Money and Metals

Some market numbers for Thursday. "After seven straight days of losses, gold futures closed higher Thursday, bolstering confidence in the metals sector, as the dollar faltered. Gold for August delivery closed up $3.80 at $570.30 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, having earlier touched a high of $579.50."

'Analysts said the move is the start of a rebound, after a healthy period of correction. 'I feel much better with gold at $570 rather than $750,' said Amaury Conti, at investment advisor Austin Calvert-Flavin. 'The drop was a correction in a bullish market. Now that the price of gold has gone down to a more reasonable level, people are seeing the opportunity to get involved again.'"

"Silver ended up 23.5 cents at $9.97 an ounce. Platinum finished up $22 at $1,160.90 an ounce and palladium added $13.15 to $305.80 an ounce."

"Ned Schmidt, editor of The Value View Gold Report, said the dollar is in a long-term bear market against other major currencies. Schmidt pointed to the rally of the Chinese yuan in the past few sessions as an indication that the dollar will continue to weaken, which would be good news for gold. 'Investors should be buying gold and silver this summer at bargain prices,' Schmidt said."

"'Thanks to the aggressive quest for profits by hedge funds, gold was being 'pushed' along for the last six or nine months,' said Jon Nadler, at bullion dealers Kitco.com. 'The past month has also witnessed the opposite effect taking place, as the exit from gold (by the opportunity-driven funds) has brought down values to a level that almost has the staunchest of its supporters spooked.'"

This jewelry site has a report on demand. "Jewelry demand in the U.S. softened dramatically in April due in part to a late Mothers Day selling period in May. Several jewelers commented that the timing of Mothers Day hurt April sales by several percentage points."

"April’s disappointing performance came after an unusually strong March as well as a six-month run of accelerating monthly sales gains. From a cyclical point of view, it was inevitable that jewelry sales would slow, but April’s decline year-over-year came as a surprise."

"Among the negative factors constraining U.S. retail sales are the following: High energy prices, the consumer debt burden is near record levels, and will increase as interest rates continue to climb. Negative vibes from the Fed, lack of home equity extraction. Slowdown in home price appreciation (and) rising health care costs."