Gold and Silver both were on their way to their best weeks in more than year when a major sell off occurred just after the European close at 11am EST.  Zerohedge speculated that it could have been margin-related selling with some long liquidation to shore up losses in other markets.  But, seeing as not only Gold and Silver but also copper and oil were sold, also highly correlated to gold, that this was more likely a case of chart painting in the precious metals that was aided by the exit of bounce trading mo-mo monkeys on the last Friday in April.

Either way, the sell off was steep and took Gold back to $1450 where it stayed until the COMEX close at which point it ground higher through the Globex session, closing at $1462.20 in the cash market, up just over $54 for the week.  Silver traded similarly and closed just shy of $24 at $23.97.

For next week there are two days left in April and there is little chance of either metal putting in a bullish close on the monthly chart.  But, there will be even odds of a bullish weekly close.  For gold the target is $1494, the high from last week set on April 15th.  For Silver the target is $26.10 which will be a very low probability event.

All in all, however, this week was very constructive and I am pretty much convinced that the bottom is in here.  Massive physical buying has been uncovered between here and $1320 an ounce and with the Japanese moving into gold now expect this demand to continue.  The price may not rally much above $1500 in the short term but at this point setting up a range trade between $1450 and $1500 would be a major accomplishment given just how much damage was done in the original raid.