Comments made by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi confirmed what many analysts expected; that the ECB would keep the current interest rate level unchanged. Draghi also vowed that the current policy of asset purchases would continue through the end of the year.

The U.S. dollar has been under siege. In this year alone, the U.S. dollar has lost approximately 9% since the highs reached at the end of 2016. Since then, the dollar index has lost a lot of ground, a little over 2% this month alone. It is this recent dollar weakness that has propped up pricing in both gold and silver.

For the third day in a row, gold closed sharply higher. Gold prices have risen six out of the last seven trading days when considering the incremental upside gains seen early last week. Today’s gains were mostly dollar weakness with a small percentage of the gains attributable to buying.

Last week both gold and silver experienced a key reversal in which the bearish market sentiment was slowly replaced with bullish sentiment. A combination of economic data, as well as the semi annual monetary report and testimony given by the Federal Reserve's Chairwoman Janet Yellen, have been cited as primary causes for the recent price advance.

Just like the canary in a coal mine, the Federal Reserve utilizes economic data to ascertain the current economic environment. More importantly, this data is used to create a forecasting model from which future monetary policies are developed and implemented.

It is that time of year, when the Federal Reserve’s Chairwoman Janet Yellen provides testimony to both the Congress and Senate. This semiannual monetary policy report began yesterday with testimony given to the congressional financial services committee. It was followed by testimony today before the Senate Banking Committee.

Now in the third straight day of price advances, gold prices have moved up roughly $15 from the low achieved earlier this week when gold traded to $1204 an ounce.

Gold futures traded marginally higher on the day for the second day in a row. However, in each of the last two trading days market participants have moved pricing dramatically lower intraday. More importantly, the intraday lows of each day were met with a “buy the dip” mentality, taking prices off of the lows, resulting in closing prices near the intraday high.

In light trading overseas gold prices continue to trade under pressure to a new low at $1204, before recovering slightly to approximately $1213. At least for the short term, it appears gold prices are attempting to hold $1200 as a baseline in the sand and technical support.

The famous “Running of the Bulls” is part of a nine-day festival held in Pamplona, Spain. This annual event, which began yesterday, is composed of thousands of people who risk their lives to run with the bulls, or more correctly, to run ahead and faster than the bulls.