Both gold and silver spot values are trading up on what has proven to be an uneventful start to the first full week of May. As it stands currently, gold is trading just slightly above the $1,300 threshold while silver is more than 30 cents below the $20/ounce mark. In addition to mulling over last week’s economic data today, investors are also concerning themselves with the ongoing violence in Ukraine which has gotten even worse over the weekend.

This week, from an economic data standpoint, is not expected to be nearly as eventful as last week. Despite that, the investing world will continue to reflect on the plethora of data that was made public a week ago.

Crisis, Violence In Ukraine Intensifies

The crisis in Ukraine has been in and out of the headlines for the past month or more. Violence in the large eastern European nation has come and gone but has more recently taken a stranglehold on the eastern half of Ukraine. Pro-Russian rebels have seized both towns and buildings throughout the country and are not going to simply lay down their arms and give up peacefully.

This weekend, Ukrainian military forces were dispatched in order to dispel a large number of rebels who had taken over official buildings across the country. These operations have resulted in dozens of deaths and have worked to further diminish the stability of Ukraine. Now, as the violence continues, the persisting question is with regard to whether or not Russia will involve itself in Ukraine. As you may or may not be aware of, Russia currently has a strong military presence along its border with Ukraine. The increased violence is currently working to help safe-haven demand for both gold and silver. It is interesting to see safe-haven demand of this nature so immediately after such a positive week of US economic data.

Last week gave investors a lot of US economic data to mull over, but none was more important to investors than Friday’s US Labor Department jobs report for April. The market was anticipating to see little more than 200,000 jobs added to the US economy, but were pleasantly surprised to see actual figures come in around 280,000. In addition to the jobs figures, investors also received a somewhat lackluster first quarter GDP report and another reduction to Quantitative Easing as a result of last week’s FOMC policy meeting. Though it is still early, investors are pleasantly surprised to see safe-haven demand drive spot values upward after the weekend. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the week pans out for metals, especially considering it will be significantly quieter 5-day trading session.