The Friday Metals 07-29-2011

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The charts are certainly interesting this week with no two following the same pattern. There were ups and downs with two ending the week up and two down from the previous Friday’s New York closing values.

The charts, first, there’s gold:

30 Day Gold Performance 07-29-2011

Next is silver:

30 Day Silver Performance 07-29-2011

Third is platinum:

30 Day Platinum Performance 07-29-2011

Last is palladium:

30 Day Palladium Performance 07-29-2011

Gold climbed quite a bit from the previous Friday to Monday’s closing market values. Tuesday saw another slight increase for gold before a drop on Wednesday. The decline wasn’t significant, but it did lose all of Tuesday’s increase. Thursday’s gold market closed up which continued on Friday to end the week at a new high point.

Silver, on the other hand, climbed on Monday and Tuesday to reach a new, recent high point. Wednesday’s silver market fell and continued to fall on Thursday losing more than the gains for the week. On Friday, silver saw a slight upward movement but not enough to end the week up week-over-week.

Unlike gold or silver, platinum began the week moving down from the previous Friday’s closing value. But on Tuesday, platinum increased on the New York market before falling for the remainder of the week, losing all gains. Interestingly, the London markets peaked on Wednesday at values higher than the New York market and at new 30-day highs for platinum.

Though difficult to see, palladium actually increased by $2 from the previous Friday’s New York closing value to Monday’s closing number. On Tuesday, palladium increased significantly on the New York market before falling on Wednesday. On Thursday and Friday, palladium increased by $1 each day on the New York market. Like platinum, palladium also peaked on the London markets on Wednesday at values higher than the New York market and reaching new, recent 30-day high values.

The metals’ performance is always interesting. This week’s is just odd, too.

Let’s review the 30-day performance values – highs and lows:

  30 day high 30 day low Jul 29 Last Difference between
High and Low
Gold $1,628.50 $1,483.00 $1,627.20 8.9%
Silver $40.91 $33.85 $39.90 17.3%
Platinum $1,814.00 $1,703.00 $1,775.00 6.1%
Palladium $842.00 $742.00 $826.00 11.9%

 

As the lowest rate, silver continues to have the largest percentage difference between the 30-day low and high values. Just think, if you had purchased silver at $33.85 on July 1 and sold it at $40.91 on July 26, the profit margin would have been 17.3% (not considering the transaction fees). But, it’s always easier to “time” the market in hindsight than it is to work the peaks in real time.

Let’s compare the Friday-to-Friday closing market values:

  Jul 22 Last Jul 29 Last Percent Change Dollar
Change
Gold $1,600.30 $1,627.20 1.7% $26.90
Silver $40.07 $39.90 -0.4% -$0.17
Platinum $1,791.00 $1,775.00 -0.9% -$16.00
Palladium $804.00 $826.00 2.7% $22.00

 

Gold and palladium increased week-over-week with gold having the largest dollar increase and palladium winning the largest percentage race. Conversely, silver and platinum ended the week down – but not by a significant amount.

Current events — the US debt ceiling crisis, the issues among the EU and the financial institutions’ involvement with the metals’ markets in the US and Europe — impact the metals through many different variables. Predicting the metals’ performance is like trying to hit the broad side of a barn, blind-folded, in the dark, and you don’t know where the barn is.

Next week should prove to be another interesting week on the metals’ market.

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