PRECIOUS METALS RECAP 4/3/2012

April Gold closed down 33.2 at 1644.3. This was 5.6 up from the low and 35.2 off the high.

May Silver finished up 0.167 at 33.265, 0.03 off the high and 0.55 up from the low.

The gold spent the Tuesday morning US trade within the prior session's range and generally tracked below yesterday's close. However, gold should have garnered some support from mostly up beat economic US economic results but perhaps private jobs projections and some auto sales figures kept the market from settling into a risk on environment. Clearly some potential gold buyers were unwilling to make bets ahead of the FOMC meeting minutes release but many traders think that gold needs additional easing to completely throw off the liquidation bias that has generally settled into the market since the late February high. The FOMC meeting minutes were seen as a negative for gold prices after hopes for more quantitative easing were tamped down.

The silver market generally tracked inside the prior session trading range but it seemed as if silver had a preference for the upper end of yesterday's range. However, with the silver market seeing generally supportive US data, the May silver contract certainly seemed to be unwilling to buy into the idea of sustained US growth. Like gold, silver seemed to need the promise of additional easing from the Fed or even stronger evidence that the US economy was capable of gathering momentum. May sliver prices came under pressure following the release of the March FOMC meeting minutes that seemed to reduce the odds for further easing.