April platinum settled down $5.10 today at $1700.50 after putting in a trading range of $49.50.  The waters are anything but calm because of problems at Fukushima Daiichi. Authorities were forced to scrap plans to extinguish smoldering spent fuel by dumping water from a helicopter due to high radiation, while the European Union's commissioner for energy said "the site is effectively out of control."

John Cassidy at The New Yorker has an insightful take that I believe applies to platinum and palladium.

“What is really going on, I suspect, has little to do with the underlying forces of supply and demand: it is mainly about speculation. The same foreign investors who are dumping Japanese stocks are selling oil futures to hedge the big long positions they have been holding. They are also dumping gold—traditionally seen as a safe haven in uncertain times—and other commodities, such as copper, corn, and wheat.”

Apr platinum $1,700.50, down $5.10; Range $1,681.00-$1,730.50
Jun palladium $705.05, up 15 cents; Range $692.00-$722.65
Apr gold $1,396.10, up $3.30; Range $1,395.20-$1,406.60
May silver $34.472, up 35.5 cents; Range $33.845-$35.080