Comex gold futures prices are trading moderately lower and hit a three-week low in late-morning dealings Tuesday. Increased chart-based selling is featured, including pre-placed sell stop orders being triggered when near-term technical support levels were breached. Now, the energized gold bears are looking to push June futures prices below solid chart support at the April low of $1.277.40. Such would likely trigger more sell stops to push prices even lower. June gold last traded down $6.30 an ounce at $1,282.30.

Gold remains the investment of choice for lower-income Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll.

On Thursday, Gallup released the results from its Economy and Personal Finance poll, conducted April 3 to 6.

Although real estate was the top option as a long-term investment, gold made the top of the list for the subcategory of Americans whose annual household income is less than $30,000 at 31%. According to the data, only 18% of high-income earners favor gold as an investment.

Looking at the general data, 30% of all respondents said that real estate was the overall best long-term investment, up from 2013 when it was 25%. Gold tied for second place with stocks and/or mutual funds as the best long-term investment. Gold’s rating has held relatively steady compared to last year, while stocks and mutual funds increased from last year’s reading of 22%.

Gold’s perception as the top investment option has been on the decline since it held the top spot in 2011 with 34% of respondents saying they preferred the yellow metal. Gallup pointed out that prior to 2011, gold was not an option in the investment survey.

Savings accounts came in third place at 14%, a drop from last year’s reading of 16%, and bonds came in at 6%, a drop from last year’s reading of 9%.

“Bonds have been Americans' least favored investment option for as long as Gallup has been asking the question,” the report said.

The report pointed out that the housing market has slowly been improving since the sector took a major hit in 2007 as a result of the mortgage crisis.

The U.S. housing sector continues to struggle as sales of existing homes remain weak, according to data from the National Association of Realtors.

On Tuesday, the association said that existing homes sales dropped 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.59 million in March, a decline from February’s annual sales rate of 4.60 million. Once again the assocation pointed out that the sales rate is the slowest pace since July 2012.

According to the report, March's inventory of existing homes for sale was 1.99 million units, a 5.2 month supply, the highest since April 2013.

The association also said that the median sales priced for existing home hit $198,500 last month, up 7.9% from last year's reading.

Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist, said that he is expecting to see a rebound in the housing market in the next few months.

“With ongoing job creation and some weather delayed shopping activity, home sales should pick up, especially if inventory continues to improve and mortgage interest rates rise only modestly,” he said.

Economists were not very optimistic heading into the report and expected to see annual sales between 4.55 million and 4.57 million homes. Gennadiy Goldberg, U.S. strategist from TD Securities, said in a note released before the report that the U.S. housing sector has been one of the laggards in the rebounding U.S. economy.

However, looking past the short-term weakness, Goldberg said that low prices and an improving labor market are two factors that could help the housing market recover in the coming months.

Avery Shenfeld, senior economist from CIBC World Markets, said that they need to see more data to get a better idea of the trend in the housing market, especially after the harsh winter.

Shenfeld added that existing home sales have been trending lower since the middle of last year when sales spiked higher from an influx of investors and cash buyers. He said the market “hasn’t yet given way to a lot more conventional activity.”

On Wednesday, the U.S. Commerce Department reported that housing starts rose 2.8% in March to seasonally adjusted rate of 946,000 units; however, this was below consensus of a rate between 955,000 and 990,000. At the same time, the department also reported that building permits fell 2.4% in March to an annualized rate of 990,000.

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