rises faster than interest rates. Gold is going to be king in the Market in the few coming days ...you have been warned ..those who do not buy gold now will find themselves broke when hyper inflation as propheciesed by top notch investors such as Marc Faber or Jim Rogers you will have only yourselves to blame if you keep your assets in US dollars or US treasury BondsNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Gold prices charged higher Thursday, with another run at $1,000 an ounce looking increasingly likely, as the dollar remains weak and concerns about inflation boost demand for the metal.
Gold for August delivery rose $16.70 to settle at $982.30 an ounce after hitting an intra day high of $992.10 an ounce earlier this week.
The metal is up 11% from its mid April low of $869.50 an ounce as the U.S. dollar has tumbled against rival currencies. Gold and other commodities that are priced in dollars often gain ground when the greenback weakens.
The recent run up has raised bets that gold could top $1,000 an ounce for the third time ever. Gold rose to an all-time settlement high of $1,003.20 an ounce last year. It made another big push early this year, closing at $1001.80 an ounce Feb. 20.
In both cases, jittery investors flocked to the metal to preserve capital as the financial markets erupted in volatility.
By Halia Pavliva
June 4 (Bloomberg) -- Gold prices rose on speculation that the slumping dollar will spur inflation, boosting the appeal of precious metals as a hedge. Platinum surged more than $55 an ounce to the highest since September. 
In May, the dollar fell 6.4 percent against a basket of major currencies, the biggest drop in 24 years. The greenback resumed its decline today, sending commodities higher. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials rose as much as 2.1 percent.
“Gold is rising on demand for a safe harbor,” said Philip Gotthelf, the president of Equidex Brokerage Group in Closter, New Jersey. “We still have considerable uncertainty about the dollar.”
Gold futures for August delivery rose $16.70, or 1.7 percent, to $982.30 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday, the price reached $992.10, the highest for a most-active contract since Feb. 24.
Platinum futures for July delivery jumped $48.80, or 3.9 percent, to $1,293.30 an ounce on the Nymex. Earlier, the price reached $1,301.90, the highest since Sept. 9.
Platinum climbed for the seventh straight session, the longest rally since January. Holdings in ETF Securities Ltd.’s exchange-traded fund backed by the metal have jumped 74 percent this year.
Silver futures for July delivery gained 58.5 cents, or 3.8 percent, to $15.895 an ounce on the Comex.
This year, silver has jumped 41 percent, platinum is up 37 percent and gold has gained 11 percent.
‘Fears of Inflation’
August gold rose $4.40 to $984.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. July silver rose 22 cents to $15.955 and peaked at $16.02, its strongest level since August.
“Overnight, you had some profit-taking across the board in commodities,” said Bob Haberkorn, Lind-Waldock senior market strategist. “People were anticipating dollar strength on [Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner’s comments in China.
THE PRICE OF WHOLESALE GOLD bounced in London on Tuesday morning, reaching $983 an ounce for Dollar investors and recovering from near 5-week lows versus the British Pound.
The Gold Price in Euros held steady at €689 as the single currency also leapt, jumping to new 2009 highs against the Dollar above $1.4270.
"Upside for gold could be limited today," reckons Walter de Wet at Standard Bank in a note. "There were fairly large volumes of physical gold selling [on Monday] when the price moved above $980."
But with US Treasury bond prices down more than 5% for the year to date, and "while higher yields increase the cost of holding gold in the longer run," de Wet adds, "right now it signals reduced investment appetite for exposure to the US and a weaker Dollar."
"Don't be complacent and think there isn't any alternative for China to buy your bills and bonds," warned former central-bank advisor Yu Yongding - scheduled to meet US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner in Beijing today - in an interview on Monday.
"The Euro is an alternative. And there are lots of raw materials we can still buy."
According to data from Bloomberg , foreign investment in US Treasury debt rose nearly $69 billion in May, with strong foreign demand for last week's auction of $101bn in new bonds.
The Federal Reserve will continue its $300bn "quantitative easing" of longer-term interest rates by purchasing 10- and 2-year bonds in the open market tomorrow and Thursday.
"Most of the ongoing rally in the precious metal is more driven by a stark weakness in the US Dollar than the risk averse buying we saw last winter," agrees Andrey Kryuchenkov at VTB Capital in London, quoted by The Telegraph.
By Jae Hur
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Gold climbed to the highest in more than three months as a slumping dollar increased demand for the precious metal as a store of value. Silver gained to the highest since August.
Precious metals advanced as the dollar dropped to the lowest since Dec. 18 against a basket of six major currencies, after posting its biggest monthly loss this year in May. Silver rose 27 percent in May, the most since April 1987, and gold added 10 percent, the most since November.
“The dollar’s weakness continued to lend support to commodities, including precious metals and crude oil,” said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at IDO Securities Co. in Tokyo.
Gold for immediate delivery added as much as 0.7 percent to $985.70 an ounce, the highest since Feb. 24, and was at $983.51 at 1:57 p.m. in Singapore. Silver for immediate delivery climbed as much as 1.3 percent to $15.95 an ounce, the highest since Aug. 8, before trading at $15.865.
Spot silver has jumped 39 percent this year, while gold has gained 12 percent. One ounce of gold now buys about 62.1 ounces of silver, the lowest this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. This is down from a high of 84.39 in October, which was the most since March 1995.
“Both precious metals appeared to have been overbought,” Kikukawa said. Silver’s 14-day relative strength index, a gauge of momentum, rose above 70 on May 28, a signal some investors use to indicate prices may be about to decline. The index for gold climbed above 70 on May 29.
Record High
“Given the re-emergence of the typical inverse relationship between the dollar and gold, the likelihood of further weakness in the dollar should drive gold to a test of its 2008 record highs,” said Toby Hassall, an analyst at Commodity Warrants Australia Pty in Sydney.
Spot gold reached a record $1,032.70 on March 17, 2008.
contradictory forces currently driving the price of silver. The first one is the safe heaven buying by those who think silver coins and bars will become real money, and please, you can call them what you want - I affectionately call them silver bugs, but don't discount their numbers and purchasing power. As our government prints dollars which sooner or later will inevitably flood the system, silver is becoming a stable value alternative which will hold its value compared to the lower value of each dollar. To put it simply, it will cost much more dollars to buy an ounce of silver. Consider it a cheaper and more liquid safe haven alternative to gold.
Gold hit the $980-a-troy ounce level yesterday before easing back to $979.90, up 2.2 per cent on the day and gaining 2.5 per cent this week. It was helped by concerns about rising levels of government debt.
Silver rallied 6.4 per cent to $15.56 this week and was on course for a gain of 26 per cent in May, its best monthly performance for 22 years.
Source FT
Glenys Sim
Bloomberg
Friday, May 22, 2009
Gold traded near the highest in two months, set for a third weekly increase, as the dollar fell against the euro, boosting the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative investment.
The Dollar Index, a measure of the greenback against six major currencies, has lost 3.2 percent this week on speculation that the U.S. government’s creditworthiness may be weakening, after Standard & Poor’s yesterday cut its outlook on the U.K.’s AAA credit rating to “negative” from “stable.”
“Investor interest in gold was bolstered by the declines in international equity markets and the soft tone of the U.S. dollar,” David Moore, chief commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said in an e-mail today.
Immediate-delivery gold was little changed at $952.45 an ounce at 12:27 p.m. in Singapore after touching $956.55 yesterday, the highest since March 23. The metal has climbed about 7.2 percent this month and is about 19 percent higher than this year’s low of $802.59 an ounce. Silver, which dropped 0.2 percent to $14.49 an ounce, is still up 3.5 percent this week.
Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, said yesterday that the U.S.’s top AAA credit rating will “eventually” be lost. “The markets are beginning to anticipate the possibility of” a downgrade, Gross said.
