8th August 2017

While we were traveling last week, the precious metals group finished mostly lower, with the exception of platinum, which surprised us as it defied the pack and broke a multi-week pattern of declines to end higher. By and large, the downward pressure being exerted on gold and silver was mainly attributable to a stronger dollar; the greenback regrouped last week and in fact, notched up its largest one-day percentage advance on Friday on a better-than-expected US nonfarm payroll reading for July. In this regard, we learned that payrolls increased by 209,000 and June’s gain was also revised higher. Average hourly earnings rose by .3%, so the report was positive in all respects. Having said that, monthly job growth so far this year has averaged 184,000, close to the 2016 average of 186,000 so there is not particularly anything new in the underlying 2017 trend.