precious metals flash

Stop hunters pushed the precious metals complex lower yesterday and triggered sell stops. 1715 and 1710 were the levels on the April Comex future that saw large amounts change hands, but support at 1705 finally held. Platinum held above the psychological 1600 USD level and Palladium the support at 675. Silver was the only one falling below the 33 USD level to 32.65, which had held so well in the last weeks. That was it then for the day and shorts ran to cover, when risk sentiment improved, following some headlines that a Greek default could be prevented by next week, thanks to bond swap deals with the ECB. By the end of the day all losses had been recovered and in the case of Palladium fresh highs could be made thanks to expectations by Impala, that the Palladium market might be in deficit by 980’000 ounces this year and Platinum by 335’000 ounces. The SPDR GLD ETF added 3 tons to its holdings. There will be ETF options expiry today, where the largest open interest on the SLV ETF is the 33 strike, which corresponds to roughly 34 USD spot level and 5 Mio. ounces of open interest. For the GLD ETF, the largest strike is the 165 USD, which translates to 1700 spot and 445’000 ounces. Given that we tested supports yesterday, we would rather expect to try the upside today with prices approaching at best the 1750 level.