Platinum & Palladium Prices Pounded Wednesday On Bearish Chart Signals

New York (May 1)  Platinum and palladium futures markets are sharply down and hit four-week lows in late-morning trading Wednesday. Both markets have seen dramatic downdrafts in their prices recently. Just this week the palladium market has lost over $125.00 an ounce as of this writing. Last Friday June palladium hit a four-week high of $1,457.00 and today prices hit a low of $1,325.00.

Meantime, the July platinum futures market hit a high of $920.00 in early April and today dropped to a low of $874.00.

There have been no significant fundamental developments reported recently to explain the sell-offs in the platinum group metals (PGMs). Some pressure could be tied to price downtrends presently in place in gold and silver markets amid a lack of safe-haven demand and rallying world stock markets.

More likely, though, is technical selling that developed after both PGMs saw the bulls run out of gas in April as prices started to work sideways on the charts after for-the-move highs were set. When the bears sensed that near-term market tops were in place in both metals, they embarked on a campaign of short-selling in the futures markets that continues today.

July platinum was last down $15.20 at $877.00, while June palladium futures are down $55.70 an ounce at $1,328.00.

KitocNews