Copper

Gold futures headed lower during the Asian session on Wednesday, snapping a recent stretch of choppy trading near the elevated levels reached earlier. The COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange recorded a decline in June gold contracts, which settled at roughly $4,707.57 per troy ounce, down about 0.45% at the time of writing.

The session kicked off with the metal searching for a foothold. The intraday low plunged well below the opening levels, and gold was forced to test support around the 4,646.01. A narrow corridor emerged, and the metal spent the entire morning trading within this confined range.

Why is this happening now? Gold is highly sensitive to the mood surrounding the U.S. dollar, and the greenback was sending mixed signals on Wednesday. The U.S. Dollar Index, which measures the dollar's strength against a basket of six major currencies, was barely changed — trading at 98.20, down just 0.02%. On the surface, any slight dollar weakness should nudge gold higher. Instead, investors seemed to hit the pause button, clearly unwilling to pile into aggressive positions ahead of the next batch of macroeconomic news.

While gold was slipping moderately, the silver market was undergoing a far steeper correction. July silver futures tumbled 1.59%, hitting $86.95 per troy ounce. For silver, which often moves in gold's wake but with larger swings, this kind of drop wasn't a shock. When the market gets jittery, industrial demand forecasts for the white metal often get revised downward, and speculators rush to lock in profits.

The copper market told a completely different story. July contracts on this key industrial metal instead rose by 0.26%, climbing to $6.65 per pound. Copper has been living a life of its own lately, paying...