Gold and Silver Post Gains

The prices of the four main precious metals rose today. The top performer in the group was palladium ... the least expensive of the four.  Palladium closed up about two percent on expectations that car sales will increase. That's important for palladium because it's used in the pollution control equipment of all cars and many trucks ... worldwide. So far this year ... palladium is doing very well. Since Dec. 29 ... the price of palladium has climbed 11.5 percent. Not only that ... but exchange-traded funds backed by palladium were doing well in late afternoon trading. Here's one example: ETFS Physical Palladium was up more than three percent.

The next best performer among precious metals today was silver. It gained more than one percent ... and like palladium ... silver is having a great start to the new year. Since Dec. 29 it's risen more than 11 percent. The largest silver exchange-traded fund ... iShares Silver Trust ... was up about 1.3 percent in late afternoon trading.

Platinum was up but only a tiny amount ... while gold prices posted a modest increase. Throughout today's trading ... gold stayed in a tight range of about $20 from the lowest point to the highest point. Weakness in the dollar kept gold from falling lower than about $1,640 ... and profit-taking kept gold from rising more than about $1,660.