Closing Gold & Silver Market Report – 4/18/2013

Brandi Brundidge

4/18/2013 4:05:00 PM

GOLD TO REMAIN FIRM; SEQUESTER HELPING ECONOMY YET?

The Gold price attempted to stabilize today as investors continue to purchase physical metals and sell off exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The SPDR Gold Trust ETF dropped to a three-year low as investors feel more confident with physical possession of the metal. “What we have seen so far has been a tremendous appetite in terms of physical demand for Gold, but we don't know how long that will last, but the key thing is what the investor flows do,” Standard Chartered analyst Daniel Smith said. “The danger is that lower prices force further liquidation in terms of the physical ETFs — that and the managed money positions in the United States are critical to follow.”

The U.S. economy has yet to see the positive effects from the budget cuts of the sequester, which cut government spending and increased taxes. Analysts believe the sequester is to blame for the depressed unemployment rates seen recently, as many Americans were laid off during the beginning of the program. Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities, commented on the Labor Department’s revised number of unemployment applicants for last week by saying, “We had a lot of volatility since the end of the quarter. This is a fairly clean, stable number. There is some slight strengthening in labor conditions, but nothing dramatic.”

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

• Gold, $1,392.90, Up $7.20.
• Silver, $23.32, Down $0.09.
• Platinum, $1,425.10, Down $11.30.
• Palladium, $669.60, Up $7.20.

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