Both platinum and palladium are lower today as Japanese car production has been dramatically reduced due to a lack of electricity and numerous supply disruptions. The Palladium ETF - PALL is trading off 1.34% while the Platinum ETF - PPLT is down 1.43% both noticeable but not nearly as dramatic as the Uranium stocks and ETF.
Palladium was the #1 performing metal in 2010 just ahead of silver so the palladium etf had a spectacular first year of trading and has become a very active contract for such a small market. In fact, it accumulated nearly $1 billion in assets in the first 12 months making it one of the most successful ETF launches of the year. PPLT (the platinum etf) also attracted $815 million in assets but the price action has been much more subdued. In fact, platinum which had a price shock earlier in the decade has been losing ground to the other precious metals consistently for the past year.
There is little doubt that this dip in automobile production is a temporary event and that worldwide production will likely still meet it's goals. But after the big run palladium has had over the past year the market was due for a breather and this event appears to be enough of a catalyst, at least in the short run.
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