precious metals prices extended their move higher on thursday erasing more of their decline from earlier in the week and heading back toward a nearterm high reached last month   frontmonth gold gc00 futures were up 05 to trade at 1858 per troy ounce the yellow metal is now up 16 on the year   silver si00 was up 1 to 2215 per ounce it remained down more than 5 so far for the year   platinum pl00 built upon its sizable gains from yesterday’s session trading 15 higher to 1011 crossing back above the psychologically important 1000perounce level   palladium pa00 was up 04 to 2010 per ounce citi’s aakash doshi a precious metals analyst recently cut his nearterm price target for gold arguing that a confluence of factors are conspiring to keep a lid on the precious metal’s price “a hawkish fed higher real rates and what still remain anchored mediumterm inflation expectations in both surveys and bond market pricing have weighed on gold price momentum amid a relatively robust us dollar backdrop it also seems likely some geopolitical risk premium has eroded as the market absorbed the russiaukraine conflict” doshi wrote in a note to clients elsewhere a team of analysts at commerzbank explained why platinum prices have outperformed recently citing expectations of increased demand from the automobile industry as a supplychain crunch fades “platinum is likely to profit from the increased demand from the automotive industry that is expected this year by market observers like johnson matthey and metals focus” wrote commerzbank’s daniel briesemann it’s worth noting that platinum has risen on each of the last five days of trading gaining around 50 and driving the price discount versus gold to just 850 per troy ounce its narrowest level since march the outlook for industrial metals was more mixed as prices of aluminum fell and copper climbed after a popular gauge of us manufacturing activity – the sp global us manufacturing pmi – showed activity slowing in may to a fourmonth low   aluminum traded on the london metals exchange was down 4 to roughly 2700 per metric ton