Precious metals opened up this first full trading week of August in unimpressive fashion as both gold and silver are trading downwards. Some worries with regard to one of Portugal’s biggest banks surfaced over the weekend, but the Portuguese government did well to resolve the situation before things got out of hand. After last week’s slew of economic data from the United States, it should come as no surprise that this week will be a good bit quieter. Still, trading and investing activity will be at all-time highs as investors continuously gauge what has proved to be an uncertain economic atmosphere going forward.

Banco Espirito Santo Worries Market, At Least Momentarily

This may be drawing upon your memory a bit, but a few weeks ago, the market was dealt a news story with regard to one of Portugal’s biggest banks being in some financial trouble. In the wake of the report, Portugal’s PM was quick to quell worries as he claimed that the issues being experienced by the bank were temporary and minor in nature.

Over this past weekend, however, it was reported that Banco Espirito Santo was on the receiving end of a bailout and is now under the control of the Portuguese government. While this is definitely a situation worth paying attention to, it is not one that caused the market to descend into a state of panic. Rather, investors have so far taken the news in stride and have not really skipped a beat as of the writing of this post. US equities are continuing to perform well and pile the pressure on gold and silver. While such is the case at present, there is no saying how the Banco Espirito Santo situation will play out over the forthcoming days and weeks. As is the case with any bailout, the market will naturally be on edge over the course of the next few days. This means that precious metals might have a slight chance of making gains should the investing atmosphere change dramatically from what it is like at present.

With the unfolding situation in Portugal combined with the large quantity of ongoing geopolitical events around the world, investors will have plenty to mull over and discuss this week. As it stands, however, there really isn’t much economic data to talk about, so investors will instead be closely monitoring the progress of United States equities.