Comex gold futures prices are trading near steady Wednesday morning, in subdued trading as the market place anxiously awaits the conclusion of the latest meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee. The FOMC meeting ends early Wednesday afternoon and will be followed by a written statement and then a press conference held by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. June gold last traded up $0.10 at $1,643.90 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted up $1.80 an ounce at $1,643.75. May Comex silver last traded up $0.184 at $30.93 an ounce. The FOMC statement could be the most important U.S. economic reading of the week for the precious metals markets. Traders will scrutinize the statement for any clues regarding further easing of U.S. monetary policy, or lack thereof. The consensus in the market place is that the Fed will not alter its monetary policy stance and that further quantitative easing is not likely. However, recent FOMC meeting results and minutes from those meetings have proven to be very market-sensitive. The overall European Union sovereign debt and financial crisis has been temporarily overshadowed by the pending FOMC results. However, the EU debt debacle appears to be gradually creeping back to the front burner of the market place. The EU is in economic recession, which makes getting its debt problems under control a very difficult proposition. Look for the EU debt crisis to be back in the headlines as soon as Thursday. The U.S. dollar index is trading weaker Wednesday and hit a fresh three-week low overnight. Trading remains choppy. Crude oil futures prices are trading higher Wednesday morning, as price action has also been choppy on the charts. Crude oil bulls and bears are presently on a near-term level technical playing field. The posture of these two key “outside markets� does slightly favor the precious metals bulls Wednesday morning. U.S. economic data due for release Wednesday includes the weekly MBA mortgage applications survey, durable goods orders, the weekly DOE energy stocks report and the FOMC statement. The London A.M. gold fixing is $1,641.25 versus the previous London P.M. fixing of $1,649.50. Technically, June gold futures see a seven-week-old downtrend in place on the daily bar chart. The bears still have the near-term technical advantage. The gold bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at the April high of $1,685.40. Bears’ next near-term downside price objective is closing prices below technical support at the April low of $1,613.00. First resistance is seen at this week’s high of $1,650.10 and then at last week’s high of $1,659.60. First support is seen at Tuesday’s low of $1,634.60 and then at this week’s low of $1,623.60. May silver futures bears have the near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a seven-week-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Bulls’ next upside price breakout objective is closing prices above solid technical resistance at $32.58 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below major psychological support at $30.00. First resistance is seen at Tuesday’s high of $31.11 and then at $31.50. Next support is seen at the overnight low of $30.695 and then at this week’s low of $30.45. Follow me on Twitter to immediately get the very latest market developments. If you are not on board, then you are not getting key analysis and perspective as fast or as often as you could! Follow me on Twitter to get my very timely intra-day and after-hours briefs on precious metals price action. The precious markets will remain very active. If you want market analysis fast, and in after-hours trading, then follow my up-to-the-second precious metals market perspective on Twitter. It’s free, too. My account is @jimwyckoff.

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