Gold is moderately lower in early dealings Wednesday, on profit taking and chart consolidation following recent gains that saw prices hit a four-month high overnight. Gold and silver markets remain in near-term price uptrends on the charts. April gold was last down $11.70 at $1,331.00 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted down $10.80 at $1,331.25. March Comex silver last traded down $0.323 at $21.635 an ounce.

The Ukrainian civil unrest and government instability remain a significant geopolitical factor for the market place. Attention has turned from who will lead Ukraine to how will that nation survive, financially. The Ukrainian currency, the hryvnia, has plunged in value in recent weeks. The Russian ruble has also been pressured significantly by the Ukrainian crisis. The U.S., the European Union and the International Monetary Fund are trying to figure out how to prop up Ukraine’s financial system before it collapses. The situation there remains fluid. The Ukrainian developments and some civil unrest and violence in Thailand recently have prompted increased safe-haven demand for gold.

In overnight news, there was an upbeat German consumer confidence report. However, the European stock markets were under some selling pressure Wednesday.

Traders and investors are looking ahead to Thursday’s speech to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee by Fed Chair Janet Yellen. The speech was originally scheduled for a couple weeks ago, but was postponed due to inclement weather.

U.S. economic data due for release Wednesday includes the weekly MBA mortgage applications survey, new residential sales, and the weekly DOE liquid energy stocks report.

Wyckoff’s Daily Risk Rating: 6.0 (The Ukraine uncertainty and recent Thailand unrest are keeping some risk aversion in the market place.)

(Wyckoff’s Daily Risk Rating is your way to quickly gauge investor risk appetite in the world market place each day. Each day I assess the “risk-on” or “risk-off” trader mentality in the market place with a numerical reading of 1 to 10, with 1 being least risk-averse (most risk-on) and 10 being the most risk-averse (risk-off), and 5 being neutral.

The London A.M. gold fix is $1,340.00 versus the P.M. fixing of $1,339.00.

Technically, April gold futures prices are still in a seven-week-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. Prices hit a four-month high overnight but were scoring a bearish “outside day” down on the daily bar chart as of this writing. The gold bulls still have the near-term technical advantage. Bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above technical resistance at $1,360.00. Bears' next near-term downside breakout price objective is closing prices below technical support at $1,300.00. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $1,345.60 and then at $1,350.00. First support is seen at $1,325.00 and then at this week’s low of $1,318.70.  

March silver futures bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a four-week-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $22.50 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at $20.67. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $22.025 and then at Monday’s high of $22.18. Next support is seen at the overnight low of $21.67 and then at Monday’s low of $21.52.

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