Gold prices are steady to slightly lower in early U.S. trading Wednesday. The market place presently perceives the situation regarding the Russian military incursion in Crimea and the civil unrest in Ukraine has de-escalated the past 48 hours and the worst of the crisis may be over, as far as markets’ price reactions. Such has put risk appetite back into the market place and that’s a negative for safe-haven gold. April gold was last down $1.50 at $1,336.40 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted up $1.00 at $1,336.00. May Comex silver last traded up $0.102 at $21.29 an ounce.

Russian president Putin on Tuesday said he was not planning on using military force in the Ukraine, even though his additional troops are on the ground there. Putin has also halted his military exercises near the Ukrainian border and ordered troops there back to their bases. The above developments have put risk appetite back into the market place. U.S. stock indexes rallied sharply Tuesday and are at or near their peaks of the major bull runs they are on. Safe-haven gold and U.S. Treasury markets have wilted a bit as the situation in Ukraine has at least temporarily stabilized.

However, the U.S. is still considering taking action on economic and diplomatic sanctions against Russia. Putin may have backed down a bit on worry that any sanctions would seriously damage the already wobbly Russian economy. The European Union has not been as aggressive as the U.S. on the sanctions front, as the EU needs energy from Russia.

It was reported Wednesday that Chinese officials say they want to keep the world’s second-largest economy on a 7.5% annual economic growth path for 2014. That rate is a bit higher than many expected and is a bullish underlying factor for the raw commodity sector. China is the world’s largest consumer of raw commodities.

In other overnight news, the Euro zone showed stronger economic strength to start 2014, according to the Markit purchasing managers index, which rose to 53.3 in February from 52.9 in January. This particular reading was the highest since June of 2011. Also, European Union retail sales data rose by 1.6% in January from December, which is the best month-on-month growth rate in over a dozen years. These reports fall into the camp of those not looking for any further European Central Bank monetary policy stimulus forthcoming. The ECB holds its monthly monetary policy meeting on Thursday.

U.S. economic data due for Wednesday includes the weekly MBA mortgage applications survey, the ADP national employment report, the ISM non-manufacturing report on business, the global services PMI, the Fed’s beige book, and the weekly DOE liquid energy stocks report.

Wyckoff’s Daily Risk Rating: 6.0 (The Russian military invasion of Crimea and the Ukraine unrest have de-escalated a bit—for now.)

(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 $1,333.50 versus the P.M. fixing of $1,334.75.

Technically, April gold futures prices are still in a two-month-old uptrend on the daily bar chart. 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 this week’s high of $1,355.00. Bears' next near-term downside breakout price objective is closing prices below technical support at last week’s low of $1,318.70. First resistance is seen at $1,340.00 and then at $1,350.00. First support is seen at this week’s low of $1,330.70 and then at $1,325.00.  

May silver futures bulls and bears are on a level near-term technical playing field. Silver bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at the February high of $22.215 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at $20.63. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $21.34 and then at Tuesday’s high of $21.54. Next support is seen at last week’s low of $21.025 and then at $20.63.

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