Closing Gold & Silver Market Report – 2/14/2013
February 14, 2013GOLD FEELS EUROZONE’S HEARTACHE ON GDP NEWS
The eurozone is facing difficult times as its recession continues to worsen. In the fourth quarter of 2012, the zone’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) dropped 0.6 percent from the previous three months, which is the worst drop since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in early 2009. “The outlook for 2013 remains subdued,” Peter Vanden Houte, an economist at ING Group NV in Brussels, said. “While a gradual improvement of the world economy is likely to support European exports, domestic demand is bound to remain very weak as fiscal tightening and rising unemployment will take their toll on household consumption.”
Gold felt the eurozone's pain today as its price dropped on Europe’s pessimistic news. “That basically hurt the euro today, which in return weighed on Gold given the positive correlation,” HSBC Bank USA’s Precious Metals analyst Howard Wen said. “You also have a slight selloff in equities and all the other risky assets, so today was pretty much a dollar-strength, long-dollar day.”
At 5:11 p.m. (EST), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:
- Gold, $1,635.70, Down $10.40.
- Silver, $30.44, Down $0.48.