Precious metals ended up closing out the week and month in fairly poor fashion, with losses abounding over the past week or more. In their defense, precious metals have recently been falling victim to a general lack of noteworthy events or pieces of economic data. Though it is typical for August to be a slow month with a low trading volume, it has not been of any aid at all to precious metals. Instead, the quieter market atmosphere has allowed for stock and USD bears to seize control. With the dawning of September next week, the overriding hope held by most investors is that they want to see the marketplace pick back up and become a bit busier.

This week did bring about some focus on the geopolitical tensions in Ukraine, but for the most part these stories were listened to one day and then completely forgotten the next. With that said, it is important to note that Ukrainian military officials claim that Russian troops have crossed over the Eastern border and have since taken control of a number of towns and villages. Though they initially denied this report, it became clear this morning that Russian troops are, in fact, taking up post within Ukrainian borders. This news limited the selling pressure being felt by gold and silver, but only such that bigger losses turned into marginal, negligible ones.

Looking Ahead to September

As we bring this week and month to a close, it is clear that August was not the kindest month to precious metals. Thanks to surging US equity markets, an ever-improving US Dollar, and a growing belief that interest rates will be raised sometime earlier next year, the market is one that does not lend itself to increased purchases of precious metals.

With next week set to bring about a slew of economic data as well as the most recent meeting of the European Central Bank, all that may change. With that said, however, a more action-packed marketplace does not necessarily lend itself to precious metals. Should US economic data continue to improve and the US Dollar continue to add value, there is no saying what the future holds for precious metals. Still, we anxiously await next week and everything that the market will bring along with it.

Precious metals are trading slightly lower today in response to some upbeat economic data from the United States. With that said, it is becoming clear that the selling pressure is extremely limited due to the market’s continued focus on geopolitical happenings from around the globe. In truth, this week was fairly quiet due to the fact that there was not nearly as much economic data made public as there was a week ago. As we look ahead to next week, it is highly likely that the market will continue focusing on the plethora of geopolitical developments taking place in various parts of the world.

Geopolitics Takes Over This Week

For the better part of this week, investors’ decisions were based primarily upon what they saw from US equities as well as the crisis happening in Ukraine. Despite the crisis in Ukraine being in and out of the news for a majority of this year, investors began focusing on it once again this week because it was reported that thousands of combat-ready troops were massing along Russia’s Western border with Ukraine. By midweek, NATO had confirmed that more than 20,000 Russian troops were stationed just across the border with Ukraine. At this point, there is no real way of telling if the increased military presence near Ukraine will translate into Russia involving itself in the Ukrainian crisis or not, but their actions will definitely continue to catch the attention of the investing world.

Also in the news from Europe this week was some disappointing economic data. Earlier this week it was reported that Italy’s economy experienced recession during this year’s second quarter. Making matters worse, a subsequent report indicated that June played host to the fewest number of German industrial orders in more than three years. This news did well to pressure EU stocks as well as the Euro currency. Over the course of the past month or more, the US Dollar has made almost non-stop gains against the Euro. So long as the European Central Bank continues to loosen monetary policy, the Euro will likely only continue to become devalued. This will cause the US Dollar to continue making gains, especially if the Fed raises interest rates and further tightens monetary policy like they have been doing for the past few months.

Looking ahead to next week, it is likely that things will be fairly quiet, at least from an economic data standpoint. Being that we are now heading towards the middle of August, many investors and businessmen are taking time off for vacations and family time. As such, things may remain fairly quiet for the foreseeable future.

Precious metals spent a majority of this week trading downwards in direct response to some better than anticipated US economic data. In fact, this week as a whole saw investors focus their attention on few things that weren’t directly related with the heavy slate of US economic reports.

Despite the month of July being somewhat poor for precious metals, it is encouraging to see gold and silver end the week fighting to regain some of the momentum that was lost over the last few weeks. With so many sources of violence scattered throughout Europe and the Middle East at present, precious metals may not be completely forgotten about by the investing world. It will be interesting to see how the violence in Gaza and Ukraine develops over the weekend and if either will develop into something of primary concern for investors. As of now, both situations are sitting comfortably on the back-burner of the marketplace’s attention.

Weak Employment Report Halts USD’s Progress

For an overwhelming majority of this week, investors have been focusing exclusively on the slew of economic data streaming out of the United States. One of the most important pieces of information made public this week was, as it always is, the employment figures from July. As a great gauge of economic strength month in and month out, investors are always curious to see how many new jobs were added to the US economy.

July’s figures, which were released earlier today, showed that just under 210,000 new jobs were added to the US economy during July. Compared to June’s near 300,000 job addition, and expectations that at least 230,000 would have been added in July, today’s figures were shockingly disappointing. As a result, US equity markets continued along their two-day slide while the US Dollar was seen trading downwards for the first time this week. Gold, silver, and other precious metals were aided by the weak employment report, but only slightly. As we head into the weekend and then into next week, it will be interesting to see how investors continue to react to today’s jobs figures.

Other US Economic Data This Week

Apart from today’s employment report, this week played host to a number of economic datapoints investors were curious to find out more about. As is always the case, a good bit of attention was paid to the FOMC’s policy meeting and post-meeting statement, which was made on Wednesday. While investors were hoping to hear additional information with regard to the future of interest rates in the United States, they were instead greeted with discussion regarding the imminent conclusion of Quantitative Easing. The monthly bond-buying initiative was reduced by an additional $10 billion and is set to be completely done away with by sometime this upcoming Fall.

Also made public on Wednesday was the second-quarter GDP report for the United States. Beating expectations, it was reported that the US economy grew by more than 4% on an annualized basis this second quarter. As you could have probably guessed, this information worked in favor of the US Dollar and put a decent dent in the progress of precious metals.

As we head into next week, I expect investors to continue mulling over the large quantity of data which was made public this week. Though it has already made an immediate impact on the marketplace, it will more than likely play a major role in shaping the investing decisions of many investors going forward through this year.

Precious metals are trading downwards on a day where many people had expected nothing but the opposite to happen. The biggest piece of news on the slate today has to do with the downing of a Malaysian Airlines flight over Ukraine on Thursday. The situation is still unfolding and investigations into what exactly happened prior to the plane’s crashing have just begun.

There was very little in the way of economic news this week, though it must be said that corporate earnings reports were mostly upbeat and, as a result, have given US equities a bit of a push to close out the trading session.

Another Malaysia Airlines Flight Goes Down

Only a few months after a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing mysteriously disappeared into the ocean, another incident has occurred. Yesterday, a flight from Amsterdam headed for Kuala Lumpur vanished off radar somewhere over the eastern half of Ukraine. Shortly thereafter, reports began streaming in, claiming that the passenger airliner was shot out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile. By yesterday evening, US intelligence officials had confirmed that the plane was, in fact, shot out of the sky by a missile.

Now, barely a day after the tragic crash, investigations are underway to determine who set off the rocket, and where exactly they set it off from. Due to the area of the plane’s crashing, many people are quickly jumping to the conclusion that the rocket was shot off by pro-Russian separatists who are scattered across the eastern part of Ukraine. Whether these separatists shot the plane down as an act of terrorism or because they thought it was a Ukrainian military plane is not known yet, but world leaders are demanding consequences. What’s more, many high-ranking pro-Russian separatists have already come forward and claimed that they are not the ones responsible for this seemingly senseless killing.

Shortly after news of this tragic event surfaced, equity markets from around the world began tanking. With such a violent act of terrorism in a part of the world where tensions are already high, investors sought to rid themselves of risk-laden assets as quickly as possible. As a result, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium all saw healthy gains made yesterday. Unfortunately, profit-taking and a corrective pullback have meant that most of yesterday’s gains have been conceded today. Now, with the weekend just around the corner, it will be interesting to see if metals can bounce back once again, or if this corrective pullback will see them trade within a defined range for the foreseeable future. That, along with the finer details with regard to this Malaysia Airlines incident, will be a bit clearer come Monday morning.

Gold and silver spot values traded sideways today, but have done particularly well this week. A plethora of news stories turned this 5-day session into one that was far more exciting than originally anticipated. With worries surrounding the financial system in Europe, violence in the Middle East, and the potential for raised interest in the United States, this week went from boring to eventful quickly.

Violence In Gaza Supports Safe-Haven Demand For Metals

One of the biggest events this week was the advent of an Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip and Hamas. With air strikes and rocket attacks occurring multiple times every day, Gaza is more readily being transformed into a war zone. What’s more, there is no real way of knowing when the violence will end as both sides of the coin have been lobbing threats and missile fire back and forth all week.

This, along with the civil war in Iraq, is causing safe-haven demand for precious metals to become a factor for investors to consider. With both situations looking like the might drag on for some time to come, investors can expect safe-haven demand to stick around too.

EU Worries Calm, But Still Persist

Yesterday brought with it quite a few pieces of economic data from Europe, most of which was of the unsavory variety. With poor economic reports from France and Italy added on top of a budding Portuguese bank crisis, sell-offs in European equity markets took up a majority of the day Thursday.

Most notable was a report claiming that one of Portugal’s biggest banks may be in some trouble after its parent company missed scheduled debt payments. While the Portuguese PM was quick to reassure the public that their money is in safe hands, investors couldn’t help but think back to the sovereign debt crisis which is still very fresh in the memory banks. Bond yields across Europe shot up as a result of this report, but have since calmed down. As we head into next week, I expect continued  attention to be placed on European bond markets as investors and market analysts will want to gain as much insight as possible into where Europe will be headed, from a financial standpoint, over the next few weeks and months.

In all, this week provided the precious metals market with innumerable boosts from a variety of different factors. Next week will more than likely yield much of same due to the fact that economic data is going to be on the lighter side.

Gold and silver spot values edged higher to close out what has proven to be yet another positive week for metals. Despite there being only limited amount of economic data on the slate for this week, precious metals were able to retain recent momentum and close the week a bit higher than where they opened. Silver performed particularly well this week and has finally eclipsed the $21/ounce threshold for the first time in a few months.

One of the biggest factors providing the precious metals market with a boost has been the fact that the USD index is weakening and has been over the course of the past few weeks. Barely a month ago, the index saw the Dollar at $81.15+, but now the greenback is trading in a modest range between $80.00 and $80.20. Interestingly, however, the US equity market is performing well despite the continued devaluation of the Dollar. This is, perhaps, providing the spot values of gold and silver with a good bit of resistance recently.

Quiet Week Yields Little Economic Data and Even Less Price Action

With the exception of a handful of economic reports, this week has been generally quiet and free of any major price action. The biggest report of the week, the United States’ first quarter GDP report, came in well short of market expectations and, if anything, acted as an underlying bullish factor for gold and silver spot values. Other than that piece of data, however, the 5-day trading session was quiet and lacking any noteworthy happenings.

The ongoing civil war in Iraq remains on the minds of investors from all over the world, but it remained mostly away from the headlines this week. Despite reports of violence at seemingly every turn, the market has done a good job of avoiding the topic this week. Still, as the ISIS rebels capture more expansive parts of northern Iraq, it is unlikely that the market will continue to avoid paying attention. As of now, the Iraqi civil war has done a good job of providing the precious metals with a lift via increased safe-haven interest. It will be interesting to see how the situation affects metals throughout next week as it is expected to get much worse before it gets any better.

Gold and silver spot values finished the week in elevated positions for the first time in the last three. Though this week proved to be generally quiet and lacking any fresh economic data, it also proved to be a positive one for metals by the time things were said and done. Rallying US equities finally cooled off and allowed spot values to edge higher after last week’s significant losses. Now, as gold is flirting with the possibility of once more crossing over the $1,300 threshold and silver once more on the verge of breaking through $20, investors are beginning to take a bit more interest in safe-have assets.

US stocks finished this week posting losses for the first time in a month, an encouraging sign for those who are hanging on to gold and silver despite recent devaluations.

Iraq’s Stability Being Called Into Question More and More

Up until Wednesday, there really weren’t any noteworthy events that we could label as the week’s biggest news. That all changed quickly as a result of more bouts of violence being reported throughout Iraq’s northern regions. The militant group called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has been terrorizing towns and villages throughout a large part of northern Iraq for the past two weeks or so. At first, the isolated incidents of violence did little in the way of catching the market’s attention. But now, with more than 5 million people living under ISIS control, the marketplace’s full attention is being fixated on Iraq.

The stability of the country is being called into question more and more by the day. Iraqi security forces are finding it difficult to keep the militants in check as they seem to grow stronger by the day. While, for many, the ISIS invasion is coming out of nowhere, for others it is to be expected. The ISIS militant group has been calling Syria home for the past few years and has marketed itself to a number of smaller Islamic militant groups, many of which have joined forces with ISIS. Now that their numbers are in the tens of thousands, ISIS is attempting to carve out its own plot of land somewhere in southeastern or norther Iraq.

All of this violence has prompted safe-haven demand to make an appearance in the marketplace for the first time in a few weeks. The violence is also helping gold and silver due to the simple fact that there is very little else going on in the market this week. As investors head in to an uncertain weekend, it will be interesting to see how the situation in Iraq develops over the coming days and weeks.

Gold and silver finished Friday slightly down due to a stronger than expected US non-farms report for May. In general, this week was full of economic data from both the United States and Europe, highlighted yesterday by the European Central Bank’s monthly policy meeting. The meeting and its outcomes were to be expected, though the impact they had on gold and silver was not.

The crisis in Ukraine continues to stay out of most headlines as the situation is not nearly the attention-grabber it was three or four weeks ago. In fact, there were even talks this week about Ukrainian and Russian governments orchestrating a ceasefire. We will continue to keep a close eye on all matters in the large eastern European nation, but nothing short of a major military movement will cause the situation to make it back into the headlines.

ECB Meeting, Non-Farms Data Has Major Impact On Metals

Today and yesterday were far and away the two most important days of the week. Yesterday brought about the latest European Central Bank meeting, and what investors heard in the wake of that meeting helped give gold and silver a boost. After more than a year of seemingly constant deflationary pressure, the European Central Bank finally decided to announce its plans for monetary stimulus. These plans included reducing the refinancing rate by 10 basis points as well as introducing a -.1% deposit rate. In the immediate wake of the meeting, the euro currency was pushed to a more than 4 month low while the US Dollar was seen making impressive gains.

When Mario Draghi addressed media in the wake of yesterday’s meeting, his comments were perceived as more dovish than anything and ended up lifting gold and silver spot values. When the day was through, gold and silver had made their largest single-day gains in more than a week.

Today brought about the latest non-farm payrolls for the United States, and what the data had to say was not at all what the market was expecting. On Wednesday, the ADP employment report for the US in May came back far weaker than expected and gave precious metals a marginal boost. Today, however, the non-farms data showed that more than 215,000 jobs were added to the US economy in May and that the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%. This news worked against precious metals and sealed their fate for the day and the week. Hopefully, with some luck, next week will be a bit more favorable for gold and silver.

Gold and silver are just about to wrap up what has been a week they would like to quickly forget. For the most part, the last four trading days have been somewhat quiet due to a lack of economic data and a number of investors holding their positions ahead of next week’s European Central Bank meeting.

When this week got underway on Tuesday, precious metals were doing more or less the same thing they have been doing for the past few weeks, trading sideways. While it was more than obvious to many traders that precious metals were on the verge of breaking out of that range, no one could decide which direction spot values would head. Well, we now have our answer as both gold and silver are posited to record their worst trading weeks in multiple months’ time. As it stands, gold is sitting somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,240/ounce while silver has finally fallen below $19/ounce. While it would be nice to believe that metals will bounce back next week, it’s already looking like such will not be the case.

ECB Meeting Primary Concern For Investors Next Week

As far as economic data is concerned, this week did not deal the marketplace a large dose. What little US economic data made its way to the market was mostly positive and just ended up piling more pressure on the precious metals market.

The crisis in Ukraine is slowly but surely fading into the background of the marketplace’s concern as violence and tensions throughout the country are continuing to decline. Safe-haven demand for precious metals has been helped by the crisis in Ukraine over the past few months, and without that factor in the market, it will be that much more difficult for gold and silver to fight off all the downward pressures being levied against them.

As the market bears retain their firm grip on the marketplace, investors are continuing to grow worried about the prospects of metals over the course of the next few weeks. Next week will be of particular importance to investors as it is widely believed that the European Central Bank will be announcing some sort of new monetary stimulus policy at the conclusion of their monthly meeting, expected to be held early next week. Normally, monetary stimulus would be good news for precious metals investors, but this time things are a bit different. The reason for this is that monetary stimulus in Europe will almost assuredly drive down the value of the euro currency which will, in turn, give the US Dollar plenty of room to make massive gains. If the US Dollar is doing well, and US equity markets continue to perform well, gold and silver spot values will more than likely have nowhere to go but down. At this point, any talk of monetary stimulus in Europe is nothing more than speculation, but with deflationary pressures as strong as they have been lately, many feel as though the ECB has no choice but to implement some sort of new stimulus measures.

Gold and silver spot values are edging lower on the final day of what has been a forgettable trading week. Investors in the United States and United Kingdom are gearing up for a long weekend and despite the growing risk-averse attitude of worldwide investors, precious metals are still feeling plenty of downward pressure.

The crisis in Ukraine has now deescalated to some extent, but is liable to blow up again at any point in time. This Sunday will see Ukrainian citizens take to the polls in order to place votes for the next official president of the country. Russia, specifically Vladimir Putin, has said that they will respect the vote, but that much remains to be seen. Pro-Russian rebels are still riddled throughout the eastern and southern parts of the country and are more than likely going to do everything in their power to disrupt the elections.

Investors Hold Positions Heading Into A Long Weekend

Normally, risk-aversion on the part of worldwide investors would be enough to drive the spot values of gold and silver forward. This time, however, such is not the case as investors anxiously await the results of both the Ukranian and EU elections. The EU elections are especially important to investors who have witnessed a growing number of anti-EU candidates compete for parliamentary positions. This growing anti-EU sentiment is translating into higher bond yields in many countries across Europe while also hurting the euro currency.

As a result of the falling value of the euro currency, the US Dollar has surged forward and is now progressing towards its most elevated position in nearly 2 months. If investors continue to be more interested in US bonds and the US Dollar, I feel safe saying that precious metals will have a hard time advancing forward. As it stands now, gold and silver are approaching a weekly loss for the first time in a few weeks, despite interest in the metal still being described by many as being strong. Once US markets open up again on Tuesday,