Gold & Silver Market Morning, January 23, 2012

Asia took the gold price to $1,670 ahead of the London opening, where it held before London lifted it even more to $1,673. The euro was a tad lower at against the U.S. dollar to €1: $1.2934 at London’s opening placing the euro gold price at €1,293.49 up €18 on Friday.

London Fixed the gold price at $1,675.00 and in the euro at €1,294.936. The euro stood at €1: $1.2935. Ahead of New York’s opening the gold price was tending higher at $1,676.55 a $1.5 higher than the Fix with the euro at €1: $1.3004 a cent higher, leaving the euro price of gold at €1,289.26, down €4.

Silver is now climbing faster than gold and showing a strong robustness that we haven’t seen for some time. It opened in London at $32.40 up over 5%. Ahead of New York’s opening silver stood at $32.66.

Gold _{(very short-term)}

The gold price should have a stronger bias in New York today.

Silver _{(very short-term)}

The silver price should have a stronger bias in New York today.

Price Drivers

As market today continue their sanguine attitude to the developed world financial ails, along the lines of,  “things are at their worst so they  must get better from now on,” we perhaps need to be reminded that the gold and silver prices performed their best between 2005 and 2007..and beyond when the developed world economy looked its best. So a recovery is good for gold!

But things can get worse. The talks to finalize the Greek haircut are going on and debtors want to keep clipping, but creditors are shouting enough! If this impasse does not give way and a default appears, then the 1914 assassination in Sarajevo that ushered in the First World War may see the financial equivalent? The developed world banking system may well be the trenches of our day.

Newt Gingrich is calling for the resurrection of the “Gold Commission” to bring back ‘sound money’. His victory over the weekend and improved ratings, have added a dash of credibility to this prospect now.  There is a way to make this work but it will be somewhat different from the previous 1981 Commission. The success of such a system will rely on the credibility and effectiveness of the detail. The World Bank’s head called for gold to be a “value anchor” to paper currencies. We believe that this may well be the direction to be followed. But there are a very large number of events that have to take place for this to happen. We will be producing a few articles on this in our weekly newsletters and on our website [So subscribe through www.GoldForecaster.com or www.SilverForecaster.com]. We have foreseen this direction being followed since 2005. This is why the gold price rise should not be categorized simply as a “bull” market!

Regards,

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