Money and Metals

Reuters has this to report. "U.S. benchmark silver futures on Tuesday reversed losses to trade at session highs after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it approved rule changes for a silver exchange-traded fund."

"Silver for May delivery at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange bounced to $10.41 an ounce, up 4.8 cents, at 11:41 a.m. EST. The SEC said it has approved rule changes that will allow the American Stock Exchange to list shares in Barclays Plc's iShares Silver Trust, which is designed to track the price of the metal."

Update: Silver hit it's highest level in more than 22 years on Tuesday on investor buying, after a ruling by U.S. regulators seemed to lead the first silver exchange-traded security one step closer to final approval. 'It shouldn't take long for the registration statement to get approved, so I think the market will move somewhat higher over the next couple of days because people will be focusing on what this may mean for the price of silver,' said Jeffrey Christian. The silver ETF would be backed by silver bullion held in vaults in London, with each share worth about 10 ounces of silver."

"Spot silver climbed as high as $10.55 an ounce and was last indicated in New York at $10.53/10.56, against Monday's late quote of $10.33/36, a rise of 1.65 percent on the day."

"'Silver has hit our one-month target of $10.50/oz but we believe that it can trade towards our three-month target of $11/oz very quickly. Longer term forecasts will now be highly dependent on the investor interest in the ETF,' John Reade, analyst with investment bank UBS, said. Silver could rally further if the ETF eventually prompts both substantial spot purchases and also speculative buying on fears about potentially decreasing liquidity in the global market."

"An announcement by Germany's Bundesbank that it would sell no substantial amount of gold from its reserves over the next six months had no immediate impact on gold prices but would support market sentiment, they said. 'The market has largely ignored news that the Bundesbank is not going to sell gold this year. It just shows that the funds are not very keen on gold at present,' said Yingxi Yu, analyst at Barclays Capital."

"Spot gold had made several attempts in the past two weeks to break above $560 an ounce, but prices fell as investors booked profits. It slid to $546.90 before recovering to $551.80/552.70 late in New York, down from $553.90/554.80 late Monday. The dollar strengthened after a core gauge of U.S. inflation for February, core producer prices, rose a more-than-expected 0.3 percent. The data reinforced views that the Federal Reserve may not be finished with dollar-boosting interest rates."

"Gold and the greenback usually move in opposite directions, though the relationship has weakened in the past nine months."

"Platinum fell to $1,035/1,039 an ounce from $1,041/1,045. The metal touched a two-week high of $1,041 on Monday on fund buying. Palladium eased to $314/318 an ounce from $317/321."