Gold prices are posting solid losses in early U.S. trading Thursday. A lack of fresh, bullish news for the gold market is allowing the technical traders to dominate—and the near-term technical posture for gold remains bearish. It’s another big U.S. economic report day Thursday and many markets are likely to react to the data. June gold was last down $15.70 at $1,280.40 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted down $10.00 at $1,281.75. May Comex silver last traded down $0.219 at $18.90 an ounce.

After digesting Wednesday afternoon’s FOMC statement from the U.S. Federal Reserve, the “take away” from that report is that the U.S. economy is picking up momentum after a rough winter. That was positive for U.S. equities and the money flows continue to favor stocks over most other competing asset classes, at present. Indeed, the major stock indexes hovering near their recent record highs are a bearish underlying factor for other asset classes, including gold and silver.

In overnight news, the much-anticipated China official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index came in at 50.4 in April from 50.3 in March, it was reported Thursday. That reading was right in line with market expectations and had little impact on the market place.

There is a heavy slate of U.S. economic data due for release Thursday, including the weekly jobless claims report, the Challenger job cut report, personal income and outlays, the U.S. manufacturing PMI, construction spending, the ISM manufacturing report on business, and domestic auto industry sales. This data is likely to have at least some impact on many markets Thursday.

The market place is awaiting what is arguably the most important economic report of the month: the April U.S. employment situation report from the Labor Department, on Friday morning. The key non-farm payrolls number is forecast to come in at up around 215,000.

The Russia-Ukraine crisis is still on the radar screen of the world market place. The matter has not de-escalated, but there has been little fresh news coming from that region this week. However, this situation is likely to get worse before it gets any better. Gold and other safe-haven assets will likely at least see selling interest limited due to the instability in Ukraine.

Wyckoff’s Daily Risk Rating: 7.0 (The Russia-Ukraine tensions are still elevated.)

(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 fixing is $1,283.00 versus the previous P.M. fixing of $1,288.50.

Technically, June gold futures bears have the overall near-term technical advantage. A seven-week-old downtrend line is in place on the daily bar chart. The gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at this week’s high of $1,306.60. Bears' next near-term downside breakout price objective is closing prices below solid technical support at the April low of $1,268.40. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $1,293.00 and then at $1,300.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,277.80 and then at $1,268.40.  

May silver futures bears have the solid overall near-term technical advantage as prices hit a fresh 11-month low overnight. Prices are in a nine-week-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at last week’s high of $19.91 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at the contract low of $18.68. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $19.17 and then at Wednesday’s high of $19.45. Next support is seen at the overnight low of $18.75 and then at $18.68.

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