interesting 24 hours for precious metals, starting with yet another suspension of trading as an illiquid market was hit with a 1500 contract order, which...

interesting 24 hours for precious metals, starting with yet another suspension of trading as an illiquid market was hit with a 1500 contract order, which pushed the yellow metal down $10 rapidly. After trading as low as USD $1225 (leading to a 'gold is crumbling' headline on Business Insider), gold caught a bid, and has since staged an impressive $30 rally to sit above the USD $1250 support line. ECB chatter about being 'technically' ready for negative rates, another disappointing US pending home sales report, which fell for a fifth straight month and is now negative y.o.y for the first time since April 2011, and a miss in the Dallas Manufacturing report (1.9 vs 5.0 expected) all added to the upside impetus, with silver now back above USD $20.00 as well Tonight promises to be interesting with building starts (and permits), Case Shiller housing, consumer confidence and Richmond Fed manufacturing all out.