After beginning the day in somewhat positive fashion and looking like they were going to end with weekly gains, precious metals have since declined in value thanks to an upbeat employment report for February. In addition to today’s upbeat employment data, the Labor Department also revised previous month’s reports which showed larger increases in added jobs than previously thought.
The situation in Ukraine has taken a number of twists and turns this week but has, for the most part, calmed down a bit. Tensions in the region are on the decline, but the world continues to keep a keen eye on matters there as they stand the chance of boiling over at any given time.
US Jobs Data Slightly Bests Market Expectations
As is always the case, the non-farm payrolls data was the most highly anticipated piece of news released this week. With the first few months of 2014 yielding significant sub-standard numbers, some investors were hoping that February’s numbers, released today, would paint a bit of a different picture. February’s non-farm payrolls data did exactly that when it beat market expectations of 150,000 jobs added by a cool 25,000. This is not an astoundingly good report, but it is the first in a few months that came back better than what was expected.
In addition to today’s positive employment data, the Labor Department also revised December (2013) and January’s payrolls data as well. Originally coming in at 113,000 new jobs added, December’s data was revised to show that nearly 130,000 jobs were actually added. January’s incredibly weak payroll addition of 75,000 was bumped up to well over 80,000.
As you might have expected, today’s data as well as the revisions helped give US equities a boost while simultaneously putting pressure on spot gold and silver.
As we head into next week all eyes will remain fixated on the crisis in Ukraine. When this week began, there were reports flying around claiming that Russian troops had seized border posts in Crimea and were threatening military strikes against Ukrainian soldiers in the Crimea region. While things quickly deescalated from that point forward, later in the week it was reported that the parliament of Crimea voted unanimously to join the Russian Federation. Despite opposition from Ukraine’s interim government and the United States, the Russians refuse to concede ground. Instead, Crimean citizens will be allowed to vote on the matter in about 9 days. The voting is more symbolic than anything as Crimea is dominated by ethnic Russians who seem eager to leave Ukraine behind.
As we move into next week the eyes of the world will continue to remain fixated on Ukraine and all developments stemming from the region.