Risk aversion is elevated to start the trading week, following Friday’s tense meeting between U.S. President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky that put in jeopardy U.S. relations with Ukraine and the potential for a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Meantime, U.S. trade tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China are set to go into effect Tuesday. Gold prices are sharply higher to start the week, after last week seeing its worst week in three months.
The official Chinese Manufacturing PMI pushed back into expansion territory, a weekend report showed, and also above trade forecasts. The non-manufacturing (services) sector came in as expected, but also registered expansion.
Bitcoin rose 10% over the weekend as President Trump’s announced on social media his intention to set up a strategic crypto reserve which would include Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, Cardano and XRP.
In other overnight news, the Eurozone February consumer price index rose 2.4%, year-on-year, versus up 2.5% in the January report and forecasts for up 2.3% in February.
The key outside markets today see the U.S. dollar index solidly lower. Nymex crude oil futures prices are slightly up and trading around $70.00 a barrel. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note is presently at 4.23%.
Technically, April gold futures bulls have the firm overall near-term technical advantage. However, a price uptrend on the daily bar chart has been negated. Bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close above solid resistance at the contract high of $2,974.00. Bears' next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $2,800.00. First resistance is seen at Friday’s high of $2,896.10 and then at $2,900.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $2,866.30 and then at $2,850.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 7.0
May silver futures bulls and bears are on a level overall near-term technical playing field. However, prices are trending down on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls' next upside price objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $33.00. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $30.00. First resistance is seen at $32.61 and then at $33.00. Next support is seen at the overnight low of $31.635 and then at last week’s low of $31.365. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 5.0
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