"A number of things which would have kept people with an eye on the upside for gold prices have now been neutralized," says RBS's Nick Moore, who cut the state-owned UK bank's 2012 targets for precious metals other than gold in January. Full Story
By: Adam Hamilton, Zeal Intelligence - 16 March, 2012
The world’s stock markets are increasingly interrelated. The psychology of traders, which drives most short-term price action, is continuously shaped by the nonstop torrents of global newsflow. So even Americans can no longer afford to ignore what is going on in overseas markets. And the influence of European stock markets in particular is large and growing, making their recovery well worth watching. Full Story
The roller coaster metaphor we used two weeks ago after the $90 flash crash in the price of gold seems appropriate this week as well. It must be tough out there for precious metals investors. Wednesday gold futures tumbled again. April-delivery gold fell $51.30, or three per cent, to settle at $1,642.90 an ounce, the lowest gold settlement price in more than eight weeks. Full Story
The economies of the developed world are sluggish, unemployment is a real menace and debts are out of control (Figure 1). Nonetheless, the world’s stock and commodity markets are defying all logic and advancing in the face of adverse economic conditions. Full Story
Macro-Trend Policies and Events (“Beta” for Investors) almost always dominate Alpha (the returns, but for Beta) that Investors might otherwise expect on any Individual Investment. Energy and Precious Metals Investors discovered this much to their dismay in the early 1980’s as Paul Volcker’s high interest rate policies began to seriously erode prices of these Assets. Full Story
The United States needs to figure out who its friends are and work with them to establish Security of Supply. The countries politicians, and its citizens, also need to figure out that true wealth, a growing economy and a strong country are built by resource extraction and manufacturing not a service based system pandering to the cries of non-government organizations (NGO). Full Story
My ears start to bleed when I hear someone who has staked a claim to the mantle of guruhood definitively state something - especially in the realm of technical analysis - as if they have used esoteric and mystical methods in service to divination of answers yet to come, and then put it out there as if it is anything more than an educated guess. Full Story
Stocks broke out of a two-day holding pattern yesterday morning and then stalled, presumably to wait for that mote of benign economic news that can be relied on to stir up some short-covering. There wasn’t enough news on the tape yesterday to stir up much of anything, even by Wall Street’s liberal standards. Just an item suggesting that manufacturing in the New York region had “unexpectedly” increased, and another item that had the U.S. and Britain thinking about tapping the ol’ strategic oil reserves to help “calm” energy markets. Full Story
The first session of this 112th Congress was spent with Democrats and Republicans at loggerheads over the debt ceiling, taxes, spending cuts, the deficit super committee, appropriations bills and finally the extension of unemployment compensation and a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut. Standard and Poor's downgrade of the United States' federal debt was due in part to all the haggling over how, and actually whether, to reduce the debt. Full Story
Mr. Mohammad received a B.Sc. (Mining Engineering) from the NWFP University of Engineering and Technology, in Peshawar, Pakistan in 1991. He has over 15 years experience in the mining and mineral exploration industry. Mr. Mohammad has worked for companies such as BHP, Miramar Mining, Hunter Dickenson Inc., Cumberland Resources Ltd., and several other Vancouver based junior exploration companies, and has worked on mining projects in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. He speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, Urdu and Pashto. He also currently serves as Director, President and CEO of Comstock Metals Ltd. (TSX.V:CSL). Full Story
The behaviour of gold stocks during this gold bull market is really not that different to the gold bull market of the 70s. It was not until almost the end of the bull market (in 1979) that the gold stocks really started to take-off. Those who think gold stocks will not rise during this bull market will be disappointed, and need to consider the evidence presented here. Full Story
One of the first books I recommend to those looking to broaden their market knowledge is “Devil Take The Hindmost, A History Of Financial Speculation” by Edward Chancellor. If you take nothing else away from this article except that title then I have achieved my goal. Do not let the overlong footnotes stifle your attempt to get through the material as once complete you should be able to draw the following conclusions... Full Story
By: Steve Saville, The Speculative Investor - 15 March, 2012
This week's downside breakout in the T-Bond futures market and the associated rise in the T-Bond yield has prompted us to re-visit the relationship between gold and interest rates. In the process of doing so we'll address the question: are rising interest rates bullish or bearish for gold? Full Story
A U.S. banking system that is being held aloft solely by hot air and brazen lies took an ebullient leap toward November 6 yesterday with the release of an Administration-friendly Fed report declaring most banks sufficiently capitalized to weather severe adversity. How severe? It’s hard to tell, since there were only passing references in the New York Times to a still-deflating housing market that has helped make The Great Recession and a plummeting standard of living an entrenched fact of life for most Americans. Full Story
We at Casey Research are often asked, "What books have had the biggest impact on your investing philosophy?" To find out, we took a quick, informal poll of our most prominent economists, editors, and analysts to see which books helped form their unique economic outlooks. The books range from mainstays of the political economy, such as Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions, to classics from antiquity, including Plato's The Republic. However, genres often overlooked – like our founder Doug Casey's longtime interest in science fiction – should give current and prospective subscribers a glimpse into the diverse influences that drive our publications. Full Story
THANKS TO HINDSIGHT, the bull market in gold which followed Richard Nixon unpegging the US Dollar, and therefore the rest of the world, from its last pretence of a Gold Standard sounds as inevitable today as Jimmy Page's solo in Stairway to Heaven, also a 1971 classic. Full Story
In September 2009, the gold price managed to overcome the $1,000 barrier and rose to $1,900 only 2 years later. Thereafter, the price consolidated beneath the violet triangle-leg, whereas a so-called „breakout“ occurred in early 2012 when the price rose above the violet resistance at approx. $1,700. Recently, a so-called „classical pullback“ started to test and confirm the violet trendline as new support in order for the so-called „thrust“ to commence. Full Story
Summing up, while it is not yet certain that the final bottom is in, it seems rather unimportant because gold’s price does not seem likely to decline much further and could actually move much higher very soon. The risk of being out of the market outweighs the risk of being in. Full Story
By: Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital - 14 March, 2012
The Federal Reserve ran another "stress test" on major financial institutions and has determined that 15 of the 19 tested are safe, even in the most extreme circumstances: an unemployment rate of 13%, a 50% decline in stock prices, and a further 21% decline in housing prices. The problem is that the most important factor that will determine these banks' long-term viability was purposefully overlooked - interest rates. Full Story
Don't be fooled by what happened in the equity markets yesterday - it was a well disguised and fully planned intervention! JP Morgan (the US Treasury's Bank) we suspect coordinated a global currency / bond effort PRIOR to the stock market explosion. As the world's largest participant in the $700 TRILLION unregulated,off balance sheet, off shore, off exchange SWAPS market, we believe JPM has the almost exclusive power to do this through un-policed trading techniques such as "netting". Full Story
By: Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster - 14 March, 2012
It isn’t over until it is over. Of course, we are referring to Europe and its version of 1984. We find it profound that the bankers, politicians and bureaucrats of Europe can do what they have done with a straight face. Investor had a haircut shoved down their throats and the ECB, the European Central Bank and the IMF were exempt. How does that work? That is because some are more equal than others. Full Story
The term "zombie banks" refers to banks that refuse to lend to the private sector. They are run by fearful bankers who do not trust other bankers. They do not trust many potential borrowers. According to legend, zombies survive by eating the brains of their victims. It seems to me that zombie bankers must be limiting their diet to brains of other bankers and investment fund managers. Full Story
Lost amid the hoopla after the Dow recently achieved a milestone in closing above the psychologically important 13,000 barrier is another, more significant benchmark. Gasoline prices hit a record seasonal high this week. The average price of gasoline across the country is now $3.74, the highest it’s ever been at this time of year. Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman and Mario Cavolo - 14 March, 2012
We recently asked our friend Mario Cavolo, a frequent contributor to the Rick’s Picks forum, what it’s like from a cost-of-living standpoint to live in Shanghai. A New York City expatriate who lives and works in Shanghai himself as an entrepreneur, author, TV and radio personality, he graciously obliged with the guest commentary below. The fictitious diary is that of a middle-manager, Mr. Wang, who, like many of us in the U.S., struggles to make ends meet. Full Story
By: Julian D. W. Phillips, Gold/Silver Forecaster - Global Watch - 13 March, 2012
The last few weeks have seen a larger consolidation pattern forming, pointing to a much bigger consolidating pattern that implies far more than just a short-term trading move just ahead of us. The forces that drive both supply and demand in the very short-term are just about in balance, so it is appropriate that we look at these forces to see how they influence gold prices in the short, medium, and long term. Full Story
I realized that many of the meetings at PDAC fit into one of two categories. In the first, the person on the other side of the table was a gray-haired fellow, usually a geologist or engineer who might have transitioned into management or might still be working directly with rocks. There are a lot of these guys in North America's resource sector, and most of them really know their stuff. Full Story
Years ago we were more entertained by our government’s actions because we were younger then and not threatened so much by their policy decisions. But now as we approach retirement age, we are becoming simply enraged and disgusted by the decisions made in Washington. Full Story
When we look at broad measures of jobs and population, then the beginning of 2012 was one of the worst months in US history, with a total of 2.3 million people losing jobs or leaving the workforce in a single month. Yet, the official unemployment rate showed a decline from 8.5% to 8.3% in January - and was such cheering news that it set off a stock rally. Full Story
By: John Browne, Senior Market Strategist at Euro Pacific Capital - 13 March, 2012
Last week the Greek government, with the heavy handed support of its larger friends in the Eurozone, succeeded in coercing some 85.8 percent of private sector bondholders to "voluntarily" exchange €206 billion-worth of Greek sovereign bonds for newer bonds with longer maturities, lower coupon rates, and a face value of 53.5 percent less than the original paper. The benignly termed "haircut" (more accurately described as a "scalping") is particularly painful for those buyers who were literally strong armed by their own governments into buying Greek bonds in the hopes of achieving regional financial stability. Full Story
Today is “FOMC day”. Every six weeks or so, the US central bank’s open market committee meets. They issue their views and policies for both the markets and the economy. The gold community should understand that most fundamentalists view the FOMC report as the single most important report that is issued about the major markets. Full Story
The underperformance of gold stocks was a hot topic at PDAC and continues to dominate discussion in industry circles. As to why the sector is underperforming, we hear numerous reasons. The conspiracy crowd will claim manipulation or hedge fund shorting. More well-reasoned thoughts include the struggle of large miners to adequately replace reserves and grow production and the continued issuance of shares. We believe one key reason is that the bull market is in the wall of worry phase and in this phase valuations compress as investors are nervous of among other things, another major correction. Full Story
By: Steve Saville, The Speculative Investor - 13 March, 2012
Just when we think that Bernanke has exhausted his ability to come up with harebrained schemes to distort prices, he proves us wrong. Last week it was reported that the Fed was considering a new way of putting downward pressure on long-term interest rates. Why? Because as everyone knows, the US economy would be doing much better if interest rates weren't so darn high. Full Story
By: Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer, GATA - 13 March, 2012
After the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Germany, maybe gold suspicion now has struck France, for the Banque de France has just granted a newspaper reporter, Le Figaro's Katia Clarens, a tour of its vast gold vault beneath the streets of Paris, where she discovered many bars of shiny yellow metal, some, perhaps, repatriated from the vault of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York almost a half century ago. (As all true Americans -- revolutionaries and anti-imperialists -- might say, just as was shouted in defiance by the denizens of Rick's Cafe Americain in December 1941: "Vive la France! Vive la democratie!") Full Story
By: Rick Ackerman and Larry Amernick - 13 March, 2012
Armed to the teeth with U.S. weapons, technology and training, Egypt’s military is the most formidable in the Middle East. This could become a major problem for the region, however, if the economic bog into which the country has been rapidly sinking triggers riots and political chaos. In the analysis below, Larry Amernick, savvy editor of The Amernick Letter, offers a fresh perspective as Egypt seeks to break with the West and forge a new, Islamic identity. Full Story
The average interest rate for a savings account today is 0.45%. It wasn't that long ago that one could easily earn 5% in a well-chosen savings account, like those offered by ING Direct, or bump that up by a point or two by putting money away in a CD. Thanks to the largesse of our Federal Reserve and the antics of bankers around the country and world, those days are over, probably for a very long time. Full Story
Wall Street and mainstream economists are abuzz that we’re seeing a recovery in the US due to the latest jobs data. These folks are not only missing the big picture, but they’re not even reading the fine print (more on this in a moment). The reality is that what’s happening in the US today is not a cyclical recession, but a one in 100 year, secular economic shift. Full Story
Gold is once again above $1,700 and eyeing its all-time high. Yet, the same two camps are saying the same things they have since the yellow metal was at $600: either this is a bubble, or it's headed much higher. While the gold bulls have clearly been right for over ten years, that doesn't mean they will always be right. There are many ways to determine whether gold will continue its historic climb. Full Story
Show Highlights: Headline news & the Market Weatherman Report. Spotlight Stock Picks. Host Chris Waltzek & Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster discussion and answer listener's questions. GUESTS: Jim Rogers, A Bull In China Gerald Celente, Trends Research Institute Full Story
Thanks to this similarity in events, as well as the similarity in sequence, I was able to identify the great possibility for significantly higher silver prices, back in October of 2010. This was a very clear signal that higher silver prices were coming, and that is exactly what we got, when silver moved to $49. However, this run is not over yet. Full Story
The headlines are about Greece, but the real story is not Greece but who is next. European leaders were right to be worried only a short while ago about contagion effects of a Greek default to the entire Euro system, which of course they now say doesn't exist. This week we look at Europe, and sort through the ever more fascinating implications of the news in today's headlines. Full Story
By: Bob Chapman, The International Forecaster - 11 March, 2012
The government is preparing to package and sell foreclosed homes. We do not know what discount to the current market there will be but you can guess it will be 20% or more. This event will cause home prices to trend lower dependent on whether the houses are put up for sale or rented. These homes will only be available to big buyers such as hedge funds and others with enormous amounts of capital. It is expected that the homes will be sold in lots of 5,000 to 10,000 and the minimum bid would be $1 billion. This is corporatist fascists busy at work. Full Story
By: CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer - 11 March, 2012
GATA can't vouch for the data published in the latest edition of Alan M. Newman's financial letter, Crosscurrents, which argues that financial manipulation has become the main pursuit of the United States economy, but he is far from alone in his observations. Commentary about this trend arose around 20 years ago, perhaps first in The New Republic magazine. And there is a well-established entry about it at Wikipedia, the Internet encyclopedia. Full Story
Wow, the commercial traders for this reporting period went NET long 8,797 contracts in silver and also went NET long 45,143 contracts in gold. This report covers last Wednesday through this past Tuesday. This report should fuel the conspiracy that there was manipulation on that smashdown last week, as the "informed money" covered their short positions like madmen, when the speculators were liquidated and sell stops triggered from their long positions. Full Story
To say it was an odd week would be about right. Gold and silver were hit hard and then recovered well but are forming bearish patterns. MF Global customers are being asked to waive their right to sue for partial compensation while at the same time top executives are trying to get bonus pay out of the bankruptcy judge! Full Story
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