Whilst the spotlight of the metals complex generally focuses on gold whose demise has been relentless, silver too is following the same path lower, and whilst yesterday’s price action for the industrial metal was less dramatic than for gold, the price action this morning has opened up the same technical weakness now self apparent on the daily gold chart.
With China facing an economic slowdown and many questioning whether or not the nation’s government data presents a reliable picture of just how bad the situation is, metal prices have fallen to multi-year lows.
Whenever I put the proverbial pen to paper and start to write about gold, I can already hear the chorus of dissenting voices from those traders and investors who only view their beloved metal as bullish, and can never accept the reality of what is actually happening on the chart.
Last week, the People’s Bank Of China allowed the yuan to fall sharply, causing chaos in share markets and drawing criticism from multinationals who said the move would hurt their businesses.
For silver investors, and those who rushed headlong into buying when silver prices hit the $50 per ounce price point, it is perhaps the monthly chart which makes depressing reading, with the meteoric rise now reflected in an equally dramatic fall, and mirroring what has happened which in the price of gold.
Copper, along with several of the other principal base metals fell sharply this week as a resurgent US dollar drove many commodities lower, with both gold and silver also selling off strongly. For the base metals market it was Nickel which saw the most dramatic price moves, falling over 5.5% with copper and zinc both falling over 2 %, with tin one of the few commodities closing higher.
For speculative traders, the last few weeks have offered wonderful trading opportunities across all markets, and provided you have no directional bias, the opportunities are there in abundance.
With another trading week over, and Non Farm Payroll having come and gone for another month, markets in general are now looking forward, as the minor reversal in the US dollar’s unstoppable progress appears to have simply been a temporary pause and reaction to the worse than expected employment data.
For equity bulls, the nightmare is over for now. For gold and silver bugs it’s just beginning. If yesterday’s price action was concerning, the overnight news from Japan has opened the trap door for both metals, which has seen them plunge in early trading, as the Bank of Japan sent shock waves through the market announcing an acceleration of its bond buying program.
Yesterday’s trading session for commodities was an interesting one to say the least, with oil prices slumping, gold prices whipsawing, and silver prices breaking lower with momentum, as the bears continue to maintain a vice like grip on the market.
