METALS: August gold futures closed down $22.60 an ounce at $1,207.80 yesterday. Prices closed near the session low and hit another nearly three-year low yesterday. Sell stops were triggered to send prices to the new lows in late U.S. trading. The gold bears have the strong overall near-term technical advantage. There are no early, purely technical clues to suggest that a market bottom is close at hand. Gold prices are in an eight-month-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. The gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at $1,250.00. Bears’ next near-term downside breakout price objective is closing prices below solid technical support at $1,100.00. First resistance is seen at $1,221.00 and then at yesterday’s high of $1,244.20. First support is seen at $1,175.00 and then at $1,150.00. Wyckoff’s Market Rating: 1.0

July silver futures closed down $0.147 an ounce at $18.44 yesterday. Prices closed nearer the session low and closed at a nearly three-year low close yesterday. Silver bears have the strong overall near-term technical advantage. There are no early technical clues that a market bottom is close at hand. Prices are in an eight-month-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above major psychological resistance at $20.00 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at $17.50. First resistance is seen at $19.00 and then at Wednesday’s high of $19.58. Next support is seen at this week’s low of $18.36 and then at $18.00. Wyckoff’s Market Rating: 1.0.

July N.Y. copper closed up 20 points at 304.30 cents yesterday. Prices closed nearer the session low and saw tepid short covering in a bear market. Copper bears have the solid near-term technical advantage. Copper bulls’ next upside breakout objective is pushing and closing prices above solid technical resistance at 320.00 cents. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at 290.00 cents. First resistance is seen at this week’s high of 309.50 cents and then at 313.80 cents. First support is seen at 301.70 cents and then at 300.00 cents and then at the contract low of 298.35 cents. Wyckoff’s Market Rating: 1.0.