Money and Metals

A look at the days' trading action. "Gold futures fell Thursday to post their third losing session in a row, but prospects for higher demand lifted silver and copper prices to new heights. 'Gold continues to be the weakest link among the major metals and remains trapped in a broad trading range of $535-$570,' said Peter Grandich. I believe it will last until such time a definitive move in the U.S. dollar to the downside takes place, which to me is only a question of when, not if,' he said."

"Gold for April delivery settled down 90 cents at $550.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It touched a low of $544.80 earlier, its weakest level since March 14. The contract has lost more than $5 during a three-session losing streak.
'From a fundamental perspective, the gold market continues to be dogged by a number of factors, with the most important factor being the rather unimpressive view toward near-term growth,' said Nell Sloane. 'Rounding out the near term limiting factors are periodic strength in the dollar, tempered inflation expectations and perhaps alternative interest in silver, platinum and copper,' she said."

"May silver rose 19.5 cents, or 1.9%, to settle at $10.69 an ounce on NYMEX, after peaking at the $10.70 mark, a level the futures market hasn't seen since late 1983. 'While we suspect that new investment interest will cushion the market and, in the process, prevent the market from a major washout, we wouldn't be surprised to see a correction down to $10.36 basis the May contract,' said Sloane."

"It's important to note that 'high prices may damage demand for quite a few years and we could be in for a period that sees falling demand and rising supply,' said Williams Adams, an analyst at BaseMetals.com. But despite that, 'all markets have the ability to ignore the fundamentals for long periods of time so as far as the base metals are concerned, the market is still waiting direction,' he said. 'In the absence of any changes to the fundamentals, this means waiting to see what the funds and producers do next.'"

"April platinum settled up 40 cents at $1,046.40 an ounce while June palladium fell $2.75 to settle at $323.20 an ounce."

"Coeur d'Alene Mines (CDE) tacked on 4.5% to end at $6.08 on the heels of Wednesday's more than 4% climb. Agnico-Eagle Mines (AEM) gained 4.7% to close at $26.72."