by Alasdair Macleod, GoldMoney:

After a strong start to the New Year, gold and silver succumbed to profit-taking as the dollar recovered slightly. In European trade this morning, gold was trading at $1837, up $14 on last Friday after hitting a high of $1864 on Wednesday. Silver was at $23.43, down 52 cents on the week, after hitting $24.50 midweek.

That precious metals would be vulnerable to profit-taking should be no surprise, given that in two months gold has rallied from $1617, and silver from under $18. These moves have been a mirror image of the dollar’s trade weighted index, which since early November fell from113 to 103.5 on 30 December, before recovering to 105.3 this morning.