The metals market climbed this week but not without some falls as well. The metals did not reach any new heights and had only one new, but brief, low point in the 30-day performance period, achieved by a white metal.
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 that upward climb through Tuesday. Wednesday’s closing gold value decreased but by only $0.30 from Tuesday’s close. Thursday saw another downward move by just over $6 at New York’s close. Moving upward again, gold made significant gains during the Friday trading. It’s not up to it’s recent high point, but it’s not far away either.
Considering silver closed on Monday just a penny above the previous Friday’s close, its value stayed virtually flat. Silver began climbing on Tuesday and Wednesday, and though it didn’t close in New York above $38, the global markets took the value into the $38.70 range in the early morning hours, eastern time, on Thursday. By the end of the New York trading day, silver fell back to below Wednesday’s closing value. On Friday, though, silver regained its lost ground, not to the highs of the global market but at least higher than the New York closing values earlier in the week.
Platinum began the week by losing value and reaching a new, recent low point. It climbed significantly on Tuesday and Wednesday only to fall back again on Thursday. Friday’s platinum market saw the metal climb again to end the week at a new, three week high value.
Like platinum, palladium lost value at Monday’s close from the previous Friday. But, unlike the other metals, palladium began climbing on Tuesday and continued to climb through the remainder of the week. Its significant gains for the week put palladium at better than a three week high point.
Though only one metal encountered a new low this week, let’s review the 30-day lows and highs for the four metals:
| 30 day high | 30 day low | May 27 Last | Difference between High and Low |
|
| Gold | $1,565.70 | $1,473.10 | $1,536.50 | 5.9% |
| Silver | $48.70 | $32.50 | $37.96 | 33.3% |
| Platinum | $1,873.00 | $1,749.00 | $1,801.00 | 6.6% |
| Palladium | $789.00 | $706.00 | $759.00 | 10.5% |
With their smaller overall values, both silver and palladium continue to have the largest percent differential between their high and low points. But look at gold and palladium – they are within roughly $30 of their recent high values.
In comparing this Friday’s closing values to a week ago, all four metals increased:
| May 20 Last | May 27 Last | Percent Change | Dollar Change |
|
| Gold | $1,513.50 | $1,536.50 | 1.5% | $23.00 |
| Silver | $35.06 | $37.96 | 8.3% | $2.90 |
| Platinum | $1,771.00 | $1,801.00 | 1.7% | $30.00 |
| Palladium | $733.00 | $759.00 | 3.5% | $26.00 |
This week silver once again had the largest percent increase over the previous week’s Friday close. On the other hand, platinum had the largest dollar increase with palladium and gold not far behind.
Instead of likening these charts to mountains and valleys, a roller coaster looks to be a more appropriate comparison!