Three of the metals started the week down from their close on the previous Friday, but one metal just kept climbing to new all-time highs.
Let’s look at the charts.
First, there’s gold:
Next is silver:
Third is platinum:
Fourth is palladium:
Those are some interesting charts. Silver looks kind of like gold, but not really, while palladium looks almost like platinum, but again, not really.
Just look at the gold chart. The yellow metal’s market has reacted to the turmoil in the economy, here and abroad, by continuing to climb in value. From the middle of last week, gold’s increases have been on an almost straight slope upward. The line bent slightly on Wednesday of this week, but the metal kept on climbing — just not as steeply. Of course, the trading days experienced ups and downs, however the New York closing values show the upward trend.
Silver, the other popular and more affordable metal, began the week dropping almost a dollar from Friday’s close. That’s significant for silver. Never fear, the metal grew slightly for Tuesday’s closing value before increasing over two dollars for Wednesday’s close. Again, that’s significant. Thursday experienced a small drop (four cents) before increasing slightly more than a dollar at Friday’s close. From Tuesday’s low point close to Friday’s close, silver increased $3.52. That’s amazing, and years ago would have been unheard of.
The next metal, platinum, also began the week on a downward note. But, like silver, it started upward on Tuesday and continued uphill through Thursday. Friday’s close saw a small, one dollar decrease from Thursday. But, unlike silver, that one dollar difference is almost negligible considering platinum’s larger overall values.
Similar, yet different, palladium began the week closing down from the previous Friday’s closing values. On Tuesday, the metal saw neither loss nor gain before increasing on Wednesday. Again on Thursday, the market experienced no loss or gain before increasing slightly for Friday’s close. Though the week was up for the most part, palladium is three dollars shy of its most recent $784 peak closing point on July 7.
For the moving 30-day highs and lows, some metals changed this week:
| 30 day high | 30 day low | Jul 15 Last | Difference between High and Low |
|
| Gold | $1,594.10 | $1,483.00 | $1,594.10 | 7.0% |
| Silver | $39.40 | $33.58 | $39.27 | 14.8% |
| Platinum | $1,789.00 | $1,674.00 | $1,761.00 | 6.4% |
| Palladium | $790.00 | $724.00 | $781.00 | 8.4% |
The most important is the new, all-time high for gold, but almost as important is the new, recent high for silver. Both platinum and palladium have new, lower 30-day highs since the previous highs fell off the chart. None of the metals encountered new low points this week.
With their upward trends, all of the metals increased their Friday closing values week-over-week:
| Jul 8 Last | Jul 15 Last | Percent Change | Dollar Change |
|
| Gold | $1,544.20 | $1,594.10 | 3.2% | $49.90 |
| Silver | $36.71 | $39.27 | 7.0% | $2.56 |
| Platinum | $1,735.00 | $1,761.00 | 1.5% | $26.00 |
| Palladium | $776.00 | $781.00 | 0.6% | $5.00 |
Once again, gold wins the largest dollar increase while silver wins the biggest percentage increase. Platinum and palladium are increasing as well, just not as much nor as fast.
Last week, a pundit predicted silver would dramatically increase on Monday. Instead, silver dropped on Monday, but increased significantly through the remainder of the week.
What will happen to the metals next week?
Some predict the debt crisis and the federal government’s actions will impact the metals’ markets. That’s a given. The problem is the government’s actions, especially at this point, are unpredictable.
With all of the economic and political variables, domestically and globally, the most accurate prediction is the markets will go up and the markets will go down.
Yes, that’s a silly prediction, but it underscores the fact that no one knows for sure what the markets will do.