Silver Market Morning

Gold Today –New York closed at $1,235.70 down $34.50. In Asia, gold rose but only slightly ahead of London’s opening. At the Fix gold was set at $1,242.25 down $21.75 and in the euro, at €1,096.184 down €7.457, while the euro was a cent weaker at $1.1332. Ahead of New York’s opening gold was trading in London at $1,242.00 and in the euro at €1,098.24.

Silver Today – The silver price closed at $16.75 down 55 cents. Ahead of New York’s opening it was trading at $17.05.

Gold _{(very short-term)} The gold price will consolidate with a positive bias, today in New York.

Silver _{(very short-term)} The silver price will consolidate with a positive bias, in New York today.

Price Drivers

There were no purchases or sales from or into the SPDR gold ETF or the Gold Trust on Friday. The holdings of the SPDR gold ETF are at 773.305 and at 167.75 tonnes in the Gold Trust. The lack of sales and purchases from or into the U.S. based gold ETFs was against a backdrop of rapidly falling prices. There were no stop losses being triggered during this fall, indicating that recent purchases were made by institutions buying for the long term.

The Greek government continues to be committed to its cause of re-scheduling its debt by announcing over the weekend that it is seeking a ‘bridging loan’ to allow it time to June to negotiate with the E.U. over this. Their diplomacy continues to exhibit an eloquent respect for the E.U., who seems to be unwilling to budge. The next deadline is Wednesday, when the Greek Finance Minister faces the 18 Finance Ministers of the E.U. and then Thursday when all E.U. leaders will meet and undoubtedly respond to the Greek request for a bridging loan. Such a respectful approach belies the intensity of Greece’s commitment, highlighted when the Prime Minister, Tsipras came close to tears at one point during his speech Sunday in Athens said he would ask for World War II reparations from Germany and the repayment of forced loans Greece made to the Nazi regime during the country’s occupation. At the end of the month with Greece’s public debt standing at more than €320 billion ($362 billion), or about 175% of gross domestic product when it sees its loan program come to an end. This will place it in default [bankrupt] if it fails to get a bridging loan. Such a proposal is opposed by Germany and Austria and Portugal so far. The ingredients of these positions point to a major confrontation this week. If the positions remain intransigent, we fully expect the exit of Greece to be placed on the table, either from the euro or E.U. or both.

The current fall of the euro points in that direction. If we are right, expect to see the euro to fall some way still, but without pulling down the gold and silver prices as the structure of the Eurozone is threatened. As we said before, if Greece leaves the euro, it will strengthen. So also expect volatility in precious metal markets.[Subscribe to www.GoldForecaster.com & www.SilverForecaster.com].

Silver– The silver price ran for cover but still waits for gold to lead the way. www.SilverForecaster.com

Regards,

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