Is the Federal Reserve Bank a privately owned company that controls, and whose shareholders profit immensely, by printing money through the US Treasury and regulating its value? I’ll leave that for you to decide, but there is no doubt that the Fed is, first and foremost, looking out for the special interests of its shareholders, the banks, insurance companies, and securities firms. Full Story
FIVE YEARS into the global financial crisis so far, and where did zero rates and $5 trillion of money creation get us? To the end of the pier, it seems. Full Story
Since the dramatic drops the silver market saw in May and September of last year, prices in the precious metals market have been suffering from an excess of negative sentiment. This adverse perception is weighing on metal prices and keeping investor demand at bay. Full Story
Ever since the beginning of gold’s bull market, this metal’s economic balance has come under intense scrutiny. Demand has been on the rise as more and more investors have embraced gold as a store of wealth. And the supply chain has done its best to meet this growing demand. Full Story
There has been a range of intelligent analytical opinions recently espoused, seeking to explain the action in the gold price this last six months. Whilst we have found articulations focused on consolidation most conducive, quality analysis has not just been found this side of the debate. Full Story
Since late February, 2012, The Cartel* has ground Gold and Silver Bullion and the Mining Shares Prices Down. This is especially frustrating for those invested in Mining Shares, because they have been Technically “Due” for a Powerful Breakout for weeks. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Nana Sangmuah - 27 April, 2012
Last year, Africa was the region that witnessed the strongest growth in gold-mining operations. In an exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Nana Sangmuah, managing director of research with Toronto-based Clarus Securities, expects that trend to continue. Full Story
Lately, gold has been a disappointment to many investors while it has been mostly treading water. Gold has traded well beneath its all-time high of $1,924 an ounce on September 6th and well above its subsequent low near $1,520 which took place in late December. Many anticipated higher prices this year, but the year isn’t over yet, and neither is gold's long-term spectacular, secular bull market. Full Story
While the precious metals sector has consolidated and struggled to find a bottom, an important development has taken place. First, lets harken back to 2007-2008. Large cap mining stocks peaked in March 2008, yet the speculative sides of the sector “gave out” far earlier. Full Story
It’s amazing sometimes how much difference a year can make on investor psychology. For most of last year investors worried incessantly about a potential “double dip” U.S. recession and the possibility of another worldwide credit crisis beginning in Europe. Full Story
With the world in the throes of an unprecedented credit blowout, gold’s failure to crack $2000 barrier can sometimes seem mystifying – the moreso as the correction begun in 2011 stretches on, now into an eighth month. Gold has acted more like wheat or corn than like money. Shouldn’t it reflect the fact that dollars, euros and yen are available to an insatiable group of borrowers, mainly large banks, at no cost and in practically unlimited quantities? Indeed. Full Story
Between 1970 and 1979, the silver price was increasing steadily from $1.50 to $6, before taking off in September 1979 from $10 to $50 within 5 months. During that bull cycle, demand for silver did not increase but actually declined (sharply in 1979). It was as late as 1983 when demand increased confidently from 12,000 to 27,000 tons per year until 2000 – yet the silver price was in a 20 year bear market during that time. Full Story
An underwater earthquake has occurred in Spain and is quite possibly occurring now in Italy. Killer waves are now headed directly at the central banks and financial systems throughout the developed world and at Europe in Particular. How long until they hit and do the financial equivalent of Japan’s recent tsunami? Socialist bureaucrats and progressives on both sides of the Atlantic are locked in death struggles with Mother Nature. THEY WILL LOSE. Full Story
PRELIMINARY data released this week show that Britain has fallen back into recession. UK GDP shrank for the second consecutive quarter in the first three months of the year, meaning Britain's first "double-dip" recession since that 1970s. Full Story
Is the worst over for silver? From a technical standpoint, both the Comex futures and Silver Wheaton shares have done exactly what we might have expected of them if they were carving out a durable bottom. On Monday, the mining stock came with a single penny of a 27.97 correction target where we’d told subscribers to get long using an 8-cent stop-loss. Then, yesterday morning, May Silver futures trampolined from a low that lay just 1.5 cents from a correction target also identified using Hidden Pivot analysis. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Matt Badiali - 26 April, 2012
Ongoing inflation pressures and China's investments in the African gold supply chain point to a higher gold price according to Matt Badiali of Stansberry & Associates. In this exclusive Gold Report interview, Badiali says bullion in all its forms belongs in every portfolio and when it comes to equities, investors have their choice of business models—dividend payers, prospect generators and royalty companies. Full Story
Legendary gold trade Jim Sinclair is seriously suggesting that gold could spike to $3,000 in a short squeeze because of the Chinese decision to pay for oil in gold bullion. Basically there will be a sudden demand for physical gold that cannot be met and short sellers will be forced to cover and buy gold at higher prices. Full Story
There's a major shift under way, one the US mainstream media has left largely untouched even though it will send the United States into an economic maelstrom and dramatically reduce the country's importance in the world: the demise of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency. Full Story
The so-called Global Financial Crisis is a term so widely used that it has earned its own acronym of GFC. When first seen, it seemed like girl friend club or some such, since many friends use GF loosely to refer to sweethearts. The GFC is falsely named, since it is more accurately described as a global monetary war with the USGovt vigorously defending its franchise in the USDollar for crude oil and trade settlement, and for bank reserves management. Full Story
Summing up, the long-term picture in the USD market continues to appear a bit more bearish than not and the implications for the precious metals are generally positive. The silver-to-gold ratio chart suggests that silver is likely to outperform gold in the months to come, yet it should be kept in mind that this may require some time to happen. Additional short-term volatility has been seen in the platinum market, but this is not unusual. Full Story
Gold and silver mining stocks have sold off by roughly 30% from their 52-week highs based on the PHLX Gold/Silver Sector Index (XAU) and by roughly 32% based on the Amex Gold Bugs Index (HUI). In comparison, gold is down approximately 14% from its nominal all time high in 2011 while silver is down approximately 37%. Full Story
Zero interest rates certainly limits what the elitists can do in that end of the market. It is becoming more and more evident that the Fed is not making the final decisions, they are being made by JPM and Goldman Sachs, as we touched on negative rates not all that long ago. The Fed was forced into the market. We fear that negative rates are on the way unless the Fed wants to buy all the Treasury issuance, not just 61%, which they admit too. This really would force all bonds higher and yields lower. Of course, there is always the possibility of the issue of floating rate bonds. Those bonds would tend to give higher yields overall. Full Story
The Federal Reserve is now under assault. It is not a direct assault on the government. It is more like guerrilla warfare. The Federal Reserve is the target of snipers who are well informed about economic theory and policy. It is also the target of snipers who are not well informed, but who are really angry at the state of the economy. The Federal Reserve likes to promote itself as being the center of economic policy-making, so it takes the blame for this economy. Full Story
I think the Fed announcement will probably break gold out of this holding pattern. But contrary to popular belief, about 70% of the time the initial move out of a coil ends up being a false move that is reversed by a more powerful and durable move in the opposite direction. In this case if gold breaks lower out of the coil it is late enough in the intermediate cycle that the move is unlikely to last more than a few days before forming what would presumably be an intermediate cycle and B-Wave bottom. Full Story
Here on FOMC day I thought it would be appropriate since the Fed has the power to kick it into gear by pretending to be the guardians of sound financial policy for just one more meeting. This could eventually drop markets to technical levels where the plan is activated for both my 'bottom feeder' preferred gold stock sector and for the broad markets. Full Story
The Dollar Index has been zapped to its High Volume node on both the 30 minute chart and the Daily chart. This futures contract has potential for Vertical Development. This triangle is ripe in my opinion. An igniter move lower on a surge in volume may send the longs trapped in the recent Open Interest rushing to the exits which can intensify the price action to the downside if the longs are weak hands using leverage. The strong handed commercials have been consistently on the short side of the contract when viewing the latest COT reports. Full Story
An amusing coincidence: I was posting to the Rick’s Picks forum a moment ago about how exchange trading has come to resemble a sleazy carnival operation, and lo, the E-Mini S&Ps have shot up six points in mere seconds. This was an after-hours move – the best time to stage these heists, since there is little legitimate buying or selling to get in the way of the perpetrators. Full Story
Gold climbed up to $1649.07 by a little after 10AM EST before it fell back off into the close, but it still ended with a gain of 0.18%. Silver rose to as high as $31.127 before it also fell back off midday and ended with a loss of 0.13%. Full Story
The always-outspoken Doug Casey addresses a broader view of taxation and its costs to both individuals and society in general in this interview with Louis James. L: Doug, the Taxman cometh, at least for most US citizens who file their annual tax papers on April 15. We get a lot of letters from readers who know about your international lifestyle and wonder about the tax advantages they assume it confers. Is this something you care to talk about? Full Story
In 2011, according to the B.I.S.’s annual report, Central banks have pulled 635 tonnes of gold from the Bank for International Settlements in the past year, the largest withdrawal in more than a decade. The move, disclosed in the BIS annual report, marks a sharp reversal from last year when central banks added similar amounts to deposits of gold at the so-called “Bank for Central Banks”. Why? First let’s look at what Swaps are. Full Story
As long time readers know, a central theme to my analysis regarding Europe is that politics, not economics, rule Europe. What I mean by this is that most major decisions in Europe are determined by political agendas that ignore economic and financial realities. This is at the core of the “welfare state” mentality that permeates Europe as a whole. The EU in general is comprised of an aging population that is more concerned about receiving the pensions/ health benefits/ social payouts that were promised to them by the system than anything else. Full Story
If you analyze the market, you are usually trying to identify the next market trend, so that investors can place buy or sell orders. The reason for placing these orders is to book a profit or a loss. When it comes to the gold market, I’m not sure that analysis is the best tool to maximize profits and emotional stability in this super-crisis. In a super-crisis, destruction is a major theme. Full Story
Let’s start with the obvious, just because a certain ratio has existed for 28 years, that doesn’t mean that it has magical predictive powers, or that it cannot get even more stretched. However, these ratios do tend to be useful indicators over time and 28 years is a lot of predictive history. There are two ways that this ratio can get resolved in the next few months; either gold mining shares increase in price or the price of gold declines dramatically. With all the macro-economic issues in the world about to erupt again, I seriously doubt that gold drops substantially. Full Story
We addressed the above question last year and arrived at the answer: no, gold left bargain territory long ago. We remain bullish on gold not because we think gold is still cheap, but because we expect it to get a lot more expensive. Full Story
In late 2008, when silver was massacred in the futures pit and saw its price fall from over $20 to under $10, I told my readers at that time that silver entered into a “reverse bubble”. I know it sounds odd, but let me re-visit the concept. Full Story
Without intending it, Rick’s Picks may have become an oasis for gold and silver bulls who are at the point of despair over the mining sector’s relentless, and presumably unjust, plunge. We have good news for you: Using technical tools to tweak your timing and risk management, it’s possible to buy “crap” stocks all the way down without getting hurt if you’re early. Full Story
"Monetary policy can be a powerful tool, but it is not a panacea for the problems currently faced by the US economy," confessed US Fed chairman Ben Bernanke last October. "There's a limit to what monetary policy can hope to achieve," agreed the Bank of England's Mervyn King the following month. "Monetary policy cannot do everything," sighed the ECB's Mario Draghi, speaking to the Financial Times in December. Full Story
After a reasonably long period of sustained and occasionally dramatic escalations, commodity markets in general, and precious metals markets in particular, have declined. This is normal and healthy behavior, even if it is uncomfortable for some market participants. Readers with a long memory will remember the 1970s gold bull market, where the gold price advanced from $35 to $850 per ounce – though in 1975, in the middle of that epic bull market, the gold price declined by 50%. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and Barry Allan - 23 April, 2012
Barry Allan, vice chairman of Mackie Research Capital Corp.'s mining group, is guarded about gold equities from March to May, statistically the weakest period. However, Allan remains bullish on gold stocks through the end of the year and has Buy recommendations on more than 70% of his coverage universe. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Allan points to where he's finding value during this period of seasonal weakness. Full Story
By: The Gold Report and John LaForge - 23 April, 2012
Many forces influence the gold markets today, sometimes producing confusing indicators of what may lie ahead. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, John LaForge, commodity strategist at Ned Davis Research Inc., talks about the numerous and sometimes not-so-obvious factors that he considers in his research and how they influence the gold markets and, ultimately, mining shares. As long as there is no significant improvement in the world monetary situation and real interest rates don't rise dramatically, he believes the gold price trend remains positive and gold stocks should shine brighter. Full Story
Gold and Silver have been correcting multi-year advances. In this article we illustrate what ultimately develops as these corrections progress into consolidations. Namely, volatility declines, general interest in the market evaporates and this produces sentiment that is conducive for an important bottom. Because these are long-lasting, sustained corrections, the bottoms take time to develop. There are many fits and starts and as a result, most bottoms are not obvious until months after the fact. We provide some charts to help understand what is currently taking place and what we can expect going forward. Full Story
Is a top of some significance forming in gold, or is a consolidation pattern completing that will lead to a major new uptrend soon? That is the big conundrum facing investors and speculators in the sector and in this update it will become apparent that the situation must resolve itself with a decisive move soon, one way or the other. Full Story
The MSCI Emerging Markets and the S&P 500 indices have increased double digits since the beginning of the year. Investors should be thrilled, but instead of cheers, the only sounds the markets are hearing are crickets. Many have been asking, where are the investors? Full Story
Silver has formed a "Descending Triangle" on the daily chart. A descending triangle shows decreasing demand and an increase in supply with each rally off of a fixed level of horizontal support. When the demand at that level has been depleted, the floor underneath can collapse with new supply (those who were long in the current open interest throwing in the towel) and old supply (the previous sellers piling it on to make it hurt good). Full Story
In part, this means getting your money out of Wall Street and putting it into something local that you understand and believe in. This is as powerful an idea as I can imagine for those who have been searching for a way to end-run the corrupt and terminally dysfunctional financial system and Big Government that hold sway over our lives. 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: Eric Sprott, Sprott Asset Management LP Bill Murphy, GATA.org Chairman Full Story
There is going to come a day when the defaults begin, and people who have turned their money over to the government will rue the day they ever trusted the government. The politicians know that bond investors have short memories, and that they will come right back with their money to do it again. We have learned that repeatedly over the past 400 years. Investors in Latin American bonds have learned this every generation for over two centuries. Slow learners wind up big losers. Full Story
If you look at the graph below you can clearly see the mini-spike in silver prices last April and the sideways consolidation since then. There was no true spike in prices because there has been no subsequent collapse. Indeed, the silver price has been well supported in the $30-35 an ounce range. Full Story
For a company whose corporate motto is "Don't Be Evil," Google Inc. certainly has found itself at the receiving end of its share of lawsuits, claims and controversies. Still, even by Google's standards this past week has been a difficult one. Full Story
Bull's Eye Investing was the book that really helped establish this letter. It dealt with a host of investing ideas, secular market cycles, value investing, alternative investing, and more. It is still in print some nine years later and has had a very positive response. Today I can share that I have taken that material, updated it, and written a new book, part of the Little Book series done by Wiley, called The Little Book of Bull's Eye Investing – Finding Value, Generating Absolute Returns, and Controlling Risk in Turbulent Markets. Full Story
The content on this site is protected
by U.S. and international copyright laws and is the property of GoldSeek.com
and/or the providers of the content under license. By "content" we mean any
information, mode of expression, or other materials and services found on GoldSeek.com.
This includes editorials, news, our writings, graphics, and any and all other
features found on the site. Please contact
us for any further information.
Live GoldSeek Visitor Map | Disclaimer
The views contained here may not represent the views of GoldSeek.com, Gold Seek LLC, its affiliates or advertisers. GoldSeek.com, Gold Seek LLC makes no representation, warranty or guarantee as to the accuracy
or completeness of the information (including news, editorials, prices, statistics,
analyses and the like) provided through its service. Any copying, reproduction
and/or redistribution of any of the documents, data, content or materials contained
on or within this website, without the express written consent of GoldSeek.com, Gold Seek LLC,
is strictly prohibited. In no event shall GoldSeek.com, Gold Seek LLC or its affiliates be
liable to any person for any decision made or action taken in reliance upon
the information provided herein.
