It's Yo-Yo Time

Up and Down; Back and Forth; Where she stops, nobody knows. That pretty much sums up trading in the precious metals. Both silver and gold continue range trading with the metals bouncing off of their respective support zones but unable to break free to the upside. For silver that support is near the $19 level and for gold it is our old friend, $1280. The result is a stalemate between bulls and bears.

Bulls are holding the metals where they need to hold them to prevent a strong sell signal and the start of a fresh leg lower but they are unable to kick the price out of the range either. The result is a big, giant, "Yawn" for most traders except for those who are quick on the draw and want to trade the range. Those who do should use a one hour chart combined with a 4 hour.

Gold initially was sold down sharply as there was not much, if any, violence associated with the vote over the weekend. Traders' first inclination was to dump the metal. However, the results, overwhelmingly in favor of separating, sparked a united condemnation by European foreign ministers. One of them, the Swedish Foreign Minister, Carl Bildt, dubbed them, fake figures from a fake referendum". He was echoed by his German counterpart who graced the vote by saying that, "it cannot be taken seriously".

Well, someone took it seriously there because the talk rapidly shifted into how to ratchet up the sanctions and how to go after those Crimean-based companies who might stand to benefit from a Moscow-annexation of the area in question.

With that, back up went the gold price as shorts once again ran for cover. This will more than likely continue to be the pattern at least until we get to the big presidential vote in Ukraine, which is now less than two weeks away. As I have stated many times now - as long as tensions continue to simmer over there, gold will garner buying support. Depending on how this issue is finally resolved, once those tensions are removed, gold is more than likely headed lower especially if US economic data improves. We just have to wait and see and react accordingly.

In the meantime, this is a trader's market. Do not form any long term opinions based off these day to day gyrations being induced by the ebb and flow of geopolitical events. One never knows how events will play out. Again, and this is a strong bit of advice - do not take too large of a position, either long or short unless you have some sort of masochistic streak and enjoy pain. Stay flexible and nimble or stay out altogether until the situation is resolved. There are lots of better markets to trade right now.

Shifting therefore to something more interesting, the grains are getting hammered today. It started last night as follow through from last Friday's bearish USDA reports ( for new crop - old crop bean report was considered bullish) continued. Aiding the negative sentiment was rather widespread rains through some key growing regions in the Plains. That brought about strong selling pressure in wheat, which has been supported by hot and dry weather injuring the crop. The rains are a welcome relief and traders are thus taking some of the risk premium out as they look for some improvement in the crop's prospects.

This afternoon we will get the planting progress numbers and traders will get another look at how things stand in relation to last year and to the 5 year averages.

The Dow scored yet another all time high today while the S&P 500 is approaching its all-time high today as equity traders are pretty much dismissing Ukraine as having any impact whatsoever on anything OUTSIDE of the immediate region. Only if events were to take some sort of serious turn for the worse, would we see stocks impacted by that situation. For now, stock traders are of the view that it will be a non-factor in most global equity markets as it is now firmly viewed as purely a regional matter. The consensus for now is that the economy continues to slowly improve.

Copper moved higher today after comments out of China that authorities there are committed to reforming its money market. Traders took those remarks as signs that the leadership remains desirous of economic growth and with that, PRESTO, gone were last week's losses. This is just more evidence of how the conflicting cross currents in many markets are whipsawing hedge fund computers back and forth. "If you snooze, you lose" is an apt adage to describe certain markets right now. Again, be careful with large positions or be prepared to get skinned. Hedge funds are losing money left and right in the commodity markets - don't follow suit.

WTI crude is hanging around the $100 mark.  The Dollar is a tad weaker and the yield on the Ten Year is up a bit to 2.65%.

More later...