Precious Metals on a Tear – Gold Trades at All-Time High Above $4,059, Silver Retests Record High, Palladium Makes Meteoric Gain to 2-Year High, Platinum Rises to 12-Year High; Global Stock Markets Mostly Bullish, S&P 500, NASDAQ 100, DAX 30, Nikkei 225 All Reach Record Highs
Summary: Precious metals rise firmly, with Silver retesting its all-time high and Gold reaching a new record price above $4,050.
- Precious metals are in strong focus as they all continue to rise with strong bullish momentum. Notable highlights:
- Gold reached a new record high above the half number at $4,050 trading as high as $4,059. It is trading in blue sky and there is no telling how high it might rise – it might be a bullish sign that there was little resistance at $4,000 to the continued advance.
- Silver rose strongly to just touch its all-time high made decades ago a short way below the huge round number at $50.00. There is much speculation that Silver will soon surpass this high, given the momentum generated by its recent meteoric rise.
- Platinum advanced solidly to reach a new 12-year high price yesterday. Although Platinum futures are too large for most retail traders to safely trade, exposure to the price of Platinum can be obtained via the PPLT ETF which is affordable.
- Palladium made an explosive bullish move yesterday, rising by more than 8% in only a day to reach a new 2-year high price. Although Platinum futures are too large for most retail traders to safely trade, exposure to the price of Platinum can be obtained via the PALL ETF which is affordable.
- Trend and momentum traders will be interested in being long of Gold and Silver, and probably Platinum and Palladium also.
- Global stock markets are widely bullish. The obvious recent gainer is the US stock market, which again saw new all-time highs yesterday in the broad S&P 500 Index and the tech-centred NASDAQ 100 Index. However, we also saw new records in Europe (the DAX 30) and in Japan (the Nikkei 225). The US stock market remains an excellent trade on the long side.
- In the Forex market, the US Dollar has not done much so far today despite yesterday’s release of the FOMC Meeting Minutes, to which the market barely reacted. The Australian Dollar has been the strongest major currency since today’s Tokyo open. There is also some residual focus on the EUR/USD currency pair, which made a substantial bullish breakout two weeks ago by closing at a new 4-year high price, but has since made a deep bearish retracement. The USD/JPY currency pair is also in focus as it again ended yesterday at a new 50-day high price within a longer-term bullish trend, which will trigger long positions at most trend-following funds. The strongest action this week has been in the Yen crosses with commodity currencies, such as CAD/JPY, AUD/JPY, and NZD/JPY.
- Bitcoin made a record high just a few days ago, but it quickly flopped back into its lower zone of comfort.
- There are no major data releases scheduled for today, but markets look likely to remain quite active, with this week already seeing higher levels of volatility in many asset classes.
