Gold and silver spot values finished the day on Wednesday having made somewhat decent gains. On the whole, this week is expected to be quite slow and devoid of any major data. Of course, Friday is an exception to that rule seeing as the market will be dealt the latest employment report from the United States in January. This data will be hawked over simply because it sets the employment data tone for the rest of the year.
In other news, stocks and the Dollar have been jumping around considerably all week long. Like metals, neither asset-class has moved too far from where it began the week, but that very well might change upon the release of the latest employment data. Another thing to pay attention to is the fact that crude oil has been on a rally of sorts since the end of last week. Will oil be able to keep climbing? Only time will tell.
Surprise Central Bank Decisions Catch Market Attention
On Tuesday, it was reported that the Australian Central Bank would be reducing its main interest rate in an effort to stimulate the Australian economy. In recent years, Australia has really fallen behind economically and is looking for pretty much anything to get itself back on track. Whether this move will finally jump start some growth for the island nation remains to be seen, but it did push the AUD to a 5.5 year low against the strong US Dollar. As the year moves forward, we will continue checking back with Australia to see how its economy is performing.
Finally, this morning brought about an announcement claiming that China’s central bank reduced the reserve requirement ratio for its domestic banks. This move, as you could have probably guessed, was made to spur economic growth in a country that has really struggled over the course of the past 12 months or so. As the world’s largest importer of raw commodities it is pretty easy to see why this news helped give gold and silver a bit of a boost.
Looking ahead to the end of the week, I expect most investors to hold their positions until the release of Friday’s employment report. Because this is the first such employment report of the year, investors will be paying very close attention to the figures that are made public.
