The gold price is maintaining its gains after last week’s price breakout, even briefly passing the US$4,400 per ounce level midway through the period.

Silver saw strength as well, pushing past US$66 per ounce for a short time.

Both precious metals are responding to a variety of factors, but at the forefront this week were the latest consumer (CPI) and producer price index (PPI) numbers out of the US.

July CPI was up 3.4 percent year-on-year and 0.1 percent from the previous month, in line with analysts’ expectations. Core CPI, which excludes the food and energy categories, rose 2.5 percent from this time last year and 0.2 percent from June.

Meanwhile, PPI for July was unchanged month-on-month and up 4.7 percent from a year ago. The core…