After making decent gains on Monday, gold and silver are both down by considerable margins on Tuesday thanks to profit-taking as well as a de-escalation of violence in Ukraine. The calming down of tensions has revived investor risk-appetite and has worked to partially stabilize the ailing Russian economy. Though gold has so far simply given back the gains it made a day ago, silver is faring much worse as it is down a significant amount more than it gained a day ago.
As we head into the latter stages of the week, investors will be anxiously awaiting the release of non-farm payrolls data from February. As it stands, the market is expecting to see about 150,000 jobs having been added in February while the unemployment rate is expected to remain steady at 6.6%.
Tensions Down in Crimea, Up In Korea
Over the course of the past week or so, the Crimea region of Ukraine has been in the news at just about every turn. The ethnic-Russian dominated region of Ukraine has seen the presence of Russian military personnel increase considerably over the last few days. In addition to ground troops taking over control of border posts, Russia’s fleet of ships in the Black Sea were also reported as having blocked in a number of Ukrainian vessels. As recently as yesterday, there were reports flying around saying that Russian Naval officials had called for Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea to surrender by this afternoon or be faced with military action.
Today, however, it is becoming more clear that the threats were never made and that Russia has no intentions of attacking Ukrainian soldiers in Crimea. Adding to the calming of tensions today was another report saying that Russian president Vladimir Putin called for all Russian ground troops in Crimea to return to their bases. These two factors today dramatically reduced tensions in the region and even helped to stabilize Russia’s economy and currency, both of which were declining rapidly only a day ago. Though the situation in Ukraine is far from resolved, it is relieving to many to know that an all-out war is not going to break out today.
In other news from around the world, North Korea reportedly fired two missiles off of its western shore during the overnight hours. Though the missiles landed harmlessly in the East China Sea, US and South Korean military officials are not dismissing the North’s actions.
While it may seem random and out of the blue that North Korea would fire off two missiles into the sea, the reason behind this action is North Korea’s opposition to joint military drills happening between the United States and South Korea in and around the Korean peninsula. Despite the fact that these same military exercises happen every year around this time, the North is none too pleased about it. Tensions are on the rise in Korea, but all signs are pointing to this being a non-factor for the marketplace by the end of the week. Regardless, we will continue to monitor both situations in Korea and Ukraine in an effort to uncover the latest developments and happenings.
