Gold and silver were able to retain last week’s gains over the weekend and many are expecting to see them gain upon them this week. Also, investors are looking forward to seeing many of the absentee economic reports we missed during the government shutdown be released this week. Among those reports is the very important employment report from September, now more than two weeks delayed.

For the longer-term, investors are concerned about what the future holds for them and their finances. Even though the US government shutdown has come to an end, its impact will be felt for some time.

Gold and Silver Moving Forward

In the immediate wake of the government shutdown coming to an end, gold and silver followed most other markets and appreciated in value. However, only a day later, investors witnessed the USD and some stocks begin to decline once more. Initially, many were confused, but soon thereafter it was widely realized that the deals reached by Congress only a day before were temporary band-aids on a much larger wound.

The deal(s) only allocated enough money to keep the government running until the middle of this upcoming January. In that same breath, it must be mentioned that the debt ceiling was only raised in order to allow for government borrowing until the beginning of February. This means that there is an increasing likelihood that we will replay the government shutdown scenario all over again shortly after the turn of 2014. This simple fact has caused investors to be intimidated by the thought of investing in the USD and most stocks.

Precious metals investors too have perked up because this means that safe-haven demand for gold is on the rise and will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future.

Fed Decisions to be Put On Hold

With all of this talk about the government shutdown and its implications for precious metals going forward, it is easy to forget about the Federal Reserve and the chances of it altering monetary policy by the year’s end. Prior to the shutdown, a widely held belief by both investors and some members of the Fed is that monetary policy, specifically QE, was going to be changed before the end of the year.

Now, with the government shutdown almost assuredly going to negatively impact 4th quarter GDP, it seems as though the Fed’s hands are tied in regards to altering monetary policy. This too, if it rings true, will be an underlying positive factor for the spot prices of precious metals going forward.