2nd May 2017

The precious metals group stared May off in stumbling fashion; gold lost about $10/ounce, silver eased a whopping $.38/ounce to finish well below the $17/ ounce mark, while platinum and palladium each shed $16/ounce and $11/ounce losses respectively. A combination of factors seem to have converged to set off the selling, with no one reason being particularly dominant. For one thing, markets were relieved to see that the weekend passed on a relatively quiet note with regard to the Korean Peninsula, this after the North Koreans fired yet another missile late on Friday night only to see it malfunction and fall harmlessly into the Sea of Japan. Also somewhat bearish for gold, was a weekend agreement reached by Congress to keep the US government funded through September, thus averting a shutdown that could’ve set in by week’s end. The news boosted the dollar initially, although by the end of the day, the greenback finished only slightly higher, with most of its gain coming against the yen. London markets were closed on Monday, making trading conditions rather thin.