Gold and silver fared awfully on Tuesday as both metals hit multi-month lows by mid-afternoon. The long holiday weekend for many traders saw tensions in Ukraine deescalate significantly shortly after presidential elections were held. A growing sense of calm around Europe has thus far translated into an increase in investor risk-appetite. Despite the US Dollar not performing as well today as it was for a majority of last week, the spot values of precious metals did little besides fall. As it stands, silver is just barely above $19/ounce while gold is flirting with an even $1,200/ounce.
It is likely that investors will continue to mull over this past weekend’s plethora of election data as it means a number of different things for Europe in both the short and long-term.
Election Data Drives Investor Risk-Appetite
Over the weekend, Ukrainian citizens took to the polls in order to vote for their first official president since Yanukovich was ousted from office a few months ago. Though not yet official, Ukrainian billionaire Petro Poroshenko is said to be leading early election polls and is likely going to take over the reigns of the war-torn, divided country. The unofficial election of Poroshenko saw tensions throughout Ukraine almost immediately deescalate as the billionaire made it clear that he is ready and willing to work with both Russia and the rest of Europe in order to bring about peace in his country as well as reestablish Ukraine as a respectable member of the European Union.
While pro-Russian rebels still very much have a foothold throughout Ukraine, the crisis, as far as investors are concerned, is becoming more of a regional issue as opposed to one that the entire world should take note of.
In other news from Europe, EU parliamentary election results were due out this weekend and did well to calm what has recently become a jittery European marketplace. Despite fears that anti-EU candidates would be voted into office, such was not the case, especially for key countries such as Germany and Italy. The now calm European marketplace has given the euro currency room to bounce back from historic losses suffered last week at the hand of the US Dollar.
Finally, there was a decent bit of US economic data released today, most of which ended up putting even more pressure on gold and silver spot values. Included among these reports were the US flash services PMI as well as the latest report on durable goods orders. When all was said and done, it is safe to say that Tuesday was a day that gold and silver investors will quickly like to forget.
