Weekly Round-Up: Gold, Silver Boosted by US Labor Market Data

This time last week, Greece was a big question mark for resource investors. The nation had just failed to reach a deal with its international creditors, and was set to enter last-ditch talks to avert a default. 
Those talks ultimately did not produce an agreement, and as a result Greece missed its Tuesday deadline to make a 1.55-billion-euro payment to the International Monetary Fund.
The country is now “officially in arrears,” according to a CBC News report, and all eyes are on this coming Sunday’s referendum. Depending on the results of that referendum, Greece will either end up accepting its creditors’ bailout conditions or will exit the Eurozone.
Though expectations were rife that the gold price would receive a boost from Greece’s weekend talks or from other Greece-related actions during the week, in reality there was little movement on that front. The gold price reached a weekly high of $1,183.90 per ounce on Monday, then hit a 15-week low on Thursday.
At 1:00 p.m. EST on Friday, gold was sitting at $1,168.30, up slightly on the back of weaker-than-expected US labor market data, The Bullion Desk reported.
The silver price moved much the same as gold this past week, achieving its highest price — $15.89 per ounce — on Monday. Since then it’s fallen fairly steadily, and at 1:00 p.m. EST Friday was at $15.68.
Meanwhile, benchmark LME copper was trading at $5,800 per tonne on Friday, as per Reuters. It’s down 8 percent so far this year on the back of slowing demand in China. However, the news outlet notes that supply of high-quality copper concentrate fell more than expected during the first half of 2015. That could lead to some price support for the metal in the second half of the year.
Oil prices also ended Friday down. According to another Reuters article, Brent crude for August LCOc1 was down $1.69 at $60.37 per barrel as of 11:43 a.m. EST. Similarly, front-month US crude CLc1 was sitting at $55.51, down $1.40.
Prices were pushed down after an increased US rig count “stoked more concern about global oversupply while the opening of an investigation by Chinese regulators into suspected stock market manipulation further unsettled the market.”

Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. 
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