Gold had another lackluster day, slumping to $865 just after New York opened, then making its way higher in fits and starts, finishing just into positive territory at $878.00/oz., up 60 cents. Overnight, gold has fallen off.

Platinum also bottomed in the first hour of New York trading, but it then found buyers that took it steadily higher, ending at $2006/oz., up $15. Overnight, platinum is sharply higher.

Silver bottomed at the same time as gold, at $16.50, but then it caught fire, shooting virtually straight up past $17.15 by mid-morning, eased back below $17 into the noon hour, but then re-ignited and closed near its intraday high at $17.15/oz., up 35 cents. Overnight, silver has been trending higher.
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It was an odd day for the precious metals, as silver decoupled dramatically from gold, registering a sharp increase even as gold continued to struggle. Platinum too outperformed the yellow metal, posting a larger gain.

It had to be a disappointing day for gold bugs as the metal’s performance was anemic even with the usual suspects lined up solidly in its favor: oil climbing steeply and the dollar getting hammered against the euro.

Of silver, the Hightower Report wrote: “With the silver market also getting its share of private bearish price predictions during the trade Thursday it was very impressive to see the market generally favor the upside. In fact, with gold favoring negative ground for most of the session, some of the bull contingent had to be extremely happy with the action today. Perhaps the silver market was garnering some support from the reversal in the Dollar and perhaps the silver market was actually lifted by the up beat macro economic developments from the US. In fact, with favorable initial and ongoing claims, positive May retail sales figures and a soaring equity market, perhaps the silver market was being lifted by improved physical demand expectations.”

That gold lagged the rest of the market was a foregone conclusion to those who believe it will follow the dollar and who shrugged off yesterday’s weakness in the buck.

“It’s [Ben] Bernanke” who drove down gold, said Leonard Kaplan, president of Prospector Asset Management in Evanston, Illinois. “He has basically said the other day that interest rates are going up. If the dollar is going higher, gold is going lower.”

Period? Uh uh, says James Moore, of TheBullionDesk.com, who wrote that “as inflation becomes an increasing issue globally and credit market issues resurface, investors are likely to increase their demand for safe-haven assets such as gold.”

Source: Gold Lags Other Precious Metals – Potential Propping up of Dollar Blamed