Gold reacted to Tuesday’s historic inauguration by prolonging the rally begun last week, as it pushed higher from the London open straight through to the noon hour, peaking at $865 before easing in the afternoon to finish at $855.80/oz., up $14.30 from Friday. Overnight, gold is trending higher.

Platinum peaked at $952 just after the Comex opened, but it was all downhill from there, as it gave up all its gains and then some, ending at $933/oz., down $10. Overnight, platinum has edged lower.

Silver rode the rollercoaster yesterday, beginning with a strong move higher, continuing with some sharp ups and downs, and capping the day with a swift decline late in the Comex that led to a close at $11.17/oz., down 6 cents. Overnight, silver has pushed higher. (Click here for charts)

It was a mixed day for the precious metals as silver and platinum, the more industrial of them, fell off, but gold managed to turn in a solid performance despite cratering equities, a firm dollar and shakiness in crude.

The Hightower Report summed up: “The gold market was supposedly rising sharply off the idea that turmoil was mounting in the world banking system. Clearly the financial sector turmoil seemed to be primarily originating from the UK banking sector from over the weekend, but some traders were also concerned that further troubles were evolving in the US financial system behind the festivities in Washington. However, because the focus wasn’t specifically trained on the US financial sector during the Tuesday trade that seemed to give the US Dollar the capacity to fully embrace a flight to quality focus of its own volition. Therefore the positive correlation between gold prices and the Dollar wasn’t totally out of character, (as some might have suggested) but instead both gold and the Dollar seemed to be rising off the same type psychology. In fact, with the US equity market remaining under noted pressure during most of the trading session Tuesday, that in turn seemed to add yet another flight to quality angle to the equation.”

Gold watchers have been waiting for some time for the metal to detach itself from the usual influences. Is this the moment? Some think it might be, or at least that the moment may be near.

One is Julian Phillips of Goldforecaster.com, who wrote that, “Gold is now coming more into its own now despite a strong $ this week. The economic woes just seem to get worse. With the stimulation now being given to economies of the world, prudence demand gold has a place in long-term portfolios. This was seen in the growth of the gold Exchange Traded Funds. Sales from Central banks are back to just a trickle and even COMEX is positioning for a higher price. But first the base building must do more for the gold price could dip again. But large investors are using such to ‘buy-the-dips’.”

Source: A Warm Inauguration Day For Gold