Gold, silver and palladium under heavy pressure

Gold, silver and palladium experienced a very black day yesterday. Gold shed more than $20 and for a time was trading at below $1,120 per troy ounce, eradicating all of the gains that it had achieved since the end of last week. 

Gold in euro terms dropped to €980 per troy ounce, its lowest level since early January. Silver was even harder hit, plunging for a time by 5% and briefly trading below the $14 per troy ounce mark for the first time in six years. 

Within a week, an ounce of palladium has thus shed $100. Platinum was the only precious metal to defy the downward pull yesterday, and actually closed slightly up. It is hard to find any reasonable explanations for yesterday's sell-off. 

Admittedly, the US dollar and US bond yields rose sharply yesterday on the back of robust US economic data, yet this was not accompanied by new rate hike expectations. In fact, expectations have even fallen further following dovish comments by Fed representatives, says Commerzbank.