Commodity Brief: Gold higher on Bernanke testimony

With market attention at the moment on Cyclone Rusty nearing Western Australia's iron ore hub, Bloomberg reports, Gold sits quiet around the $1612 in the spot market, off daily highs at $1620, following the rally from NY session lows at $1584 on Bernanke's testimony, which later on today at 15:00 GMT will hold its second part. As James Rickards noted on his Twitter account, Managing Director at Tangent Capital: “Watching the Gold ticker during Bernanke testimony was like watching the polygraph needle go off the charts on a dishonest witness,” he said, when FED's chairman eased financial market worries on a possible retreat from bond purchases sooner than expected, Reuters reported.

According to 2ndSkiesForex founder Chris Capre: “The price action formed a strong breakout bar, followed by an ii pattern (back to back inside bars) with almost no follow through selling, suggesting the sellers have stepped aside for now,” the analyst said, adding: “If the market pulls back in a corrective fashion back towards $1600, I’ll look to buy targeting just shy of $1620 and $1638 which are the next upside resistance levels short and medium term.” At the same time, ANZ analysts said Gold should be supported by safe-haven buying in coming days amid talks on U.S. spending cuts.

Oil in the other hand settled around the $92 figure printing lows at $91.92 for the April contract in WTI Crude, closing higher by +0.66% in NY at $92.79, leaving behind the $92 handle as target reached of the previous double top pattern at 2013 highs at $98. Commodities overall as measured by CRB index closed down -0.30% in NY, with copper also higher by +0.93%, while Iron Ore sits around the $152T for second day in a row. US 10 year bond yields printed a fresh 1-month low at 1.83%, bouncing from there till current 1.87%.