Gold was near flat until the New York open on Wednesday, at which point it took off, shooting up $15 to $941, but that proved to be the high for the day, as the metal sold off through the Comex and early Globex before leveling off to finish at $931.00/oz., up $4.20. Overnight, gold is little changed.

Platinum was tightly rangebound, spending most of the day between $1160 and $1170, before dipping a little to end at $1158/oz., down a buck. Overnight, platinum is sharply higher.

Silver went on a wild rollercoaster ride, spiking up to $14.10 in early Comex trading, then hitting the same price again before falling precipitously into the afternoon, rallying and selling off one more time to finally close after all that virtually unchanged at $13.83/oz., up 2 cents. Overnight, silver has been flat. (Click here for charts)

With platinum near unchanged for the second straight day yesterday, gold and silver carried the ball, trying gamely to push higher, but to little avail, as rallies were killed and they finished with only very modest gains.

Any marked improvement in the metals’ prices were likely capped by a rally in the dollar and sliding oil prices.

The Hightower Report wrote of the day’s action in silver: “The silver market showed some positive early action in the wake of a better than expected US durable goods reading and perhaps because of the stellar bullish leadership provided by the gold market in the morning action. Like gold, the silver market didn’t seem to be that interested in an initial upward bias in the US Dollar and that would seem to suggest that something other than classic currency related issues were serving to lift precious metals prices on Wednesday morning. However, a late surge in the Dollar clearly undermined gold and silver prices and that in turn virtually erased the very favorable technical action initially forged by the markets on Wednesday morning.”

Meanwhile, “Gold continues to be focused on the idea that ‘inflation will remain subdued’,” said Ralph Preston, of Heritage West Futures San Diego. And technically speaking, since gold failed to surpass key resistance at $944.40 an ounce yesterday, “prices are capped and poised to test $912 support. A push below $912 projects trending price action below $900.”

And, “What is it about the U.S. dollar that has ‘prevented’ the materialization of fresh all-time highs in bullion?” asked Kitco’s Jon Nadler. “The rather banal explanation is the fact that the world is lacking for better alternatives.”

Source: Precious Metals Little Changed Again