Morning Gold & Silver Market Report – 5/22/2014

Ryan Schwimmer

5/22/2014 8:15:42 AM

METALS GAIN DUE TO FED, JOBLESS CLAIMS

Precious Metals are gaining in early-morning trading thanks to a renewed commitment by the Federal Reserve to continue supporting the economy. While the Fed is still planning to exit from its quantitative easing program, minutes from the Fed’s April meeting released yesterday revealed the central bank is not ready to raise interest rates. A short-term area of concern for the Gold price is weakness in the euro, which could be brought on by elections in Europe, according to Saxo Bank head of commodity strategy Ole Hansen.

U.S. stock futures trimmed gains after the weekly jobless claims report was released this morning. Last week, initial claims dropped to a seven-year low, and some analysts warned that the low level was due to the late Easter holiday. Analysts expected new jobless claims to reach 315,000 for last week, but the increase brought it to 326,000. The four-week moving average, meant to strip week-to-week volatility from the reports, dipped by 1,000 to 322,500, which is near a post-recession low.

At 9 a.m. (ET), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,301.70, Up $11.40.
• Silver, $19.71, Up $0.32.
• Platinum, $1,493.50, Up $18.60.
• Palladium, $838.10, Up $6.70.

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