Gold & Silver Market Morning, March 19 2012

New York closed at $1,660 on Friday. Asia lifted it to $1,663 ahead of London' opening. London opened with the euro at €1: $1.3164, gold at $1,658 but dropped just ahead of the Fix, which was set at $1,654.00 and in the euro at €1,256.934 while the euro stood at €1: $1.3159.

Ahead of New York’s opening it stood at $1,655.30 and in the euro €1,267.64 while the euro was at €1: $1.3062.

Silver held at $32.65 in Asia. Ahead of New York’s opening it stood at $32.45.

Gold _{(very short-term)}

Gold should consolidate around current levels, in line with euro moves, in New York today.

Silver _{(very short-term)}

Silver should consolidate around current levels, in line with euro moves, in New York today.

Price Drivers

Credit Default Swaps were bought to insure against sovereign and other debt defaults such as we see in Greece now. Today sees whether these work and act as good hedging tools. If they do and Portugal follows Greece then the acceptance of a write-down of debt that we see in Greece may well not happen. After all, why accept a 30% settlement level when you have insurance that can give you 100%. With this in mind, don’t expect to see the words “voluntary write-down” in any issue like Greece again. This adds a sting in the tail to a potential Portugal or even a repeats of the Greece debacle, should they not meet their targets?

We are hearing much talk that the gold market may well have seen its day as it struggles to break higher. Is the gold bull market over? We will be addressing this issue in our forthcoming issues of the newsletters. [Subscribe www.GoldForecaster.com or www.SilverForecaster.com].

Since 1991 India has allowed the unimpeded import of gold into the country. This has irked the government and bureaucrats there who itch to regulate and impose duties on the trade. We now again, see proposals for doubling import duty in an attempt to discourage the trade as they believe that such investments produce no good for the nation’s GDP.

India has been at the forefront of opposition to government dominance of the gold market through its refusal to allow its own government to dominate it. Pre-1991, such an attitude spawned a huge gold import smuggling business and will do so again, we’re sure. The irony is that government members share the same viewpoint on gold as their people, as they too invest in it as the one secure investment that cannot be mismanaged by government. Corruption in India is rampant and all there know that such moves by government are opposed by the Indian people, but then again the desire to control others seems irresistible.

Regards,

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