The yellow metal went for another bullish ride this week. Monday’s trading opened with gold prices up nearly $3.00 from the previous Friday at $1,334.64 and closed the day out slightly higher at $1,334.77. The upward pressure continued to Tuesday’s open at $1,336.71, and the bulls kept running to bring the day’s close up to $1,340.99. Things really heated up in afterhours trading, however, and the price of gold jumped on Wednesday to open at $1,352.38, but the gold bulls weren’t done yet, as the yellow metal then closed up more than $5.00 at $1,357.73. Afterhours trading saw gold prices hit a high for the week of $1,364.56, a level not seen since July 2016. Thursday’s open cooled to a still-robust $1,358.07, after which the market shot up to $1,362.69 again before settling at $1,348.16 for the day. On Friday, the market opened up at $1,350.62, traded higher throughout the day, then settled at a more modest $1,349.11 to close the week for a jump of nearly $17.00 over the previous week’s close.
The early part of the week was dominated by news that the federal government shut down on Friday, January 20, due to the inability of legislators to agree to a stopgap spending bill. Negotiations continued throughout the weekend with both Democrats and Republicans blaming the other side, yet voters watched with skepticism, as polls showed that despite differences on who to blame, 84 percent of voters thought the shutdown was unnecessary. 1 2 A deal was finally reached to keep the government funded until February 8, but the short-term fix only provides savvy investors with more impetus for a flight to quality. 3
Mid-week news was dominated by chaotic messaging from the Trump administration on dollar value. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin expressed a lack of concern with a weak dollar given support for exports, which sent the dollar tumbling against all currencies, while gold and oil spiked to new highs. The same day, President Trump disagreed, voicing support for a strong dollar and stating that his treasury secretary’s comments must have been taken out of context. 4 Mr. Mnuchin then affirmed his comments on Thursday, but changed tune on Friday to assert that indeed, his comments were ‘completely taken out of context.’ 5 6 The dollar seesawed in value all week because of the controversy but closed the week down in value in the end. 7