Posted on 01/12/2009 10:52:06 AM PST by An Old Man
Gold Sinks Through "Major Support" as Zero-Yielding Currencies Rise; Physical Trading Jumps on "Safe Haven" Bid - Monday 12th January 2009
Spot Gold prices sank Monday lunchtime in London, dropping $20 in 20 minutes to trade at $825 an ounce as world stock markets fell across the board.
Crude oil tumbled 5% to $38.85 per barrel, while government bond prices also dropped.
The zero-yielding US Dollar and Japanese Yen both rose yet again on the currency markets.
"Gold opened [Monday] at the 100-day moving average and is steadily ticking lower," says a technical note from Mitsui, the precious metals dealer, citing "major support at $830.
"With Japan out on holiday, Spot Gold and silver have been dominated by the Euro dropping below $1.34. It now looks likely to test support at $1.33."
The Gold Price in Euros still dropped 2.2% early Monday, however. Measured against the British Pound, wholesale gold traded 10% below last week's all-time record peak of £612 an ounce.
"Sterling surged last week despite a mounting tide of pessimism," notes Steven Barrow at Standard Bank in London.
"It rose despite another sharp cut in the base rate and some loose talk that the Bank of England could rent out Ben Bernanke’s helicopter to drop pounds on the unsuspecting British public."
How come? Because "with currency markets starved of liquidity, there may be a limited role for 'fundamentals' right now," Barrow suggests. "Currency markets are not functioning normally – a general problem at the moment."
Following a flood of poor economic data, the European Central Bank (ECB) is now expected to join the US, Japan, Switzerland and Britain in slashing its interest rates when it meets this Thursday.
"The ECB has a sad track record of always showing up late to the party," says one economist at ING. But Bank of America forecasts a drop from today's 2.5% target rate to 1.5% by end-March.
Deutsche Bank expects Euro rates of just 0.75% by end-June.
Back in the gold market, meantime, new data released after Friday's close showed the volume of betting on US Gold Futures and options grew yet again last week, rising to stand nearly 18% above mid-Dec.'s 30-month low.
Isn’t it against the law to actually own gold bars? Say I had $10,000 to buy gold with, could I actually get my hands on the metal?
i agree. there was a lot of it about in 2000, just before tech tanked.
advertising as fake news, just more msm lies
of course it’s not illegal to own gold. they did ban it for a period in the 30s to enable the new paper to take hold, which was unconstitutional
When faith in paper currency disappears, the end result is not good for all. The modern financial world was built upon credit and paper money. The only thing backing that foundation is TRUST. When trust is gone, so goes the sysem we have built, so goes trade between nations, so goes peace and prosperity. House of cards built on a shaky foundation.
In the financial realm trust is lacking most all relationships now. I don't know how we get beyond that smoothly.
Mark, It is OK for you to own gold bars!
When I was younger, I used to buy Silver bars and hide them under the bed. That worked out just fine until one day my wife complained that it was difficult to dust under the bed. So....
I put a bunch of them under the front seat of the pickup and drove down to the place where I purchased them. In a few minutes I had a fist full of $100 bills and returned home. That's when I decided to clear out everything under the bed and place them under the dog house where the German Shepherds sleep.
You need to trot down to a good clean Coin Store and spend some time talking to the owner. He can tell you what is available and the price. You have to make the decisions about what you can afford and when you can purchase it.
I believe it was someone named Reagan that said you can lay all the economists end to end and still not reach a conclusion.
Either way it’s not good. Right now deflation is winning. We’ve had $13 trillion or so in asset deflation. The fed expanding it’s balance sheet by 1.5 trillion isn’t close to counteract that nor is $1 to $2 trillion in addtl government debt. Money velocity is continuing to slow. My guess is deflation till late 2010 or maybe even 2011. Wouldn’t be surprised to have elevated inflation after that.
Did I read right at lunch time? I thought I saw that platinum rose by $716.
For example, subprime mortgages have evaporated. None of these people will be buying homes or cars on credit now. But we release a tidal wave of fresh new greenbacks into the market, and the segment of the economy which has been traditionally cash is hit with this flood of greenbacks.
When the credit markets evaporated, so did the housing market and many of the things that go with it. Those markets are not coming back soon.
Besides that, Obama has made known his penchant for printing money. Print he will. Hopefully not on the scale of Weimar Germany or modern day Zimbabwe, but he will print those greenbacks.
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