Just been tracking the precious metals action this past week and it's been a wild ride. Gold bounced around the $4,700-$4,800 range mostly, still holding up pretty well despite all the Middle East noise and the Fed chair hearings turning hawkish. Silver got hit harder though - saw it dip to $76 at one point before recovering. Palladium prices per ounce have been all over the place, swinging between $1,527 and $1,615, but honestly the industrial demand is keeping it from collapsing completely.

What's interesting is platinum actually held up relatively stable, only down about 1.3% for the week. The supply tightness from South Africa and Russia is definitely providing a floor there. Meanwhile, palladium prices per ounce seem to be getting a boost from the slowdown in EV adoption - more hybrids means more catalytic converter demand, which is actually supporting the market.

The whole complex is basically caught between two forces right now: on one side you've got the dollar strengthening and higher rates pressuring everything, but on the other side there's genuine supply deficits and solid industrial demand, especially for silver in the solar sector. Silver's been in supply deficit for six years straight now, which is wild. So yeah, palladium prices per ounce and the other metals are probably going to stay choppy in the near term, but the fundamentals underneath still look decent if geopolitical tensions ease up. Definitely watching how this plays out.