By Peter Aan.
The employment numbers that were released at 7:30 CST this morning showed fewer jobs added than expected, but other aspects of the report were more encouraging. The metals were buoyed for only a few minutes—initial reactions to reports are often short lived–but then they started to slip. Here’s what I see this morning:
Gold
Gold has worked lower since my last commentary, and has done a fair job of testing the recent low of 1116.90 (December contract). I continue to look for lower prices and a probable penetration of that 1116.90 support level.
Silver
Silver has worked reluctantly higher since Wednesday, but we have not yet had a close above the 14.745 level (December). Such a close would signal a move to the upside. Otherwise, I see this current bounce fading.
Platinum
Platinum has been range-bound, but the weakness this morning post-report puts it near the 995.60 (October) level I wrote about on Wednesday. If today’s close is below 995.60, I look for movement towards the late-August low of 970.30.
Palladium
Palladium has been non-committal since Wednesday, but is showing some weakness this morning. Once again, we need to avoid a close below 569.00 (December) to keep the bears away. Such a close should send us back down towards the recent low of 519.20. If we can continue to resist such a close, then we could see movement towards the resistance levels at 605.00-625.80.
Peter Aan joined Dillon Gage in 1983, and is currently a metals trader for our metals division. He is the author of numerous articles for Futures magazine and Stocks and Commodities magazine. He is the author of The Relative Strength Index: A Comprehensive Research Report and a co-author of Trading Tactics: A Livestock Futures Anthology, published by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.