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Bankers, lenders remain bullish, but rate hikes may collapse house of cards As the home-loan delinquencies rise nationwide, Nevada's numbers remain surprisingly strong. However, the pending interest-rate hikes by the Fed, the day-to-day fluctuations in oil prices, and the Silver State's high percentage of interest-only and adjustable-rate mortgages have left some lenders and analysts wondering if the bubble will burst. "Where you will probably have problems is with the no-down-payment, 100-percent-financed ARM (type of loans), and interest rates go up," Nevada State Bank Senior Vice President Jeff Bargerhuff said. "It's kind of like the perfect storm of mortgage lending."Nevada ranks...

Federal Reserve officials felt a 14th straight increase in interest rates last month put borrowing costs near where they needed to be, but agreed they could not rule out more hikes, given inflation risks. "Although the stance of policy seemed close to where it needed to be given the current outlook, some further policy firming might be needed to keep inflation pressures contained and the risks to price stability and sustainable economic growth roughly in balance," minutes from the Fed's January 31 policy-setting meeting released on Tuesday said. The minutes said some officials believed "somewhat" higher than desired readings on...

COMMISSION ADVISORY Beware Of Promises Of Easy Profits From Buying Precious Metals And Other Commodities Consumers should be alert to companies that sell investments in precious metals and other commodities based on sales pitches claiming that customers can make a lot of money, with little risk, by purchasing metal through a financing agreement. Sometimes these companies offer opportunities to speculate on the price movement of precious metals, or other commodities such as heating oil, without actually taking delivery of the commodity. The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is the federal agency that regulates the trading of commodity futures...

These are good times for gold investors, according Frank Holmes, Chief Investment Officer for U.S. Global Investors. In a recent webcast, Holmes told listeners: “We have a unique situation where all critical drivers for gold are pointing in the same direction.” Holmes identified six key drivers and talked about why they are all pointing to higher gold prices. ”There are many components here that are driving gold, and they sort of rotate around,” says Holmes. “It’s not linear.” Currently, we are in a secular bull market in commodities because gold is the ultimate money, says Holmes, and because demand is...

Gold prices rose Monday, hitting fresh 24-year highs as investor interest in the yellow metal booms. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, spot gold was up $7.70 at $527 an ounce in morning trading. In European trading, spot gold rose as high as $541.30 an ounce. Spot gold is trading at levels not seen since 1981. Traders said the contract is testing resistance at $541.80 and $543.20, and that resistance would likely be a short-term top followed by a dip to $523.10 and $531.00. Long-term charts say that if the contract breaks through $543.20, however, it would be going for...