PRECIOUS METALS RECAP

12/2/2011

February Gold closed up 9 at 1748.8. This was 7.1 up from the low and 18.3 off the high.

March Silver finished down 0.073 at 32.686, 1.054 off the high and 0.121 up from the low.




The gold market fell back from an early high for the move during Friday's session but was able to hold onto a moderate gain by the close. Expectations that the EU will come up with credible steps to address their debt problems provided some measure of support for gold as prices continued to find benefit from a general shift towards a "risk-on" market mentality. However, Friday's US employment data was not well received by the market and may have triggered elevated risk levels around the global. Equity markets held onto a sizable portion of early gains, which helped to strengthen gold prices in spite of a turnaround rally in the Dollar.

March silver prices fell more than $1.00 below their early highs, as Friday's US jobs data appeared to have turned broad market sentiment fairly negative. Positive statements from Euro zone leaders helped to lift the market up towards two-week highs but many traders felt that a sharp decline in the US workforce last month eroded a large portion of the market's recent positive tone. Stronger equity markets helped to keep silver prices from dropping far below unchanged levels later in the session.