Silver Market Morning

Gold Today – The gold price closed at $1,306.40 up $18.30 in New York. In Asia and early London, prices held those levels as the euro held around $1.3377. The gold price was Fixed at $1,302.00 up $13.50 and in the euro at €973.531 up €9.265, while the euro was at $1.3374 reflecting a slightly stronger euro. Ahead of New York’s opening, gold was trading at $1,307.50 and in the euro at €977.20 pointing to a stronger gold price in New York.

Silver Today – The silver price closed in New York at $20.04 up 23 cents. Ahead of New York’s opening it was trading at $20.07.

Gold _{(very short-term)} We expect gold to continue to consolidate, in New York today.

Silver _{(very short-term)} We expect silver to continue to consolidate, in New York today.

Price Drivers

There were sales of 2.394 tonnes of gold from the SPDR gold ETF but none from the Gold Trust on Wednesday. The holdings of the gold ETFs stand at 797.654 tonnes in the SPDR gold ETF and at 165.93 tonnes, in the Gold Trust. The jump in the gold price was swift and solid in the face of small selling from the SPDR gold ETF. We attribute this to physical short covering that had backed the huge notional ‘bear-raids’ of the last three weeks on COMEX as the gold price brushed aside the 100 and 50-day moving averages and settled above $1,300 once more.

As the ‘still waters’ of relatively quiet global markets present a calm picture globally, world events in financial markets ‘run deep’. What is perhaps the most significant of these events is the recent use of economic and financial power as a political weapon. History shows this will impact the gold and silver prices and for good reason. Russia has just imposed food sanctions on the E.U. 10% of whose exports are food to Russia [total market value €43 billion]. With Russia now expected to invade eastern Ukraine before the end of the year we expect more sanctions of a more serious nature to come from both sides. . [Subscribe www.GoldForecaster.com – ensure your gold will not be confiscated and you not penalized -see www.Stockbridgemgmt.com ]. This is gold positive!

Today sees the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the E.C.B. hold their monthly meetings. With the Eurozone economy slipping badly [and Germany’s manufacturing index is falling heavily too] for Draghi to continue to wait for past policies to feed through may be the straw that broke the camel’s back and allow the deterioration of the E.U. economy to gain momentum and force much more significant actions on the E.C.B. later.

Central banks were meant only to allow ‘breathing space’ through monetary policy for economies, not to replace government action on stimulating the economies. E.U. governments(s) failure to act strongly seems set to bring the Eurozone back into crisis. Italy is again in recession, who next? We wait with baited breath to see what Draghi will do next. The worst he can do is nothing! This will be positive for gold and silver.

Silver– The silver price may experience a ‘shunt effect’ if gold continues to rise. Or was part of its fall this week due to U.S. investor caution in the face of the equity market’s fall? [www.SilverForecaster.com]

Regards,

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