Gold was off steeply in the far East on Tuesday, falling nearly to $940, but as soon as Hong Kong closed, it was up, up and away, with the metal surviving an early dip in New York to push almost back to positive territory, as it finished at $952.10/oz., down $4.40 from Friday. Overnight, gold has drifted lower.

Platinum fell in the far East and Europe, plummeted again in the first hour in New York, before regaining some of its footing during the rest of the day, but still ended at $1133, down $20. Overnight, platinum has been flat.

Silver had a wild day, plunging from Hong Kong to the mid-point of the London session and putting in a bottom at $14.28, rose to the New York open, dropped off to mid-morning, then rallied to the noon hour and leveled off for the rest of the day, closing at $14.61, down only 8 cents. Overnight, silver is trending lower. (Click here for charts)

The precious metals did quite well yesterday. Though overall it was a down day, they rallied strongly off their lows, holding their own despite countervailing forces that were quite strong: sharply higher consumer confidence, a strengthening dollar, and a surge in the equities markets. Only rising oil was supportive.

Geopolitical jitters factored in, although not perhaps in an expected manner.

As Kitco’s Jon Nadler put it, gold was falling as “the dollar regained its attractiveness following yet another display of missile-based military machismo by North Korea … Normally, gold would react in a positive fashion to such geopolitical fireworks.” However, “the world and market scenes have been anything but normal of late.”

After a buying hiatus that had some investors puzzled, the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:GLD), the biggest exchange-traded fund backed by gold, added to its stash yesterday. GLD’s holdings shot up to 1,118.76 metric tons (35.97 million ounces) on Friday, 13.14 metric tons (422,000 ounces) higher than a day earlier. It was the first increase in eight sessions.

Looking ahead for gold, the tea leaf readings are mixed, say technicians from Standard Bank Group.

A break and close above $1,050.40 “provides warning that an important breakout” has occurred, wrote Darran Grabham, the bank’s technical analyst. “The positive implications are substantial, with the minimum objective situated at $1,250.”

However, Grabham wrote, “On the downside, gold weakness through $864 turns the outlook bearish, and the weaker trend could then continue towards $802.”

Near term, a negative bias is expected to dominate in the days ahead as the positive trend has faltered in the $960 to $966.70 area, according to Grabham. “A decline into the $940 to $935 zone is anticipated, with $935 regarded as an important support point over the next week or so,” he said.

Source: Precious Metals Slip