Gold has traded between $1,335 and $1,371 so far today…as of 9:30 am Pacific, bullion is down $6 an ounce at $1,354…a much stronger than expected U.S. jobs report for June (287,000 jobs added) caused an immediate $25 sell-off in Gold, but the yellow metal quickly stabilized and then briefly turned higher for the day…Silver is up 21 cents at $19.86…Copper is flat at $2.12…Crude Oil is 12 cents higher at $45.26 while the U.S. Dollar Index has gained one-tenth of a point to 96.38…
Analysts had been expecting this morning’s jobs report to show a substantial rebound from May’s dismal showing, but the June number easily topped expectations as 287,000 jobs were created…that was more than 100,000 above estimates and made for a nice headline for Obama and Clinton, but May’s report was also revised even lower to just 11,000 from 38,000…combined, that’s 298,000 new jobs over 2 months which is still well below the average monthly pace of more than 200,000 for both 2014 and 2015…
June job growth occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care and social assistance, and financial activities…employment also increased in the information sector, mostly reflecting the return of workers from a strike…
The unemployment rate increased by 0.2% to 4.9% in June, and the number of unemployed persons increased by 347,000 to 7.8 million…the labor force participation rate remained little changed, near an all-time low at 62.7%…
Employment in the mining sector continued to trend down in June (-6,000)…since reaching a peak in September 2014, mining has lost 211,000 jobs…
A key metric – average hourly earnings for all employees on private non-farm payrolls – edged up just 2 cents to $25.61, following a 6-cent increase in May…over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.6%…
There’s little in today’s jobs report for the Obama administration to cheer about, despite the “287,000” number that the liberal media will play up – hence, Gold has held its ground and the U.S. dollar has barely budged…equity markets are higher as they see a Fed that’s simply not going to increase interest rates no matter what until only God knows when…
BOA Merrill Lynch Predicts $1,500 Gold By Year-End
A slew of bullish bets on Gold were announced following the shock result of the UK’s referendum on its EU membership, but 1 investment bank has just given an even more generous prediction for the future price of the precious metal…a global research team at Bank of America Merrill Lynch is calling for Gold to rise 10% between now and the end of next year and expects it to close in on $1,500 an ounce…
“The world has been walking from crisis to crisis and we see risks that this may not change,” the team, led by Michael Widmer, said in a report released this morning. “We called a bottom in Gold in February and Brexit reinforces our view. As such we are upgrading next year’s Gold price forecast from $1,325 per ounce to $1,475 per ounce.”
HSBC On PGE’s
HSBC looks for wide supply deficits to underpin prices of Platinum group metals. “Limited prospects for mine output growth, reduced metal derived from auto recycling, and steady but not stellar auto and industrial demand should assure both PGMs of ongoing structural deficits, this year and next,” the bank says. “Mine output gains of 2015 are unlikely to be repeated going forward for Platinum as high production costs, restructuring and capex cuts by South African producers should, over time, reduce supply growth.”
In today’s Morning Musings…
1. Updates on some possible big movers next week…
2. The incredible Venture-U.S. Dollar Index comparative and what it means…
3. TSX Gold Index to 350 in this 2nd half of 2016?…
4. Daniel’s Den – Daniel goes nuclear!…
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