AGE Daily Gold Update

AGE Daily Gold Update presents a recap on today's action in the precious metals markets. View archives.

8/5/2025: Gold gains again on weak data

Source: Bill Musgrave, American Gold Exchange

Austin — New York spot gold gained 0.2% to close near $3,382 after another spate of weak US economic data spurred safe-haven demand. It was bullion's fourth straight winning session. Silver climbed 1.3% to finish at $37.69 an ounce.

The US services sector barely grew in July, weighed down by rising costs, employment cuts, and the inability of firms to plan around chaotic trade policies. The ISM index showed US services companies, which constitute around 70% of the economy, slipped to 50.1%, where anything under 50% signals contraction.

The data comes one day after the ISM factory index showed US manufacturing contracting for the fifth straight month.

Corporate earnings at home and abroad have fallen by around $15 billion this quarter, according to Reuters, as tariffs weigh on demand and pinch profits. Companies in the manufacturing, automotive, and industrial sectors have been absorbing higher prices in hopes that the most aggressive tariffs since the 1930s would be temporary.

Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office raised its estimate of the national debt increase resulting from the recent Trump tax and budget bill to $4.1 trillion over the next 10 years, up from earlier estimates of $3.7 trillion.

Wall Street pulled back on the soft data, with the Dow and S&P 500 dropping 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively, while the Nasdaq fell 0.6%.

Concerns about the reliability of future economic data also weighed on sentiment after President Trump, claiming manipulation but offering no evidence, fired the head of the BLS because the latest nonfarm payrolls data showed deepening cracks in the labor market.

Platinum and palladium fell 0.7% and 1.2%, respectively.

At the New York spot close: gold gained $7.50 to $3,381.90; silver jumped 50 cents to $37.69; platinum shed %9.20 to $1,317.20; and palladium lost $13.80 to $1,184.15 an ounce.