PRECIOUS METALS RECAP 4/19/2012

June Gold closed up 3.5 at 1643.1. This was 11.9 up from the low and 11.8 off the high.

May Silver finished up 0.292 at 31.779, 0.236 off the high and 0.464 up from the low.

The gold market forged a range of roughly $23 an ounce today and in the process the June contract managed a fresh downside breakout and a probe to the lowest level since April 5th. In addition to currency related pressure gold was probably undermined by slack US economic activity, which might have been exaggerated by the slide in US equities. Even in the face of interest rate cut talk from some global central banks gold remained off balance and that suggests the markets are embracing a suspect US and Chinese economy. For the bear camp, the gold market extended the pattern of lower highs and lower lows and that keeps the technical picture mostly in the bear's corner.

The silver market forged a daily trading range today of 72 cents and I the process the market took out the prior two session's lows. Like gold and the rest of the physical commodity markets, silver was probably undermined by ongoing evidence of slowing in the US and perhaps there continues to be lingering fears toward the Euro zone. One might have expect silver to have benefited from favorable demand statistics released from Gold Fields Mineral Services as the prospect of improving industrial demand for silver might be cause for silver to out perform gold prices ahead.