If you are interested to know about the affect of the Middle East conflict on the prices of precious commodity such as gold and silver, then here are some facts. The state of affairs in this region of the world has a huge impact on the bullion markets. Crude oil prices are the first ones that are affected whenever there is turmoil in the Middle East. However, gold and silver also react capaciously.
More protestors were killed in Syria recently while Yemen looks increasingly close to a civil war situation. The situation in Saudi Arabia and Iran does not look too good. This and the ongoing debt worries that Europe fears will affect their economy can affect gold and silver prices severely.
The price of gold in April rose slightly because of the weaker dollar. The tensions in the Middle East and the weaken ing dollar make gold and silver cheaper for investors purchasing in other currencies. Even as late as the first week of June, gold gained in New York as the US dollar weakened further. Sales especially in Asian countries were more than a fifth compared to last year.
It is pretty clear that the Middle East crisis has pushed up the demand for gold considerably. That is one of the reasons gold prices are on an upward trend continually.
Political experts are finding it difficult to predict what will happen next. The developed world will be hoping that the Bahrain demonstrations will stay that way and not escalate. However, the ripple effect is bound to spread throughout the global economy regardless of the situation taking a turn for the better or worse.
Bullion market experts see speculation ris e in oil prices as well as gold and silver prices in expectation of the worst. It is no secret that gold followed by silver prices have been influenced directly by the change in prices of crude oil. However, this time around experts feel that reaction in precious metals would be far less than earlier occasions. The precious metals are rising continually despite the Middle East crisis. In fact, other markets have seemingly stalled but gold and silver is being bought left, right and center causing prices to rise. The reason probably is that they feel precious metals have risen above such situations and come into their own.
It seems that this time around gold and silver will continue to hold or gain higher position because the prices are being ruled by real demand and not political compulsions.
