PRECIOUS METALS RECAP

February Gold closed up 13.1 at 1677.1. This was 14.1 up from the low and 4.7 off the high.

March Silver finished up 0.595 at 32.27, 0.46 off the high and 0.37 up from the low.



The gold bulls had to be happy with the morning action in gold today, as the February gold contract at times was $36 an ounce above last Friday's lows. While gold seemed to catch part of its lift from a broad based physical commodity buying wave today, it was clear that a strong Euro was also playing a major role in the bull's case at the start of the new trading week. For some gold bulls, talk of strong central bank gold buying in 2011 rekindled hopes that central banks like China might continue to step forward as net gold buyers in 2012. Others buyers might have been stepping forward on hopes that the US Fed and the ECB were going to hint at additional easing later this week, especially after IMF officials suggested this morning that conditions in Greece might have worsened and that more aid might be needed to contain the crisis.

The silver market also managed a range up move today but the market seemed to have some trouble holding consistently above the $32.50 level basis the March silver contract. Like gold, silver was partially boosted by strength in the Euro and also because of a broad based risk on type environment. It is also possible that silver and other physical commodity markets were garnering some lift from hopes that the US Fed will provide additional easing dialogue later this week, as the Fed continues to work to cushion the world economy against any ongoing drag from the Greece situation.