Following European Central Bank president Mario Draghi’s ironically positive announcement regarding the European economic situation, gold and silver prices experienced a downtick at the end of yesterday’s trading day. Gold prices for April delivery settled at $7.50 lower yesterday, moving down to $1,671.30 an ounce. Prices fluctuated between a low of $1,663.40 an ounce and $1,683.90 an ounce, based on figures culled from the Kitco.com Gold Index. According to Kitco senior metals analyst Jim Wyckoff, “Draghi gave a bit of an upbeat assessment of the eurozone economy as a whole, he talked about no inflationary problems, and that may have provided a little downside pressure on the gold market.� Immediately following Draghi’s comments on the European economy, gold prices were selling off by more than $10; the bank executive said that the exchange rate is an important variable in ensuring growth and price stability in Europe. Another variable that may have affected gold prices yesterday was Chicago Fed president Charles Evans’ remarks to CNBC regarding continued quantitative easing for all of 2013. In January, gold investors were particularly worried about the lack of a decisive answer as to when the Federal Reserve would complete its quantitative easing financial stimulus. Lastly, jobless claims and other employment-related statistics have played a role in gold and silver prices; for the week ended January 26, jobless claims were reported at 366,000, a number slightly higher than the 360,000 new claims forecasted by economists.

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