SK: Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver End Near Unchanged on the Week
Gold traded mostly modestly higher in Asia and London and jumped in midmorning New York trade to as high as $1117.90 by about 10:45AM EST before it fell back near unchanged in early afternoon trade, but it then surged back higher in the last half hour of trade and ended just off its last minute high of $1118.63 with a gain of 0.98%. Silver followed a similar pattern and ended near its late session high of $16.51 with a gain of 2.42%.
Euro gold climbed to about €821, platinum gained $14.50 to $1538.50, and copper gained over 7 cents to about $3.27.
Gold and silver equities traded mostly slightly higher and ended with almost 1% gains.
Next week’s economic highlights include Personal Income and Spending, PCE Prices, Construction Spending, and the ISM Index on Monday, ADP Employment, ISM Services, and the fed’s Beige Book on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims, Productivity, Unit Labor Costs, Factory Orders, and Pending Home Sales on Thursday, and February jobs data and Consumer Credit on Friday.
Oil climbed back near $80 a barrel after this morning’s stronger than expected GDP data raised demand expectations.
The U.S. dollar index fell markedly as the euro rose on reports that Germany may buy Greece’s debt.
Treasuries rose as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P struggled to find gains after mixed economic data and news that AIG lost nearly 9 billion dollars in the fourth quarter.
Among the big names making news in the market Friday were AIG, Citigroup, Bayer, and Lloyds.
The Commentary:
“Just in the last couple of days I get the impression that the world's financial crisis is fast coming to some sort of tipping point. As things currently exist, there is absolutely no way out of this world-wide financial, economic and monetary situation that we are in. And as I've said many times before... we face one of three possibilities: a deflationary collapse, a hyperinflationary depression, or a return to some sort of international gold standard with the price of gold set at some fantastically high price. Or it may turn out to be a combination of these three things. But one thing is certain, the current situation cannot last much longer... as something is about to blow up... it's just the timing that we don't know.”– From Ed Steer’s Gold & Silver Daily, read the full report here.
