Closing Gold & Silver Market Report – 10/11/2012

GOLD GAINS ON CONTINUED EUROZONE WOES DESPITE POSITIVE U.S. JOBS NEWS

Gold experienced subtle gains today as promising data from the U.S. labor market compensated for a weaker dollar. Jobless claims fell despite anticipated projections of a rise in unemployment. Though the positive news from the Labor Department would typically inspire increased risk tolerance, the ongoing European debt debacle continues to boost the outlook for Gold. Mark O’Byrne, executive director at Goldcore, noted this upside was due to “the risk of the eurozone debt crisis intensifying with the focus again on Spain after S&P cut Spain’s rating to just above junk status.”

Investors’ positive sentiment toward news that unemployment benefits claims fell by 30,000 last week was short lived as the Dow Jones failed to hang on to early gains. Though the jobless reports show the best numbers since Feb. 2008, Zach Pandl, strategist at Columbia Management in Minneapolis, showed reserved optimism stating, “You do have to be cautious about possible distortions.” Economists polled by Reuters offered less optimistic estimates for continuing minimal U.S. economic expansion. Forecasts for the first quarter of 2013 expect a median annualized drop from 1.7 to 1.6 percent growth.

At 5 p.m. (EDT), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1768.00, Up $3.40.
• Silver, $34.04, Down $0.07.
• Platinum, $1,678.30, Up $2.80.
• Palladium, $652.00, Up $1.10.

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