Gold & silver see strong selling price pressure at mid-week

NEW YORK (Mar 9)  Gold and silver prices are sharply down in early U.S. trading Wednesday, on heavy profit-taking from the shorter-term futures traders after gold futures hit a record intra-day high and silver hit an eight-month high on Tuesday. Strong losses in crude oil today are also helping to pressure the precious metals markets. April gold futures were last down $50.50 at $1,992.80 and May Comex silver was last down $0.62 at $26.28 an ounce.

Key today for the gold and silver markets will be if the bulls have the courage to step in and buy the big dips. One clue that market tops are in place in the gold and silver markets would be two strong down days in a row.

Global stocks markets were mixed overnight, with European shares mostly up and Asian shares mostly down. The U.S. stock indexes are pointed toward solidly higher openings when the New York day session begins. The U.S. indexes are seeing corrective bounces following recent losses, but are still in near-term price downtrends on the daily charts. Risk aversion remains elevated amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. More and more U.S. companies are pulling away from Russia, including McDonalds and Coca Cola.

Nickel futures are not trading anywhere in the world at present after prices in Shanghai hit their daily limit higher Wednesday. Reports said a single stockpiler had amassed over 50% of all London Metals Exchange nickel inventories, representing around 43,000 metric tons. Trading of nickel on the Shanghai Futures Exchange saw prices surge 17% to the daily limit. Nickel on the LME was suspended Tuesday after prices surged 250% in the first two days of trading this week. Trading on the LME will not resume before Friday, said the exchange. Reports also said a big nickel futures trader in China, called Big Shot, was caught in a major "short squeeze" of over 200,000 metric tons in futures contracts, valued at around $8 billion. The reports said Big Shot, now called Little Shot by traders, is working with banks to unwind his big loss and avoid default.

By 09:05am EST spot gold has plunged $64 to $1989.

KITCO