The past week was a sawtooth week for all four metals. To varying degrees, each of the metals closed down on Monday from the previous Friday, down again on Tuesday, up on Wednesday, down on Thursday and back up again on Friday.
Let’s look at the charts. First, there’s gold:
Next is silver:
Third is platinum:
And, last is palladium:
Even though the ups and downs were consistent across the metals, the charts show significant differences in how far up and how far down each metal closed the day.
Gold fell steadily from Friday through Tuesday. On Wednesday, the yellow metal gained ground above the previous week’s lows only to fall to a new 30-day low on Thursday. Friday’s upward close almost – but not quite – recovered from the fall on Thursday.
Silver, on the other hand, fell sharply from Friday to Monday and fell slightly from Monday to Tuesday’s close to have a new 30-day low. However, on Wednesday, silver gained the lost ground and closed at higher than the previous Friday. But on Thursday, almost all of the gains were lost again. Ending the week on a positive note, silver spiked upward significantly.
Somewhat different, platinum dropped slightly from Friday’s close to Monday’s close, then dropped significantly on Tuesday. It pulled back some of the loss on Wednesday but lost its gains on Thursday. Platinum enjoyed an upward tick on Friday but did not recover all of its losses over the week.
Similar to a degree to platinum, palladium saw a drop on Monday from Friday’s close then fell sharply on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it regained Tuesday’s lost ground to close slightly higher than Monday but then fell backward slightly on Thursday. Friday’s uptick in the metals saw palladium climbing, but it didn’t get back to the recent new high achieved the previous Friday – almost, but not quite.
Let’s take a look at the tables. First, there’s the 30-day highs and lows:
| 30 day high | 30 day low | Jan 28 Last | Difference between High and Low |
|
| Gold | $1,421.60 | $1,314.90 | $1,338.40 | 7.5% |
| Silver | $30.91 | $26.68 | $28.01 | 13.7% |
| Platinum | $1,846.00 | $1,716.00 | $1,793.00 | 7.0% |
| Palladium | $824.00 | $741.00 | $814.00 | 10.1% |
Both gold and silver experienced new 30-day lows this past week.
Now, let’s see how the end of the week close compares to last week’s New York close:
| Jan 21 Last | Jan 28 Last | Percent Change | Dollar Change |
|
| Gold | $1,342.40 | $1,338.40 | -0.3% | -$4.00 |
| Silver | $27.53 | $28.01 | 1.7% | $0.48 |
| Platinum | $1,826.00 | $1,793.00 | -1.8% | -$33.00 |
| Palladium | $821.00 | $814.00 | -0.9% | -$7.00 |
Of the four metals, silver regained all of its lost ground to end the week higher than previously. But, both gold and palladium came within a percentage point of regaining their losses.
Some pundits claim this is a correction, especially for gold, and will reset the market. Others think this is a short term aberration that will quickly disappear as the metals continue to climb. Perhaps the old timers have more insight. They claim that the metals are not responding as they have historically to either market or economic issues. In short, they think the metals’ performance is inexplicable.
Regardless, the metals continue to be interesting.