In his weekly market review, Frank Holmes of the USFunds.com summarizes this week’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the gold market for gold investors. Gold closed the week at $1,138.82 down $7.58 per ounce (0.66%). Gold stocks, as measured by the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index, gained 2.65%. The U. S. Trade-Weighted Dollar Index slipped 0.40 percent for the week. The senior miners got a reprieve with the late week surge in gold prices and outpaced the junior miners while the S&P/TSX Venture Index lost 2.94 percent.
Gold Market Strengths
Palladium was the best performing precious metal, gaining 5.26 percent for the week, with continued follow-through from the Volkswagen scandal. The gains are largely speculative as it is not likely that Europe or Volkswagen will abandon diesel vehicles as their main staple.
In response to their country’s stock market selloff, Chinese investors may be returning to precious metals as a safe haven. Retail sales of gold and silver in China during August rose 17.4 percent year-over-year, representing about $3.9 billion in sales.
September’s nonfarm payrolls disappointed, rising 142,000, which was nowhere near the consensus estimate of 201,000. There was also a decline in workweek data from 34.6 hours in August to 34.5 in September, which equates to an added 348,000 in job losses. Additionally, ratios from the Household report showed that the job participation rate fell to its lowest level since October 1977 (from 62.4 percent to 62.7 percent). Consequently, gold prices jumped $25 in the first 15 minutes after the jobs report was released on Friday.
This post was published at GoldSilverWorlds on October 3, 2015.
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