Posted on 12/30/2010 9:39:29 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
Reports showing a stronger U.S. economy pressured precious metals prices lower Thursday, though silver and palladium prices set multiyear highs earlier in the session.
The most actively traded gold futures, for February delivery, settled down $7.60, or 0.5%, at $1,405.90 per troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The thinly traded January-delivery contract settled at $1,405.60 per troy ounce, down $7.50, or 0.5%, on the day.
Despite settling in negative territory, gold prices remain above the psychologically important $1,400 mark as investors prepare for the final trading day of the year Friday.
"There is not enough of a selloff for bargain hunting, so you have these year-end evening-out fluctuations," said George Gero, vice president with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures.
A surprisingly robust U.S. employment report weighed on gold prices Thursday. The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits fell by 34,000 to 388,000 in the week ended Dec. 25, the Labor Department said in its weekly report Thursday. This is the first time the figure dropped below 400,000 since July 2008. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected claims to fall by just 2,000.
Meanwhile, manufacturing activity in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's district continued at a solid pace for December, with price pressures increasing, according to a report released by the bank Thursday.
The upbeat data saw some investors shed gold, which is considered a hedge against economic uncertainty.
"That would be a reason for traders to book some profits," said Ralph Preston, senior market analyst with Heritage West Financial, adding that the small size of the pullback is unlikely to trip up gold's historic rally. "It's a blip on the screen when we're at nose-bleed price levels like this," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
BS again.Gold bugs are laughing all the way to the bank!
I have nearly doubled my silver money. I got in large at 15.80 and 17.20.
End of year painting the tape.
How about that silver, eh?
Move along, nothing to see.
I got in at 12.80, but my wife was hanging onto my ankles begging me to SLOW DOWN...Then when she relented, silver was at a little over 16...
What with the week being only 3 or 4 days, I'm not surprised. IMO the numbers that will come out for the week ending Jan. 8 will give many a heart attack-ack-ack-ack.
Yep.
Beat’ya! Big buy at 7.50.
I’ve never seen such an orderly melt up in precious metals, no where near a panic yet. Silver is just playing catch up after all the manipulation to hold it down.
Article says the employment numbers are good, we are all saved and on the way to easy street now.....Not.
Getting kinda expensive at the grocery store lately as I pass the local gas station and see the rising prices there.
And what’s your exit point?
I’m thinking of shorting both silver and gold. If the economy picks up they’ll both crash.
Bingo. The melt up in metals is being driven by the melt down in the dollar. Hussein wants to be Mugabe 2 which is what I said back in 2008.
The media is in full out lie mode. CNBC is pathetic as usual based on the bashing on Zero Hedge as I dumped TV when Mugabe 2 took office.
Someone here in FR said tonight that Prince Al Waleed’s Fox is slobbering over hussein and bashing birthers. I wonder if the Saudi prince is whispering likes in Megan Kelly’s ear piece. ALL TV is garbage and it all supports Mugabe 2 now. A lot of people here on FR are in denial about how bad things may get.
I feel sorry for older folks on fixed incomes. It is going to get worse. Grocery prices have just started their run.
There is no recovery and if there was - energy prices would kill it. Coal stocks had a big day today.
Yeah, that is bound to happen. </s>
Somewhere around $1700 spot gold and $80 spot silver will be a short term top and a hefty correction for almost a year or so then back on up to heights never imagined until some fix is finally forced on governments.
I bought what I thought I needed for any emergency for a year or two worths when gold was $550 and silver $4.50, been playing the miners ever since.
When the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average equals the price of one troy ounce of gold. I don't know what that price will be, could be $3,000 could be $5,000 but that's where this is going.
The contrarian in me says that the metals markets (gold first, then silver) were and are cleverly laid traps. Those markets are not behaving rationally and haven’t been for some time, imho.
I hope I’m wrong, but my suspicion is that one or more major players are reeling in the gullible, only to pull the rug out when the time is right. That doesn’t mean I don’t think the economy is crashing (intentionally). It means that the end-game of the Bill Ayers crowd is to do away with all the pillars of trust in our society, and if it turns out that the one thing you could count on can’t be counted on, then they will have succeeded in spades. And I do think they are that diabolical.
I’m not going to battle the gold bugs here, just stating an opinion. Hope I’m wrong.
The contrarian in me says that the metals markets (gold first, then silver) were and are cleverly laid traps. Those markets are not behaving rationally and haven’t been for some time, imho.
I hope I’m wrong, but my suspicion is that one or more major players are reeling in the gullible, only to pull the rug out when the time is right. That doesn’t mean I don’t think the economy is crashing (intentionally). It means that the end-game of the Bill Ayers crowd is to do away with all the pillars of trust in our society, and if it turns out that the one thing you could count on can’t be counted on, then they will have succeeded in spades. And I do think they are that diabolical.
I’m not going to battle the gold bugs here, just stating an opinion. Hope I’m wrong.
Are you talking about the fraud of “owning” gold but not having it in physical form in your possession or are you saying that precious metals themselves or the precious metal market itself is a fraud?
I think that those counting on their gold and silver investments are in for a rude and angry awakening. It’s my belief that the forces that intentionally created the situation we now face (the bill ayers crowd)
also anticipated the reaction and flight to metals and those same entities intend to execute their plan (by undermining confidence in metals once theyve collapsed the dollar)
My 2 cents
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