Kitco's director of global trading Peter Hug returned to the show. Commenting on the recent metals decline, he believes it was triggered by the ECB's continued quantitative easing program which makes the dollar particularly attractive to European participants. Of course it's somewhat predicated on the Fed's continued effort to normalizeinterest rates. Between interest rate hikes and trade concerns, the Fed has made a conscious decision to be more tolerant of higher consumer prices. All of these factors bode well for gold and silver. Up coming seasonal trends should see them go higher after the summer doldrums have passed.