Everybody Loves Gold…Again

(Kitco News) – It seems investors and the mainstream media are saying ‘my precious’ to the metals again. This week, gold and silver hit multi-month highs while the dollar (the thorn in gold’s side) has continued to lose value against other major currencies, including the euro, which had an impressive rally. It is a reverse scenario investors have been living with for the past few years. Since the start of the year, the dollar index (DXY) has been struggling to breach the key 100 level.

In turn, everyone is talking gold again, including making the top five searched keywords on Twitter this week.

Three-and-half-month highs were bestowed upon both gold and silver this week. Gold priced in U.S. dollars is up more than 9% since the start of the year. The metal has not only shined in U.S. dollar terms but based on Kitco’s Gold-Currency Charts, gold priced in both “hard” and “other” currencies have all posted gains in the last 30 days.

Mining stocks were among the biggest gainers of the week, with the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs index (HUI) up 15.8% for the week through Thursday’s close.

However, Friday’s weaker jobs number, which analysts expected to be bullish for gold, didn’t help the metal.. The January employment report showed the key non-farms payrolls up 151,000, following a strong rise of 292,000 in December. A reading of up 185,000 was expected.

April Comex gold settled Friday $1,157.7 an ounce, relatively unchanged on the day. March Comex silver settled at $14.778 an ounce, down 7.2 cents on the day.