PRECIOUS METALS RECAP

February Gold closed down 2.7 at 1617.4. This was 8.4 up from the low and 14.9 off the high.

March Silver finished down 0.613 at 28.683, 0.777 off the high and 0.113 up from the low.
Despite some fleeting attempts to rally gold just wasn't able to definitively return to a positive track. Clearly geopolitical concerns toward Iran and the euro zone remain in place but the lack of immediacy seemed to rob the bull camp of some intensity today. Gold was probably undermined in the wake of another upside breakout in the dollar and perhaps some players were concerned that Euro zone debt supply flows next week might rekindle severe slowing threats inside the Euro zone. While some analysts were floating lofty upside gold price predictions today, others were suggesting that the end of 2011 washout might have discouraged a lot of investors for 2012. Perhaps the most surprising development was a lack of definitive gains in gold prices in the wake of supportive US Fed comments, as leaving easing measures in place in the face of an improving job market has prompted talk of inflation in the past.

The silver market clearly underperformed the gold market throughout the Friday morning US trade. In fact, silver wasn't able to forge an early higher high in the wake of the payroll data and subsequently, silver actually forged a lower low for the move. In addition to adverse currency market action, silver was probably undermined by a sloppy two sided US equity market trade and it is also possible that fears of next week's Euro debt supply simply discouraged would-be silver buyers.