Gold and mining stocks just closed at a new yearly high. Silver is not even close to reaching such levels, and gold is already back below where it was trading 24 hours ago. Can these breakouts be trusted? Do they have a lasting power? To answer that, we better remember something important first. This changes the overall picture regarding gold and mining stocks entirely.

• Read more

Overall, nothing really happened on the precious metals market yesterday but still, one part of this "nothing" deserves special attention. It's the mining stocks' outperformance of gold. That's usually a sign of strength, which means that the above could indicate further gains. Then again, we just saw a powerful and clear reversal in gold and silver, while the USD Index seems to have bottomed. So... will the precious metals move lower as the reversals suggest or will they rally again as the miners just suggested?

• Read more

What a remarkable day Friday has been! Going into the U.S. session open, we have seen gold challenging its early-June highs. The barrage of geopolitical news has been deafening and gold had literally nowhere to go but up. But something "unexpected" yet totally predictable happened to those who have jumped on the gold bandwagon. Friday's U.S. session has sent gold lower. On huge volume. And not only gold, that is. Those looking at the charts' bigger picture, those familiar with our analyses, hadn't been surprised. Now that the dust is settled and gold pushes lower, let's examine the aftermath. And draw lessons for the days ahead.

• Read more

Drums please, we have the winner of the "chaotic month" award contest! June 2019 now has it all. We saw substantial trade escalations with China, we had a surprising - and relatively ridiculous in its justification - tariff threat against Mexico, and we enjoyed additional dovish comments from the supposedly hawkish Fed chief. Now, we're also presented with a supposed "proof" of Iran's involvement in an attack on a tanker. The video that was released is very far from being a real proof of anything, and in particular originating from any specific country, but the market's initial response was emotional and gold soared. More geopolitical news and more surprising price moves does suggest something, but it's not what it seems at first sight.

• Read more

In yesterday's analysis, we wrote what kind of corrective upswing in gold could be viewed as normal - and that's exactly what followed. Gold moved a bit higher along with silver, but both gave away a large part of their early gains before the session was over. But not the mining stocks. They held up very well, staying at their recent highs. Quite often strength in the mining stocks heralds higher prices for the PM sector in general - is it the case also this time? In addition to investigating the above, we'll look at what might cause gold to move in a much more volatile manner. The history is a great guide and it has a lot to tell us. Of course, gold can rally and decline without a trigger, but seeing one would definitely open the floodgates. What could make gold really move then?

• Read more