Gold Finds Regular Trading Support

The best news for gold today is that it did not have to rely on dollar strength to add a few more bucks to its value. More good news is that it crossed some technical thresholds and appeared to be eyeing the crucial 1200 mark.

Silver lost a bit of its sheen today, moving down, as of late afternoon trading, a couple of cents. However, it may be that silver had been traveling too high too fast.

Gold and crude did not keep their partnership together, West Texas Intermediate falling a few pennies on the day due to dollar strength. Crude will probably, for the near to medium future not be a reliable indicator for gold prices.

U.S. equities were down marginally, which tells us that the move to gold is reflective of doubt in Wall Street. Elsewhere, Asia and Europe were mixed.

Let’s briefly talk about the dollar.

It seems that already interest rate handwringers are afoot on the trading floors. We can understand this coming in a few weeks, but so soon after the dust settled since the last FOMC meeting? Does the word premature mean anything to you?

Cooler heads prevailed on the bond-trading desk, however. The U.S. 10-year rate fell again as face values rose. The 10-year is now marked at less than 1.9%.

The markets’ weather for the day can be best defined as “unsettled.” We think the biggest factor driving thinking is the inability of analysts to accurately gauge the strength of the U.S. economy, while Europe, Japan and China’s momentum also seem hard to divine.

The only two economies that are showing manufacturing strength are the United States and Germany, the former expanding at an extremely robust rate, the latter strong, but a bit on cruise control.

Until March’s U.S. labor report is issued, look for traders in most markets to squeeze out everything they can from narrow bands of pricing.

Wishing you as always, good trading,