Gold

May 14 2013 9:07 AM

The European Union will today meet to discuss and move forward the proposal to ‘bail-in’ depositors with savings of over €100,000 as part of future bank wind-downs. It now looks likely that the EU is going to take unprecedented steps to sequester monies from its citizens in the event of future bank failures.

May 13 2013 3:34 PM

While Gold has seen a decent rebound, Silver and the mining shares (the more speculative side of the complex) have failed to sustain any rebound despite tremendously supportive sentiment amid an extreme oversold condition. Is the failure to rebound bearish? Not really. This is a sector that is completely sold out but there are yet to be enough buyers to generate a sustained rebound. The combination of strength in conventional asset classes (stocks and bonds) and poor performance over the past two years is causing this sector to read like the heart rate monitor of a heart patient. The sellers are gone and the buyers are scant. We believe the bottom is in and a rebound should begin very soon. However, we are more concerned with what will be the driving force for a sustainable rebound which will evolve into a new cyclical bull market.

May 13 2013 8:53 AM

Driving the sentiment was the report that U.S. jobless benefits decreased to their lowest rate since 2007. Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser forecasted that day unemployment will drop to 7% by December 2013 and he favours reducing the Fed’s $85 billion monthly bond purchases next month. Plosser however has no vote on Fed policy this year.

May 10 2013 8:52 AM

As the global economic slump continues central bankers, such as Mario Draghi, and politicians have vowed “to do whatever it takes” to get economies back on track. Such policies while having near term benefits are considered extremely risky in the longer run by many commentators as they could beckon runaway inflation or stagflation, with ruinous results.

May 09 2013 8:57 AM

I overheard a conversation in the gym last night wherein the comment was made, “The Dow is up from a low of 6500 because of administration policies.” The comment was made in reference to the Dow breaking 15,000, in the context of a recovering economy and in support of the administration. I refrained from making any comment of my own and to instead vent here where readers have the same right to discard my opinion and stop reading just as I stopped listening.

May 08 2013 9:14 AM

Gold rose $17.90 or 1.22% yesterday to $1,452.00/oz and silver finished down 0.29%.

May 03 2013 9:00 AM

On April 10, Goldman Sachs came out with a recommendation to short gold. On April 23, Goldman closed the recommendation. What kind of financial advice is good for just 9 business days? Truth be told, the recommendation contributed to a rapid decline in the gold price. A decline promptly met by record demand for physical gold. OOOPS!

May 02 2013 10:10 AM

The most puzzling part of the investment business is seeing how the vast and largely economically illiterate masses interpret any given piece of news. Take the recent gold selloff: many large players were motivated to sell by news that Cyprus will have to liquidate its gold stockpiles to pay off acute debt obligations. But just a moment's reflection shows this reaction to be knee-jerk.

May 02 2013 8:14 AM

Rescuers are reportedly using traditional tools to try to reach victims, but they're unsure whether there are more people trapped.