The Gold & Silver Digest contains headlines of stories that members of this group deem relevant and/or interesting to precious metals enthusiasts.
If you have articles to submit for the next digest, please email them to me by clicking here.
2/18/13 5:43 PM EST US close metals price quotes from Finviz
Los Angeles Times: Gold at N.Y. Fed is intact, some purer than thought, audit finds
NEW YORK -- The U.S. government’s gold in New York is safe in a vault underneath Manhattan, and some of the precious metal there is purer than previously thought.
That’s according to a first-ever audit conducted last year by the Treasury Department of U.S. gold on deposit at Federal Reserve banks in New York and elsewhere.
As part of the audit, the Treasury tested a sample of the government’s 34,021 gold bars in the New York Fed’s vault five stories below Manhattan’s financial district, according to the inspector general’s office. Auditors drilled tiny holes into the bars to remove samples that were tested for fineness in a process called assaying.
Bloomberg: Gold Climbs From 6-Month Low in London; Platinum Advances
Gold swung between gains and losses near a six-month low as investors weighed signs of improving economic growth against speculation that the biggest weekly drop since May will spur purchases. Platinum rose as rubber bullets were used in a clash at an Anglo American Platinum Ltd. mine.
Bullion dropped 3.4 percent last week and holdings in gold- backed exchange-traded products fell the most since July in the period on growing confidence that the global economy is strengthening. Billionaire investor George Soros cut his gold ETP holdings last quarter, government filings showed last week. UBS AG said in a report today that its gold flows to India, the top buyer, were above average after the sell-off, and Morgan Stanley said it expects “bargain hunting” this week.
Forbes: CFTC: Large Speculators Cut Gold Net Length As Traders Add Short Positions
(Kitco News) - Large speculators trimmed their net-long position in gold during the most recent reporting period for Commodity Futures Trading Commission data. Only unlike most other similar situations in recent years, this time the decline was fueled mainly by traders establishing short, or bearish, positions rather than mainly selling to exit or capture profits on bullish ones.
The large-spec net long also fell for silver, but increased slightly for the industrially oriented precious metals of platinum and palladium. A pair of CFTC reports for copper was mixed.
CNBC: Brace for Big Drop If Gold Breaches This Level
Gold bounced back on Monday from a drubbing that sent the precious metal to a six-month low late last week, however, analysts say further upside is dependent on whether gold can hold on to a key support level over the next few days.
"I think today (Monday), because we've had a relatively good bounce back, the market will focus on $1,600 and the ability for gold to trade through $1,630 will be quite critical," said Jonathan Baratt, founder of the commodities newsletter Barratt's Bulletin, referring to $1,600 as an important psychological level.
CBS Money Watch: Is the gold rally over?
(MoneyWatch) "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." So said former British prime minister Winston Churchill in a speech in London in 1942.
Gold closed the first day of trading in 2013 at $1,694. Two months earlier on Oct. 10, 2012, the metal had finished at $1,792, its highest close ever. On Friday, it closed at $1,616. And for the past few months, it has been defying all the "gold bugs," the famously avid investors who swear by gold. Is this just a temporary respite in the bull market that began in 2002, with gold having closed the prior year at $271? Or, as Churchill might have it, is it the beginning of the end, with a repeat of the experience of the 1980s on the way?
Bloomberg: Gold Death Cross Signals Price Slump as Soros Sells
Gold futures may extend a slump to as low as $1,538 an ounce, the cheapest since May, as moving averages signal a “death cross,” according to technical analysis by Fain Shaffer of Infinity Trading.
The metal may drop as much as 4.4 percent from the Feb. 15 settlement of $1.609.50 on the Comex in New York if the 50-day moving average falls below the 200-day measure, Shaffer said. Last week, the price tumbled 3.4 percent, the most since June, after government filings showed billionaire investor George Soros cut his stake in exchange-traded products backed by gold in the fourth quarter,
“The trend and the mood has turned negative,” Shaffer, the president of Medford, Oregon-based Infinity, said in a telephone interview. “Selling may gather momentum if prices fall below the cross.”
GoldSilverWorlds: Gold & Silver Price Takedown February 15th: Noise vs Facts
As from its inception, the aim of Gold Silver Worlds has been to focus on the real facts. Readers should understand what caused the price takedown on Friday February 15th 2013 and should be able to distinguish the noise from the true facts that the mainstream press attributed to the lower gold and silver prices. In this article, we show the real value of the biggest recent headlines and urge readers to value them for what they are: mainstream headlines. We also show the real reasons for the price drop. To get a flavour of the real facts, readers should look at this CNBC video which says it all.
GoldSilverWorlds: Ted Butler: Bullish on Gold But JP Morgan Excessively Short in Silver
The recent gold and silver price takedown and the related negativity in the mainstream press were a reason for thorough investigation. The article “Noise vs Facts” on Gold Silver Worlds was intended to focus on the real facts. Investors should not be mislead by interpretations. More in-depth analysis is required to truly understand what is going on primarily in the futures market. With his extensive background and knowledge we trust on Ted Butler’s COT analysis (which is at the core of the short term price setting). He wrote the following paragraphs to his paid subscribers on Saturday February 16th. His insights reveal a different picture than the one on the surface – for sure the one that was created by the mainstream media – so we are more than happy to share it with our readers.
Investors.com: Gold, Silver: What To Expect After Chinese New Year
The Year of the Snake sank its fangs into gold and silver investors, with the precious metals melting to one-month lows as Asian markets closed for Lunar New Year holiday.
Traders also sold positions ahead of the G-20 summit later this week when world leaders will discuss currency devaluation.
Spot gold prices fell 1.13% to $1,649.40 an ounce. SPDR Gold Shares (GLD), tracking a 10th of an ounce of bullion, gapped down 1% to 159.748 in heavy volume in the stock market.
The Motley Fool: Is Silver Being Manipulated?
After a recent article I wrote about the potential of a silver bubble, I got a question about the behavior of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM ) with regard to the silver market, specifically the allegation that the bank was actively involved in manipulating the silver market through a sizable short position. The basis of the question seemed to be a request to bring forth the issue and address how silver was trading as a result of JPMorgan's activity and within the context of the global economy in general.
As of last December, the last major complaint against the bank was dismissed in a federal court, as well as by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. That doesn't mean that no wrongdoing occurred, but it does suggest that insufficient evidence exists to take the matter forward.
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