(Kitco News) - Gold and silver prices are solidly down near midday Thursday. Profit taking and weak long liquidation from the shorter-term futures traders are featured following recent gains that pushed gold to a record high Wednesday and silver to a 14-year high today. It would not surprise me to see more heavy profit taking on Friday, ahead of the weekend and after the recent strong gains. December gold was last down $41.60 at $4,030.00. December silver prices were down $0.784 at $48.21.
On geopolitical element that has supported the safe have metals for quite some time has moved well off the front burner of the marketplace. Israel and Hamas have reached a deal for the release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, a major step toward ending their two-year war. The agreement was reached after several days of indirect negotiations between the warring sides in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, brokered by the U.S., Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey. As part of the deal, Israel is to release jailed Palestinians and allow a ramp-up of aid supplies to Gaza, while Israeli forces will withdraw in steps until they reach a buffer zone just within Gaza's border. This may be adding some selling pressure to gold and silver today.
The key outside markets are bearish for the precious metals today, as the U.S. dollar index solidly up and at a nine-week high. Crude oil prices are down and trading around $62.00 a barrel. The yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note is presently around 4.13%.
Technically, December gold futures bulls have the strong overall near-term technical advantage. Bulls’ next upside price objective is to produce a close above solid resistance at $4,100.00. Bears' next near-term downside price objective is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at $3,850.00. First resistance is seen at the record high of $4,081.00 and then at $4,100.00. First support is seen at $4,000.00 and then at Tuesday’s low of $3,963.40. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 8.5.
December silver futures bulls have the strong overall near-term technical advantage. Silver bulls' next upside price objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $50.00. The next downside price objective for the bears is closing prices below solid support at $45.00. First resistance is seen at $49.00 and then at today’s high of $49.965. Next support is seen at Wednesday’s low of $47.53 and then at $47.00. Wyckoff's Market Rating: 8.5.
(Hey! My “Markets Front Burner” weekly email report is my best writing and analysis, I think, because I get to look ahead at the marketplace and do some market price forecasting. Plus, Gold prices are sharply up in early U.S. trading Monday and hit another record high. Silver prices are also up and notched another 14-year high. The powerful but mature bull market runs in gold and silver are accelerating. That’s one early clue that from a time perspective, major market tops could come sooner rather than later. However, from a price perspective, there still could be much more room on the upside for gold and silver prices during this acceleration phase of the mature bull markets, before they peter out for a while. December gold was last up $40.80 at $3,815.90. December silver prices were up $0.361 at $44.575.
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