Gold futures on Wednesday were flipping between small gains and losses, putting the precious metal in jeopardy of finishing lower for the first time in four sessions after marking the highest finish in almost three weeks.
A climb in global stocks was helping to dull factors that would ordinarily help to support decisive buying in bullion.
Some analysts, however, are remaining sanguine about gold purchases in the nearer term, despite tilting lower to trading virtually unchanged.
“Technically, the April gold futures bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage,” wrote Jim Wyckoff, senior analyst at Kitco.com, in a Tuesday daily note.
The analysts said the next upside price objective for bullish investors in gold is to produce a close above solid resistance at the January high of $1,856.70 an ounce.
At last check, April gold
GCJ22,
GC00,
was trading $1.10, or less than 0.1%, lower at $1,826.80 an ounce, following a 0.3% rise on Tuesday, which marked the highest most-active contract settlement since Jan. 26, FactSet data show.
The Kitco analyst said bears’ next near-term downside price objective for gold is pushing futures prices below solid technical support at the December low of $1,755.40.
Meanwhile, March silver
SIH22,
was trading 2 cents, or 0.1%, higher at $23.22 an ounce, following a 0.5% gain for gold’s sister metal.
Trading for metals comes even as the dollar was pulling back, down 0.2%, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
; and yields for the 10-year Treasury note
TMUBMUSD10Y,
were retreating to 1.93% after putting in the highest rate on Tuesday since July of 2019.
A weaker dollar, which precious metals tend to be priced in, and lower yields, usually helps to support buying in nonyielding commodities.
But a recovery in equity markets, with futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
and the S&P 500 index
SPX,
pointing higher, was highlighting some dimming interest in the perceived safe-haven appeal of gold on the session.
Investors are also bracing for a reading of U.S. inflation, the consumer-price index for January, on Thursday, which could influence trading in precious metals in the near term.