Silver Market Morning

Gold Today – The gold closed in New York on Friday at $1,612.60 the same as yesterday. In Asia and London it slipped $5 until it Fixed at $1,608.75 and in the euro at €1,246.417, while the euro was $1.2907. Ahead of New York’s opening, gold was $1,608.85 and in the euro at €1,245.81.

Silver Today – Silver closed at $28.88 in New York, the same as yesterday. Ahead of New York’s opening silver stood at $28.95.

Gold _{(very short-term)}

Gold is expected to continue to consolidate, in New York today.

Silver _{(very short-term)}

Silver is expected to continue to consolidate, in New York today.

Price Drivers

Gold & Silver – The E.C.B. is going to cut of emergency funding to Cyprus if no agreement has been reached by Monday. What next?

At Gold Forecaster we had expected Capital Controls to be imposed in earlier parts of the ongoing banking crises in the E.U. There was a case to be made for Greece going that route and certainly if Italy’s crisis worsens, one to be made for Italy to go that route. The trouble is that the use of the common currency makes it difficult to control the national financial system there. The euro is a euro no matter where it is in the E.U. so effective Capital Controls requires a separate currency. To have a “Financial Euro” [for Capital transactions] and a “Commercial Euro” [for purely trade transactions] would be very difficult to control and would impose a shock to the value of investments currently in Cyprus. But already Cyprus has died as a “safe-haven” so just holding onto what they have now would be the objective. Will Cyprus leave the euro now? The current control of freezing the banking system has to end soon, as it is imposing huge damage to the functioning of the Cypriot economy. Even the short delay in resolving the Cyprus crisis is undermining confidence in not just the euro but in currencies in general. The ramifications of monetary power used in this way are forcing analysts to re-examine the criteria applied to national currency investments. Take a broad spectrum look at the crises facing the world of currencies as we see how confidence in the system has seeped away since 2007. The future does not look much better. Now impose on that the arrival of the Chinese Yuan on this world and you can see the potential for considerably more damage to confidence in time. Against this backdrop, even in nations where their economies are improving, investors may well decide that this is no time to sell gold and silver. [Subscribe to our newsletters at www.GoldForecaster.com and www.SilverForecaster.com]

Silver – Silver continues to mark time as gold now consolidates above $1,600. Both today and tomorrow may well see news that changes this calm.

Regards,

Julian D.W. Phillips for the Gold & Silver Forecasters