Gold began the day slightly higher in the far East on Tuesday, pushed slowly upward from there through the first half of the Globex, but then tailed off a bit to finish at $925.00/oz., up $7.60. Overnight, gold has edged higher.

Platinum spent most of the day consolidating gains in the $1130-$1140 range, ending near the high end at $1139, up $10. Overnight, platinum has pushed higher.

Silver was near-flat through Hong Kong trading, but turned in a fine day thereafter, moving higher straight through to the early Globex and peaking at $14.30 before easing in the last two hours to close at $14.15, up 39 cents. Overnight, silver is trending higher. (Click here for charts)

It was a good day for the precious metals, with silver leading the parade, tacking on nearly 2½%. Equities were mixed, which likely helped, as did oil edging higher and the dollar falling again.

The Hightower Report wrote of silver’s continuing strength: “The silver market traded sharply higher with outside market activity providing spill over support. Initial strength in copper and the sharp decline in the Dollar likely gave the bull camp early leverage. But with both gold and equities trading firm, the silver market was easily able to discount today’s bearish housing news. It also looked as if the sell off in the Dollar raised the appeal of physical commodities as an inflation hedge which benefited silver. But gains in silver appear partly to be chart based as the market pushed through several key levels.”

Kitco’s Jon Nadler commented on the commodities markets, saying that, “[Monday’s] stock market rallies managed to divert a fair amount of sidelined as well as committed cash, but there remain plenty of hedge funds whose bets on the commodities sector are keeping a floor under metals and energies.”

Nadler added that, “The time has arrived when more and more people are clamoring for inflation to make a real comeback.”

Looking ahead, analyst Roger Wiegand, in a Gold Report interview, addressed the “sell in May and go away” strategy, noting that gold generally “travels sideways for most of the summer. I would say that’s probably our trading action in the next two to four weeks. If gold sells down again, and I think it will, you could see a base-bottom somewhere between $850 and $885 and then a lot of chop and mild rallies. These channeled markets are difficult to trade. And, then into the fall we’re looking for the next larger, extended rally … [when] gold could run away to $1,150 and more, easily up to $1,260.”

Source: Precious Metals All Climb