The metals market encountered a few ups and downs this week, but most of the metals were in an upward trend. Let’s look at the graphs.
First, there’s gold:
Next is silver:
Third is platinum:
Last is palladium:
Gold ended Monday down from Friday’s close, moved back up on Tuesday, came down on Wednesday (but kept a higher number than Monday), went up significantly on Thursday and fell down slightly on Friday. Gold ended the week at a higher number than it had for a couple of weeks.
Silver, on its own path, behaved differently. Silver closed slightly higher on Monday than Friday’s close, went up again on Tuesday, fell slightly on Wednesday, started up significantly on Thursday and kept increasing on Friday. It’s not back over $30 yet, but it’s moving in that direction.
Platinum performed somewhat similarly to silver but with its own twist. Starting the week, platinum stayed relatively flat to Friday’s close, but from there, it continued upward for the week with no fall backs comparing each day’s closing numbers.
This past week, palladium’s ups and downs were consistent with gold’s except palladium’s trend stayed within a small window rather than going up like the other metals. It started the week down from Friday, went up on Tuesday, fell back on Wednesday, went up again on Thursday and dropped back on Friday. Though it jumped over $820 on Tuesday, the rest of the week saw closing numbers bouncing between $810 and $820.
Moving on, let’s look at the tables for the week. First, let’s view the rolling 30-day performance numbers including the highs and lows:
| 30 day high | 30 day low | Feb 4 Last | Difference between High and Low |
|
| Gold | $1,388.00 | $1,314.90 | $1,348.60 | 5.3% |
| Silver | $29.65 | $26.68 | $29.14 | 10.0% |
| Platinum | $1,846.00 | $1,716.00 | $1,843.00 | 7.0% |
| Palladium | $824.00 | $741.00 | $812.00 | 10.1% |
Both gold and silver saw a drop in their 30-day high values in comparison to their 60-day highs of $1426 and $30.91 respectively.
Now, let’s see how this Friday’s close compares to a week ago:
| Jan 28 Last | Feb 4 Last | Percent Change | Dollar Change |
|
| Gold | $1,338.40 | $1,348.60 | 0.8% | $10.20 |
| Silver | $28.01 | $29.14 | 4.0% | $1.13 |
| Platinum | $1,793.00 | $1,843.00 | 2.8% | $50.00 |
| Palladium | $814.00 | $812.00 | -0.2% | -$2.00 |
As we saw earlier, three of the four metals trended up for the week with platinum having the highest dollar increase and silver enjoying the largest percentage increase. Palladium did drop, but only slightly, from last Friday to this Friday.
So what will this coming week bring? Will the global turmoil make the metals go up or fall backward? Will there be further announcements domestically about our economic and financial situation that will impact the markets – including the metals?
Some pundits say up, some say down. Since our crystal ball is non-functioning, we’ll watch to see what happens and report again on next Friday’s metals’ performance.