You are here

Heeding Butler, Silver Standard will put cash reserves into physical silver

Section: Daily Dispatches

Maybe one of these years he'll figure it out....

* * *

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=5122536

NEW YORK, May 12 (Reuters) -- COMEX gold and silver
futures rose Wednesday but ended well below their highs,
as concern about U.S. international trade competitiveness
weakened the dollar and lifted precious metals.

The U.S. stock market also dropped after the Commerce
Department said the March trade deficit widened to $46
billion from $42.1 billion in February.

June gold ended up 50 cents at $377.70 an ounce after
trading $377.50 to $384.50. Still, its failure to close above
$380 was worrying, given its proximity to the seven-month
low hit Monday at $371.30.

"Given the trade deficit and given the dollar, I'm very
shocked and I think it's a very poor performance on behalf
of all the precious metals," said Graham Leighton, a vice
president of precious metals at Societe Generale.

"The only thing I can think, and this is pure speculation,
is that this is people getting their money out of
commodities in order to pay for equity losses or equity
margin calls," he said.

Estimated volume amounted to 62,000 contracts, up from
Tuesday's official count of 55,053 lots.

Spot gold ended at $377.75/8.50, up from the close at
$376.80/7.55. London's afternoon fix was at $382.20.

The growing imbalance between imports and exports
reflects the strength of the U.S. economy and rising
imported oil prices. At the same time, there is a risk
that declining net exports could be a drag on economic
expansion.

With oil prices at a 13-year high above $40 a barrel, gold
is favored as a hedge against inflation. But traders said
that barring any economic or political shocks, they will
continue to take cues from currencies, especially the euro.

"It looks like the funds came in buying on the close and
you had some follow-through buying overnight. People
are hungry to buy this stuff today," said a COMEX gold
broker, adding that gold dipped a couple of ticks right
after the trade number, before the dollar fell. "It looks
like people are confused by the number."

The euro rose to $1.1918/21 from the previous close at
$1.1861/67. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial
average was down 1.47 percent at 9,872.

Physical buyers from Asia and the Middle East built
inventories when gold fell last week, putting a floor
under the market. They found gold too costly in the
$420s and $430s last month, when prices were near
15-year highs.

July silver ended up 4.2 cents at $5.565 an ounce,
near the bottom of a $5.73 to $5.555 range.

Spot silver rose to $5.54/57 from $5.51/54. Bullion
dealers fixed silver's price at $5.635.

NYMEX July platinum settled up $4.30 at $783.80
an ounce. Spot platinum last traded at $784.00/789.00.

June palladium went up $4.95 to $240.25 an ounce.
Spot was quoted at $238.00/243.00.

----------------------------------------------------

To subscribe to GATA's dispatches, send an e-mail to:

gata-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to:

gata-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

----------------------------------------------------

RECOMMENDED INTERNET SITES
FOR DAILY MONITORING OF GOLD
AND PRECIOUS METALS
NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Free sites:

http://www.jsmineset.com

http://www.cbs.marketwatch.com

http://www.mineweb.com/

http://www.gold-eagle.com/

http://www.kitco.com/

http://www.usagold.com/

http://www.GoldSeek.com/

http://www.capitalupdates.com/

http://www.DailyReckoning.com

http://www.goldenbar.com/

http://www.silver-investor.com

http://www.thebulliondesk.com/

http://www.sharelynx.com/

http://www.mininglife.com/

http://www.financialsense.com

http://www.goldensextant.com

http://www.goldismoney.info/index.html

http://www.howestreet.com

http://www.depression2.tv

http://www.moneyfiles.org/

http://www.howestreet.com

http://www.minersmanual.com/minernews.html

http://www.a1-guide-to-gold-investments.com/euro-vs-dollar.html

http://www.goldcolony.com

http://www.miningstocks.com

http://www.mineralstox.com

http://www.321gold.com

http://www.SilverSeek.com

http://www.investmentrarities.com

http://www.kuik.com/KH/KH.html
(Korelin Business Report -- audio)

http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/home.htm
(In Spanish)
http://www.plata.com.mx/plata/plata/english.htm
(In English)

Subscription site:

http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/

http://www.hsletter.com

Eagle Ranch discussion site:

http://os2eagle.net/checksum.htm

Ted Butler silver commentary archive:

http://www.investmentrarities.com/

----------------------------------------------------

COIN AND PRECIOUS METALS DEALERS
WHO HAVE SUPPORTED GATA
AND BEEN RECOMMENDED
BY OUR MEMBERS

Centennial Precious Metals
3033 East 1st Ave.
Suite 403
Denver, Colorado 80206
www.USAGold.com
Michael Kosares, Proprietor
US (800) 869-5115
Canada 1-800-294-9462
European Union 00-800-2760-2760
Australia 0011-800-2760-2760
cpm@usagold.com

Colorado Gold
222 South 5th St.
Montrose, Colorado 81401
www.ColoradoGold.com
Don Stott, Proprietor
1-888-786-8822
Gold@gwe.net

El Dorado Discount Gold
Box 11296
Glendale, Arizona 85316
http://www.eldoradogold.net
Harvey Gordin, President
Office: 623-434-3322
Mobile: 602-228-8203
harvey@eldoradogold.net

Investment Rarities Inc.
7850 Metro Parkway
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55425
http://www.gloomdoom.com
Greg Westgaard, Sales Manager
1-800-328-1860, Ext. 8889
gwestgaard@investmentrarities.com

Kitco
178 West Service Road
Champlain, N.Y. 12919
Toll Free:1-877-775-4826
Fax: 518-298-3457
and
620 Cathcart, Suite 900
Montreal, Quebec H3B 1M1
Canada
Toll-free:1-800-363-7053
Fax: 514-875-6484
http://www.kitco.com

Lee Certified Coins
P.O. Box 1045
454 Daniel Webster Highway
Merrimack, New Hampshire 03054
www.certifiedcoins.com
Ed Lee, Proprietor
1-800-835-6000
leecoins@aol.com

Miles Franklin Ltd.
3015 Ottawa Ave. South
St. Louis Park, Minn. 55416
1-800-822-8080 / 952-929-1129
fax: 952-925-0143
http://www.milesfranklin.com
Contacts: David Schectman,
Andy Schectman, and Bob Sichel

Missouri Coin Co.
11742 Manchester Road
St. Louis, MO 63131-4614
info@mocoin.com
314-965-9797
1-800-280-9797
http://www.mocoin.com

Resource Consultants Inc.
6139 South Rural Road
Suite 103
Tempe, Arizona 85283-2929
Pat Gorman, Proprietor
1-800-494-4149, 480-820-5877
Metalguys@aol.com

Swiss America Trading Corp.
15018 North Tatum Blvd.
Phoenix, Arizona 85032
http://www.swissamerica.com
Dr. Fred I. Goldstein, Senior Broker
1-800-BUY-COIN
FiGoldstein@swissamerica.com

----------------------------------------------------

HOW TO HELP GATA

If you benefit from GATA's dispatches, please
consider making a financial contribution to
GATA. We welcome contributions as follows.

By check:

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
c/o Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, CT 06043-7541
USA

By credit card (MasterCard, Visa, and
Discover) over the Internet:

http://www.gata.org/creditcard.html

By GoldMoney:

http://www.GoldMoney.com
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Holding number 50-08-58-L

Donors of $750 or more will, upon request,
be sent a print of Alain Despert's colorful
painting symbolizing our cause, titled "GATA."

GATA is a civil rights and educational
organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue
Code and contributions to it are tax-deductible
in the United States.