Gold & Silver Prices See Normal Corrective Pullbacks After Solid Gains

New York (Dec 19)  Gold and silver prices were ending the U.S. day session modestly lower Tuesday, on downside corrections and chart consolidation after their recent rallies. The U.S. dollar index had also recovered some of its earlier losses in midday trading, which was a mildly bearish element for the precious metals markets. February Comex gold was last down $2.40 an ounce at $1,263.00. March Comex silver was last down $0.09 at $16.115 an ounce.

U.S. economic data released Tuesday saw new residential construction numbers for November come in very upbeat, with housing starts up 3.3% from October. That helped to pressure safe-haven assets such as gold, silver and U.S. Treasuries.

U.S. stock indexes were under mild selling pressure at midday on profit taking from Monday’s record highs. There is growing optimism in the world marketplace that the U.S. Congress will pass tax-reform legislation, as soon as this week, which would likely to spur better U.S. economic growth. The “risk-on” trading/investing attitudes in the world marketplace at present are still limiting the upside for the safe-haven gold and silver markets.

The other key outside market on Tuesday morning saw Nymex crude oil prices firmer. The oil price uptrend has stalled out as prices tried to reach $60.00 a barrel.

Look for trading volumes to begin to dwindle as the trading week progresses ahead of the Christmas holiday weekend.

KitcoNews