April Gold closed up 6 at 1254.5. This was 9 up from the low and 6.5 off the high.

May Silver finished up 0.00382 at 0.1813, 0.0002 off the high and 0.0035 up from the low.

The combination of subdued risk appetites and a sharp selloff in the Dollar helped the precious metals markets make a strong start to the week as gold and silver posted moderate gains for Monday’s trading session. While global markets were some distance away from a full-scale “risk off” mood, the approach of month-end and quarter-end fed into risk anxiety and helped to fuel liquidation selling across many sectors. In addition, the sense that US tax cuts and fiscal spending may have difficulty with approval after last week’s health care reform failure has boosted inflows to safe haven assets such as gold. However, it was silver that was the strongest-performing metal market as it reached a 3 1/2 week high. The PGM sector saw a sharp reversal of recent form with palladium sustaining heavy losses while platinum ground out a modest gain.