INFLATION

Thursday's London Silver Fix set the white metal's price at $32.50 per ounce, nearly $7 lower than a day earlier and 33% below the 31-year high of $48.70 set on April 28. [Silver] is still in an uptrend, despite the sharp sell-off reckons Mary Ann Bartels, head of US technical and market analysis at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, who said yesterday silver could hit $50 per ounce by the end of the year.

China lifted bank reserve requirements by 50 basis points on Thursday, signaling that containing inflation and soaking up excess cash remained its top priority even after signs the economy was slowing down.

Growth in eastern Europe should accelerate only slightly this year as domestic demand recovers, but trouble in the euro zone periphery, wide budget deficits and inflation pressures still pose risks, the IMF said on Thursday.

Gold rallied to one-week highs at $1526 per ounce in Wednesday morning trade - a gain of 4.3% from last Friday's low - before falling back as world stock markets also cut their rally. Silver has now regained a third of its losses since falling over 30% from a 31-year peak of $48.70 at the end of April.

Asian shares firmed on Wednesday as rising global commodity prices boosted energy and resource stocks, while investors largely shrugged off data from China suggesting growth there is starting to slow.

China's inflation eased a touch to 5.3 percent in the year to April from a 32-month high of 5.4 percent in March but was still higher than expected, keeping the door open for more tightening steps.

Influential investment veteran Jim Rogers said on Tuesday he plans to short U.S. Treasuries, maybe as soon as later in the day, as he expects the end of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program to pressure government bonds.

If you can help it, don’t buy US Treasuries. The main reason is that you’ll lose real value by doing so.

The cost of imported products in the United States rose for a seventh straight month in April thanks to a weaker dollar, and more owners of small businesses raised prices, in potentially worrying signs of inflation.

Investors around the world, more so the Chinese, are buying up gold assets to cover against rising inflation risk, macroeconomic uncertainties, a possible currency doom and the ever worsening U.S. debt scenario. The gargantuan demand from China can cause the yellow metal's prices to skyrocket, analysts feel. If the Chinese buying trend is ably supplemented with a fall in the value of dollar, this could result in a skyrocketing of prices.

Jens Nordvig and his team at Nomura International Securities have shorted EUR/SEK in their model portfolio.

Two Federal Reserve officials on Friday stressed there will be no rush to roll back the U.S. central bank's super-easy monetary policy with the labor market still healing and inflation expectations largely in check.

A top Federal Reserve official called on Thursday for a small interest rate increase by the end of the year if inflation rises as forecast, in one of the first outright calls from a policymaker to tighten monetary policy.

U.S. retailers warned of rising costs and cautious consumers even as a late Easter boosted sales of clothing and other holiday-related items in April, helping many beat sales expectations.

Commodity prices fell once again, and Silver Bullion sank for the fourth day in succession, losing 22.5% against the Dollar since Thursday last week - the sharpest plunge since April 1987.

Silver nursed losses on Thursday after suffering its biggest three-day drop in five years on heavy profit taking while the euro consolidated gains against the dollar before the European Central Bank meeting where it is expected to reinforce its hawkish outlook.

Inflation remains well under control, despite the spike in oil prices, but the Federal Reserve stands ready to raise interest rates if price pressures appear to be getting out of hand, top Fed officials said on Wednesday.

The United States is not heading into a sustained bout of high inflation, a top Federal Reserve Bank official said on Wednesday, despite a recent surge in energy and food prices that is sparking fears of 1970s-style price rises.

China's inflation rate has reached a point where it is sparking social unrest, the American enterprise Institute's (AEI) latest outlook report has noted. Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's recent comment that inflation is a tiger that once set free is very difficult to put back in its cage[1] aptly characterizes the current inflation in his country. The world's second-largest economy faces some fundamental choices if it is to restore stability, says the report, which was au...

China's roaring economy will slow a touch this year, with inflation staying stubbornly above the government's 4 percent target, arguing for monetary policy to tighten further, a Reuters poll showed.

Gold prices hit new all-time Dollar highs at the AM London Fix on Tuesday, but silver traded near a two-week low as world stock markets slipped and commodity prices fell hard.