Gold up $5 in the past few minutes
Silver is the big story in the precious metals market today after it fell 2.5% in a quick move in Asia-Pacific trading. Silver had risen nearly 11% in the previous week to touch the highest since June.
I suspect China is the culprit for the move in silver today. The heavy selling came after it returned from nearly a week of holidays. There was some belief that Chinese buyers of precious metals would return with a vengeance after the holiday but it's been the opposite.
Silver prices in Shanghai only gained 5.4% when markets there reopened, far less than the 10% rise in global prices while they were on holiday.
Gold prices had followed silver and fallen nearly $10 at the lows but a quick wave of buying the last 10 minutes helped it rebound to unchanged. And why not? The BOE and ECB were more dovish and the Fed is sidelined.
The risk later today is that the Fed minutes (from the meeting before non-farm payrolls) sound hawkish.
