Commodities Brief: Precious metals finish lower as US equities continue to outperform

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - It was another solid day for equities, with the S&P 500 closing at another new all time high of 1625.96. However, the commodities markets were not as fortunate with precious metals and oil unable to finish the day in positive territory. Perhaps it was the interest rate cut by the RBA during the Asia session which helped lead to the weakness in commodities. In any event, gold closed the day sharply lower, down 1.17% at 1451.80, while silver managed a slightly better showing finishing down 0.33% at 23.92 (well off the lows of 23.40). On a final note, oil closed 0.28% at 95.52.

From a technical perspective, both gold and silver are holding just above critical support levels which if breached could help lead to another leg down. In regards to gold, keep an eye on the 1440 level which if violated on a daily close would complete the recent counter trend rally and could open the doors down to support near 1405 (previous resistance, now support on daily chart). Silver needs to hold the short term uptrend line which comes in at 23.20. A daily close below here could open the doors back down to 22.50 (daily support from mid April).

As for oil, the technical picture isn’t as clear but in order to take another leg higher it would need to close above 97.20 (downtrend resistance line on daily chart) which could open the doors to 99.27 (the 200wk ma). Initial support comes in at 94.90 (low from previous 2 days), followed by 93.96 (the 200dma).