Palladium jumps to fresh all-time highs, on its way to $3,000

• Palladium prolonged its recent bullish move and shot to fresh all-time highs on Thursday.
• Persistent supply worries support prospects for a further near-term appreciating move.
• Overstretched technical indicators warrant some consolidation before the next leg up.

Palladium shot to fresh all-time highs in the last hour, with bulls now eyeing a move towards conquering the $3,000 psychological mark.

A deepening fundamental supply/demand imbalance in the market has been fueling a strong upswing over the past one month or so. With spot prices gaining over 20% this year, palladium is now the best performing precious metal and seems poised to prolong the upward trajectory amid persistent supply worries.

Even from a technical perspective, the recent move up along a multi-week-old ascending channel points to a well-established bullish trend and supports prospects for additional gains. That said, extremely overstretched technical indicators warrant some near-term consolidation before the next leg of a positive move.

Meanwhile, any corrective pullback might now be seen as a buying opportunity near the overnight swing lows, around the $2,900 mark. This should now act as a strong base for palladium, which if broken decisively might prompt some profit-taking and accelerate the slide towards the channel support, currently near the $2,865-60 area.

Palladium 4-hour chart

Technical levels to watch