Bill Poulos with Profits Run created the Profits Run Starfish Award to celebrate individuals who are making an impact in their community with extraordinary actions. Read more about how Bill is making a difference at https://www.billpoulos.com. Below, Poulos gives us an update on the commodities market.
GOLD
Gold like other commodities had a wild ride this week. Mostly driven by news this week Gold has moved up significantly, but not without a great deal of volatility. The Week started out on Monday opening about $1418 per oz. and then topped out Friday morning just higher than $1449 before re-tracing somewhat to $1442 in late Friday trading. Monday and Tuesday Gold had risen modestly, then on Wednesday dropped hard, due to the Federal Reserve announcement that it is lowering fed fund rate by .25%. While this is important, the key to the action was Fed Chairman Powell’s comments after adding that while they are lowering rates, there will not be an aggressive policy of easing over the next few months. These comments strengthened the U.S. Dollar, weakening Gold prices. Then on Thursday, President Trump, announced the intention of adding additional tariffs on China. This took a big toll on the equity markets and Gold took off and closed on Thursday above $1442, near yearly highs. Weaker employment data came out on Friday morning moderating the huge run on Thursday, but still trading above the $1440 level, a weekly gain of over 2% and 13% gain this year. This week, Gold has reestablished a significant resistance level at $1445 per oz.
SILVER
While Gold moved up this week, Silver moved down slightly this week opening at $16.36 per oz, moved up to resistance of $16.60, then moved down on the Fed announcement on Wed. On Thursday, Silver did move up with other precious metals, but not getting the “safe haven” effect that Gold received. Thursday and Friday, we saw low around the $16.00 price, re-establishing that price level as the new support, as buyers jumped in at the level both Thursday and Friday. Current trading late on Friday is around $16.20 per oz. level. With current monetary policy beginning to loosen globally, this should strengthen precious metals should gain overall including Silver.
Oil
This week Oil opened at 56.16 per barrel, ran up initially, then only slightly affected by the FED announcement on Wed, but moved down hard on the news concerning new potential tariffs by the U.S against China negatively affected the price of oil. On Friday, Oil has bounced back due to oil rig count declines this week. This reduction of rig count puts the overall rig count at the lowest level this year which reduces the potential production and supplies, pushing the price up a bit off the weekly lows and almost back to the opening price, currently trading just below $56 per barrel, well above the weekly lows below $54 per barrel. So, after all the volatility this week, we are going to close lower overall.