Gold was slightly lower until the first hour of the New York session yesterday, when it suddenly took off, pushing past $975 just after the noon hour, but then it got severely taken down, shedding more than $20 before leveling off in the Globex and finishing at $957.00/oz., down $2.30. Overnight, gold has edged higher.

Platinum’s long slide shows no sign of ending, as the metal slid all day long to its intraday low of $1866/oz., down $34. Overnight, platinum is slightly higher.

Silver tracked gold very closely, slipping to a close at $18.54/oz., down 23 cents. Overnight, silver is trending higher.
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Thursday’s results were not unexpected for the precious metals, as the dollar moved slightly higher against the euro, equities rallied again, and crude’s slide was extended for another day. Platinum continues to search for a support level, with none in sight.

The session was really a tale of two days, as Kitco’s Jon Nadler noted.

“The first half of Thursday proved to be a better day for gold as morning dollar weakness and oil strength kept the number of additions to open interest growing nicely,” Nadler said.

“The afternoon, however, presented a different set of conditions as oil started to fall toward $130 once again, and the greenback climbed toward 72.25 on the index,” he added.

To see gold consolidating met the expectations of James Moore, of TheBullionDesk.com. “With investor risk appetite showing a slight improvement and having posted aggressive gains last week, it comes as no surprise to see the metal correct,” Moore wrote.

“To avoid a deeper correction, gold needs to establish a base above the $953 to $955 chart level, but given the backdrop of rising inflation and recessionary pressures and increased financial-market jitters, we anticipate investors will view dips favorably, with the metal ultimately set to rechallenge $1,000,” Moore added.

And Burton R. Schlichter, of New World Trading, believes that gold is building support, saying that “speculators and traders still have a 'buy the dip' attitude.”