April 23rd Midweek Silver Market Update

Gold and silver are hovering near even to slightly stronger during the first half of the day on Wednesday. A lack of any fresh bullish news in conjunction with bearish factors mounting are making it harder for gold and silver to make any significant gains. As far as US economic data is concerned the market will not be seeing much of it this week. What little economic data does make its way to the marketplace will more than likely be ignored by investors. What is on the minds of investors, however, is the plethora of PMI reports that were released earlier this morning.

The crisis in Ukraine is deescalating as fast as it picked up momentum a little more than a week ago, but the situation is far from resolved. Safe-haven demand for gold and silver as a result of violence in Ukraine is almost nonexistent in the wake of reports released over the weekend claiming that the US and Russia will work together to bring about a peaceful resolution to the tattered nation of Ukraine. Having said this, however, armed pro-Russia militiamen are still scattered all over the eastern half of the country and are not going to simply lay down their weapons and give up. For this reason and many more it is important that the investing marketplace continue to keep a close eye on any and all developments out of Ukraine.

April PMI Reports Yield Mixed Reactions

While US economic data released this week will be mostly negligible for precious metals investors, the same cannot be said about today’s PMI readings from April for both China and the EU.

China’s manufacturing PMI reading disappointed for yet another month, declining .3 from March to April. Compared to a March manufacturing PMI reading of 48.3, April’s reading came in at only 48.0. As you may or may not know, any reading under 50 suggests contraction in that particular segment of the economy. Today’s PMI reading also did little in the way of quelling investors’ fears about the rate of growth shown by the world’s second largest economy.

While China’s April PMI readings were on the disappointing side, the EU’s readings were much more upbeat. Among the upbeat readings was a .3 improvement in the EU’s services sector PMI reading for April, moving from 52.2 to 52.5. The EU’s manufacturing PMI moved from 53.0 in March to 53.3 in April, further confirming that the EU economy is among the fastest growing in the world.

Posted in Market News

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