Money and Metals

CCN reports the precious metals had another good trading day. "U.S. benchmark silver futures shot up 4 percent to settle at a 23-year high on Monday, powered by robust investor buying and gold futures' climb above $600 per ounce, analysts said. May delivery silver on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division jumped 49 cents to end at $12.56 an ounce."

"'We now see silver at $14/oz in one month and $16/oz in three months, compared to our previous forecasts of $10.50 and $11/oz previously,' John Reade, analyst with investment bank UBS, said."

"June gold advanced $9.10 to $601.80 an ounce, trading from $592.60 and $602.80. NYMEX July platinum rose $28.90 to $1,105.90 an ounce, after futures hit a new all-time high of $1,108. Spot platinum traded at $1,087/1,091. June palladium gained $6.70 to $359.85 an ounce. Its early peak at $364 marked its highest since September 2002. Spot palladium was worth $354/360."

And the Financial Times found a gold bear. "I went to find one of the world’s few remaining gold bears. He didn’t want to be identified, not even by which hemisphere he works in. Actually, he’s not always bearish, but now, as he says, 'This price level is not based on anything terrestrial. But then gold is the only commodity that is a major world religion.'"

"'The price is already up about 40 per cent over the past year. Do you really want to hang around for the last 10 per cent? Not that the multi-year, secular bull market for gold is over. But this rising phase is getting old. It has accompanied a boom in commodities prices based on growth in the new industrial countries that has in turn been fuelled by cheap money in the older powers. The next rising phase, a year or two off, will discount the central banks’ and governments’ inflating their way out of an asset price decline.'"

"'If you’re determined to buy a precious (or semi-precious) metal, silver has been even stronger than gold lately. As its proponents will repeatedly tell you, especially when they have not renewed their prescriptions, the above ground supply of silver is more limited than that of gold. Silver also benefits from a higher proportion of industrial demand than gold.'"

"'What could make a 'sell gold, buy industrial commodities' trade go wrong? A US or Israeli strike on Iran would do that. Interestingly, while there’s been more chatter about such a strike among the political classes in the past two weeks, the online betting services show a decline in the odds of an Iran bombing within the next year. So if you trust betters more than pundits, take your gold profits and buy copper."