The world and the metals experienced a rocky road this week, rockier for some than for others. Some of the metals gained new highs, some sunk to new, recent lows, and one experienced both a new high and a new low in the past week.
Let’s look at the charts. First, there’s gold:
Next is silver:
Third is platinum:
Last is palladium:
Gold ended the previous week on an upward trend and continued up at the start of the week. Tuesday, gold fell backward slightly with Wednesday up again. Thursday’s gold experienced another drop back, and on Friday, it started upward again. Among the ups and downs, gold achieved a new, 30-day high but not higher than the 60-day high.
Silver’s ups and downs for the week occurred on the same days as gold’s, but silver’s chart shows higher highs and lower lows, relatively speaking, than gold’s. Furthermore, silver gained a new 10+ year high during the week. For a brief time, silver appeared to be approaching $35, but it’s not there – yet.
Platinum attempted to climb at the beginning of the week, but had a sharp fall on Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday saw platinum fall slightly further. On Friday, the white metal began a small climb upward again. Platinum’s falls included a new 30-day low for the metal.
Palladium spent all of the previous week on an upward path and continued upward on Monday with a new 5+ year high. On Tuesday, however, palladium fell dramatically – close but not quite by $100. Wednesday and Thursday saw the metal fall even further to encounter a new 30-day low point. On Friday, palladium began a small climb upward, but only a small percentage of the week’s fall.
Let’s look at the tables. First, the 30-day highs and lows:
| 30 day high | 30 day low | Feb 25 Last | Difference between High and Low |
|
| Gold | $1,414.50 | $1,314.90 | $1,409.60 | 7.0% |
| Silver | $33.91 | $26.68 | $33.38 | 21.3% |
| Platinum | $1,863.00 | $1,772.00 | $1,805.00 | 4.9% |
| Palladium | $859.00 | $767.00 | $789.00 | 10.7% |
Silver and palladium show interesting percentage differences between their 30-day high and low points indicating some wild swings in their values.
Let’s look at the comparison of this week’s close to the previous week’s numbers:
| Feb 18 Last | Feb 25 Last | Percent Change | Dollar Change |
|
| Gold | $1,389.10 | $1,409.60 | 1.5% | $20.50 |
| Silver | $32.66 | $33.38 | 2.2% | $0.72 |
| Platinum | $1,832.00 | $1,805.00 | -1.5% | -$27.00 |
| Palladium | $849.00 | $789.00 | -7.1% | -$60.00 |
Even with their ups and downs, gold and silver gained week over week. On the other hand, platinum and palladium with their harsh drops in value, did not recover and ended the week at lower values.
Economic and political turmoil, domestically and abroad, impact the metals’ market. What will the next week bring? The crystal ball is broken, we’ll wait and see.