Gold and silver prices ended the U.S. day session lower Thursday, on more profit taking from recent gains that pushed both metals to a three-week high Wednesday. The bulls in both metals still possess a comfortable near-term technical advantage. December Comex gold was last down $9.30 an ounce at $1,339.90. December Comex silver was last down $0.193 at $19.655 an ounce.
This week’s featured market event was today’s meeting of the European Central Bank. The ECB did not make any changes in monetary policy, as expected, but did issue fresh economic forecasts and assessments at today’s meeting. Neither that data nor Mario Draghi’s press conference after the ECB meeting provided any fresh clues on the timing of future monetary policy moves.
The key “outside markets” saw crude oil prices are solidly higher today and that did limit selling pressure in the precious metals. The U.S. dollar index traded firmer today but the greenback suffered significant losses earlier this week.
The dollar bumped down from its overnight highs in early Asian trade on Friday, on track for weekly losses in a week marked by continuing uncertainty about U.S. monetary policy, while the euro firmed after the European Central Bank stood pat.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rival currencies, was down 0.1 percent at 94.920 .DXY, poised to slip 1 percent for the week. On Thursday, it plumbed a two-week low of 94.465, before rebounding after crude oil inventory data.
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