Gold, silver rally as traders buy the early dip

Gold and silver futures prices are modestly up in midday U.S. trading Tuesday. Overnight losses were deemed by the precious metals bulls to be a bargain buying opportunity. Otherwise, some routine backing and filling on the charts has been featured as fresh fundamental inputs are awaited. April gold futures were last up $6.70 at $1,828.50 and March Comex silver was last up $0.154 at $23.23 an ounce.

Global stock markets were mixed overnight. U.S. stock indexes are higher at midday. Corporate earnings reports are in the spotlight at present. While earnings reports have been mostly upbeat, some have not, including a few big companies. That and inflation worries are making the U.S. stock indexes wobbly. More and more, it’s looking like the Federal Reserve will be aggressive and raise the Fed funds rate by 0.5% at its March meeting. Historically, rising interest rates and rising inflation have been bearish for stock markets and bullish for the metals markets.

The U.S. data point of the week will be Thursday morning’s consumer price index report for January, expected to come in at up 7.2%, year-on-year. That would be a hot reading if the CPI number meets market expectations.

The key outside markets today see crude oil prices lower and trading around $89.50 a barrel after prices last Friday hit a seven-year high. The U.S. dollar index is firmer early today. The U.S. Treasury 10-year note yield is presently fetching 1.954%, which is near a three-year high.