Gold, Silver Succumb To Rallying Greenback

(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices areweaker in early-afternoon U.S. trading Thursday. Gold prices dropped to afive-week low, while silver hit a three-week bottom. Slight gains seen at thestart of North American trading were eroded by late-morning as the U.S. dollar index pushed higher and hit another 3.5-month high. Gains in U.S. stock indexesamid an improvement in investor risk appetite today also worked against thesafe-haven precious metals. June Comex gold futures were last down $4.60 anounce at $1,318.20. May Comex silver was last down $0.047 at $16.455 an ounce.

Theother key “outside market” on Thursday afternoon sees Nymex crude oil prices nearsteady and trading just above $68.00 a barrel. Oil bulls have the solidnear-term technical advantage, which is a bullish underlying element for themetals markets, as well as other raw commodities.

Technically,the gold bulls still have the slight overall near-term technical advantage butare fading and need to show fresh power soon to avoid more serious near-termchart damage. Gold bulls' next upside near-term price breakout objective is toproduce a close above solid technical resistance at $1,350.00. Bears' nextnear-term downside price breakout objective is pushing prices below solidtechnical support at the March low of $1,309.30. First resistance is seen attoday’s high of $1,328.00 and then at $1,333.80. First support is seen attoday’s low of $1,316.20 and then at $1,312.40. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 5.5

Thesilver bears have regained the overall near-term technical advantage. Silverbulls' next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solidtechnical resistance at the April high of $17.36 an ounce. The next downsideprice breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support atthe March low of $16.10. First resistance is seen at today’s high of $16.58 andthen at $16.75. Next support is seen at today’s low of $16.385 and then at$16.25. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 4.0.

MayN.Y. copper closed down 180 points at 311.60 cents today. Prices closed nearmid-range. The copper bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage. Afour-week-old uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart. Copper bulls' nextupside price objective is pushing and closing prices above solid technicalresistance at 320.00 cents. The next downside price objective for the bears isclosing prices below solid technical support at 300.00 cents. First resistanceis seen at today’s high of 314.40 cents and then at this week’s high of 316.75cents. First support is today’s low of seen at 308.70 cents and then at thisweek’s low of 307.80 cents. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 6.0.

By Jim Wyckoff

For Kitco News

Follow @jimwyckoffjwyckoff@kitco.comwww.kitco.com Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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