Gold peaked at almost $815 just after London trading opened yesterday, but it was all downhill from there, as even the littlest rally was quickly killed and the metal finished barely off its intraday low at $794.70, down $5.70. Overnight, gold has been flat.

Platinum shot up in the far East and early European trading, touching $1420 and, while it retreated substantially from there, was able to end on a positive note at $1380/oz., up $10. Overnight, platinum has fallen off.

Silver spent much of the day trying to hold the $13 mark, but proved unable to do so, declining to $12.65 near the noon hour before modest late-day buying carried it to a close at $12.76/oz., down 13 cents. Overnight, silver is little changed.
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Another day, more red numbers for gold and silver, although platinum showed some life on Thursday. The results were not unexpected, and in fact one could argue they should have been much worse, given the continuing slide in crude and another big uptick for the dollar vs. the euro.

Yet again, none of the money that fled the equities markets yesterday wound up in gold or silver.

“Margin calls resulting from that drop in the Dow” likely put pressure on gold as some traders were forced to “sell some of their gold positions in order to meet the stock market margin calls,” said Kitco’s Jon Nadler.

“The short-term direction in gold remains pointed to lower levels and could intensify if $790 is breached this week,” Nadler added.

But Peter Grandich, editor of the Grandich Letter, countered with: “The long uptrend in gold has been marked by rather short but violent corrections that bring fear and calls for a bear market to the forefront … Gold is nearing a major bottom and the surprise will be how fast it heads back to $1,000 before year-end.”

Meanwhile, “it’s bargain hunting” time in the platinum market, says Ralph Preston, an analyst at Heritage West Futures in San Diego.

“Bears are running into a wall of technical support at $1,305 an ounce, halting any further slides. The downtrend is running out of steam,” Preston said. “Technically, this market fell too far, too fast.”

Source: No relief in sight for gold and silver -  But platinum attracts bottom feeders.