Precious Metal Prices Drop Amid Worried Investors

Cassie Bastien

8/7/2017 1:26:41 PM

Daily Gold & Silver Market Report – 08/07/2017

Precious Metal prices were lower Monday, failing to gain support from a weaker U.S. dollar as investors worried about further U.S. interest rate hikes. Typically, a weaker dollar supports commodities, such as Gold, that are priced in the greenback, lowering the cost for buyers outside the United States. However, many investors “seemed wary of the upcoming data following unexpectedly strong jobs numbers on Friday,” Reuters reporter Eric Onstad said. Although “In coming weeks, Gold may get a boost if U.S. politicians opt for a 'clean' raising of the debt ceiling, without linking it to spending or tax provisions,” ICBC Standard Bank Analyst Tom Kendall said.

Could Gold Be Used to Treat Cancer?

According to BBC News, “Scientists at Edinburgh University found the [yellow metal] increased the effectiveness of drugs used to treat lung cancer cells.” Dr. Asier Unciti-Broceta, from Cancer Research UK's Edinburgh center, said, “We have discovered new properties of Gold that were previously unknown and our findings suggest that the Precious Metal could be used to release drugs inside tumors very safely.” BBC News noted, “Gold is a safe element which can accelerate - or catalyse - chemical reactions.” The hope is to have a method that could potentially be used to reduce chemotherapy side effects by targeting diseased cells without damaging healthy tissue. Dr. Aine McCarthy, Cancer Research UK's senior science information officer, said, “In particular, it could help improve treatment for brain tumors and other hard-to-treat cancers. The next steps will be to see if this method is safe to use in people, what its long and short-term side effects are, and if it's a better way to treat some cancers.”

How Robots Could Change the Jobs Market

Mark Cahill, U.K. managing director at staffing agency Manpower, told CNBC up to 65 percent of the jobs the next generation of workers will have do not exist today. “Technology is and will keep changing workplaces.” CNBC reporter Silvia Amaro said, “Analysis from management consultancy McKinsey earlier this year showed that 25 percent of a CEO's current job can be handled by robots and 35 percent of management tasks can be automated.” Automation is changing the labor market but is also creating other opportunities. McKinsey's research added about 60 percent of all occupations have at least 30 percent of activities that could be automated. “Thus suggesting that more occupations will change rather than being automated into non-existence,” Amaro noted. How does this relate to Precious Metals? Similar to the improving technology for cell phones, vehicles and even weaponry, it is very possible these ‘robots’ could be made with metals such as Silver.

At 2:26 p.m. (ET), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,260.80 Down  $0.80
• Silver, $16.34 Down $0.03
• Platinum, $971.00 Up $2.00
• Palladium, $890.50 Up $9.70

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