The metals market became active again this week. Let’s take a look at the four favorite precious metals on an end-of-the-month Friday.
First, let’s look at the mountain climbing charts for the last year.
Gold:
Next, silver:
Then, there’s platinum:
And, the fourth, palladium:
As of 3:45 Eastern Time, the last trades for each of the metals were:
Gold: $1178.80
Silver: $18.63
Platinum: $1737.00
Palladium: $546.00
At the beginning of the month, April 1, the metals showed last trades:
Gold: $1120.40
Silver: $17.84
Platinum: $1659.00
Palladium: $491.00
Looking at the performance from the first of April to the end of April, who did the best?
| April 1 | April 30 | Difference | Percent Increase | |
| Gold | $1,120.40 | $1,178.80 | $58.40 | 5.21% |
| Silver | $17.84 | $18.63 | $0.79 | 4.43% |
| Platinum | $1,659.00 | $1,737.00 | $78.00 | 4.70% |
| Palladium | $491.00 | $546.00 | $55.00 | 11.20% |
Once again, the not-very-talked-about palladium performs better than its PGM buddies. But, the increases of the other metals are significant as well. Consider this: short term – less than one year – CDs offer less than half a percent growth. And, these metals grew over 4% in a month’s time.
Is this an indicator for what’s to come for the metals in the future? Some will say yes, some will say no, but who really knows.
It’s fun and interesting to watch the performance of the metals and to see the pundits’ comments about why the increase (or decrease) and their speculations if the immediate performance indicates a trend or not.