Gold, silver firmer on safe-haven buying, bullish charts

(Kitco News. Thurs. April 18th, 2024) –Gold and silver prices are modestly up in midday U.S. trading Thursday.  Both precious metals continue to see a trickle of safe-haven buying as the marketplace is pensive late this week on geopolitical concerns. Technical
buying has also been a feature lately as both markets are enjoying bullish
chart postures. June gold was last up $10.30 at $2,398.50. May silver was
last up $0.075 at $28.47.

There have been no major developments the in the Iran-Israel hostilities the past few days, following last week’s barrage of missile and drone strikes by Iran against Israel. Still, come Friday, it’s likely traders and investors will be positioning for a very uncertain weekend on the Middle East front.

U.S. stock indexes are higher near midday. The U.S. stock index bulls have
lost steam the past couple weeks. Price uptrends on the daily bar charts
have been negated. Traders and investors are reminded of the old market
saying, “Sell in May and go away” until after Labor Day.

The key outside markets today see the U.S. dollar index slightly higher. Nymex crude oil prices are near steady and trading around $82.75 a barrel. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note is presently fetching around 4.6%.

Technically, June gold futures bulls have the strong overall near-term technical advantage. A two-month-old uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart. Bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close above solid resistance at $2,500.00. Bears’ next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $2,300.00. First resistance is seen at this week’s high of $2,414.80 and then at the contract high of $2,448.80. First support is seen at today’s low of $2,377.20 and then at $2,365.00. Wyckoff’s Market Rating: 9.0.

May silver futures bulls have a strong overall near-term technical advantage. A two-month-old price uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls’ next upside price objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $30.00. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $26.00. First resistance is seen at this week’s high of $29.10 and then at $29.50. Next support is seen at $28.00 and then at this week’s low of $27.665.

May N.Y. copper closed up 860 points at 442.55 cents today. Prices closed nearer the session high and hit a 22-month high. The copper bulls have a solid overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a two-month-old
uptrend on the daily bar chart. Copper bulls’ next upside price objective
is pushing and closing prices above solid technical resistance at 460.00
cents. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices
below solid technical support at 425.00 cents. First resistance is seen at
today’s high of 440.05 cents and then at 445.00 cents. First support is
seen at today’s low of 432.15 cents and then at this week’s low of 427.05
cents.

Posted by:

Jack Dempsey, President

401 Gold Consultants LLC

jdemp2003@gmail.com