone would have prepared for, even in their wildest dreams. Some experts quickly chimed in and claimed that the report was skewed due to a busy holiday season and will be corrected before the month is through. Though there is no evidence behind claims that the report was skewed, such a drastic difference makes it easier to believe that such might be the case.
Despite gold and silver receiving a boost from today’s disappointing non-farm payrolls data, most people were and still are upset to see how slowly gold and silver are rising in value. You would think that a report this far off of market expectations would spike gold and silver spot values, something that just isn’t happening today. Another outcome of today’s report is that the debate regarding QE reductions will only become more fierce in the coming weeks. While some people are convinced that the Fed plans on tapering QE even further this year, disappointing economic reports like the one we witnessed today threaten to throw a monkey wrench in the Fed’s supposed tapering plans.