Gold and silver prices are near steady in midday U.S. trading Thursday, following selling pressure this week that pushed both metals to four-month lows. Given the very strong U.S. dollar index that hit a two-year high overnight and U.S. stock indexes that are at or near multi-month and record highs, the gold and silver market bulls could be faring much worse recently. However, the bulls do need a fundamental catalyst to spark significant rally in prices. That’s been a tough chore in a generally quiet marketplace at present. June gold futures were last up $0.60 an ounce at $1,280.00. May Comex silver was last down $0.016 at $14.90 an ounce. This morning’s U.S. economic data included weekly jobless claims and durable goods orders that showed a mixed bag, with jobless claims coming in higher than expected and durables orders better than forecast. Metals prices showed no significant reaction to the reports. Asian and European stock indexes were mixed to weaker overnight. Asian markets were somewhat pressured by some downbeat GDP data coming out of South Korea. At down 0.3% in the first quarter, South Korea’s GDP was the weakest in over 10 years. The dour report prompted the central banks in China and Japan to signal they had no intention of tightening their monetary policies anytime soon. In other overnight news, Sweden’s Riksbank kept its monetary policy unchanged but said it likely won’t start raising interest rates until farther down the road. Riksbank’s current interest rate is -0.25%. The bank had previously said it hoped to start raising interest rates in the second half of 2019. The Swedish krona dropped sharply against the dollar on the news. This news is another signal that world interest rates remain historically low, including German bond yields this week dropping back below zero percent. This argues that worldwide inflationary pressures should remain well under control. Very low inflation is the archenemy of raw commodity market bulls, including the metals markets.