Precious metal prices moved higher Thursday as traders and investors have become a bit more risk-averse as the week progresses, a positive for safe-haven metals like gold and silver. The shorter-term futures traders that had sold the metals are also becoming increasingly leery of a bounce and have begun buying back short positions, which further accelerates the upside for metals
December gold futures were recently up $10.33 an ounce at 1,472.03, while December Comex silver prices were last up $0.14 at $17.04 an ounce, close to a 0.75% move for each of the metals.
After struggling to reach new highs once again yesterday, markets retracted some this morning, amidst impeachment hearings and fallout from the Fed, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell testifies before the US house again today.
A U.S.-China trade partial agreement now also seems more distant after both sides have made comments this week to support that idea. China is reportedly concerned over the specific amounts of U.S. agricultural products it would need to purchase in a trade deal. At the same time, President Trump claimed the U.S. is not going to roll back all of its tariffs on Chinese imports, which is what China would like.
Technical factors are also coming into play with the gold market, where sellers have had control for some time recently, but buyers are looking to change the dynamic.
According to kitco.com, “Technically, the gold bears still have the slight overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are still in a two-month-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close in December futures above solid resistance at $1,500.00. Bears’ next near-term downside price breakout objective is pushing December futures prices below solid technical support at $1,400.00. First resistance is seen at $1,475.00 and then at $1,500.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,461.70 and then at Wednesday’s low of $1,456.40.”
Silver markets are in a similar situation from a technical perspective, with kitco.com analysis explaining:
“December silver futures bears also have the overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a two-month-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $18.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $16.00. First resistance is seen at $17.10 and then at $17.25. Next support is seen at Wednesday’s low of $16.72 and then at this week’s low of $16.615.”
ETF buyers of gold have been active as well, as GraniteShares Gold Trust (BAR) and the SPDR Gold MiniShares Trust (GLDM) were up slightly today.
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