The Friday Metals 06172011

What a difference a week makes in the charts. All four metals continued their downward trek on Monday. Two started back up before the end of the week, and two ended the week still on a downward note. Only one metal ended the week up over the previous Friday’s close.

Let’s take a look.

First, there’s gold:

30 Day Gold Performance 06-17-2011

Next is silver:

30 Day Silver Performance 06-17-2011

Third is platinum:

30 Day Platinum Performance 06-17-2011

Fourth is palladium:

30 Day Palladium Performance 06-17-2011

Gold started the week with a rather dramatic drop. But, it hit and bounced since on Tuesday gold began climbing upward again. It continued its climb with only a small fall on Thursday. Friday’s New York close saw gold up from the previous day and from the previous Friday.

Like gold, silver began the week with another drop, though its drop was more dramatic than gold’s. Again like gold, silver bounced upward on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday saw another drop which the metal was able to recover on Friday. But, unlike gold, silver did not recover all of its losses over the week.

The other two metals had a rough week. Both of them appear to be skiing down a steep slope.

Monday’s market saw platinum down significantly from the previous Friday. Tuesday’s close was a slight decrease leading into another dramatic drop on Wednesday and Thursday. The metal ended on Friday with another small downward move from Thursday’s close.

Like platinum, palladium had a down week. Monday’s downward close was not quite as pronounced as platinum’s. On the other hand, after Tuesday’s small downward close, palladium fell sharply the remainder of the week.

Looking at the 30-day performance tables, all of the metals changed either the high, the low or both, but none of them reached a new overall high or a new overall low.

  30 day high 30 day low Jun 17 Last Difference between
High and Low
Gold $1,549.00 $1,488.75 $1,540.00 3.9%
Silver $38.65 $34.59 $35.90 10.5%
Platinum $1,842.00 $1,747.00 $1,751.00 5.2%
Palladium $814.00 $723.00 $744.00 11.2%

 

With their smaller numbers, relatively speaking, silver and palladium continue to have the largest percentage difference between their high and low values. But, just look at gold, it appears to be stabalizing within a small percentage of values. Or, is it ready to move upward again?

As mentioned, gold was the only metal to increase week-over-week.

  Jun 10 Last Jun 17 Last Percent Change Dollar
Change
Gold $1,532.10 $1,540.00 0.5% $7.90
Silver $36.20 $35.90 -0.8% -$0.30
Platinum $1,826.00 $1,751.00 -4.1% -$75.00
Palladium $810.00 $744.00 -8.1% -$66.00

 

Silver’s drop was not large, and it did end the week going upward again. Platinum and palladium lost quite a bit of their value, though they have also shown they are able to do the opposite — grow significantly during a week’s time.

Considering yesterday was the third Friday, any shorted commodity options due this month had to be satisfied (delivery, renewal or expiration). That means next week should be a true trading week rather than market manipulation by any shorted options.

Certainly, the metal commodities will continue to be interesting to watch.