Stocks, Gold, Silver, and the printing press.

[EvilBlackGun]

Germany's two faces; is it time to buy their bond-issue?

In other news it seems every country on earth that holds US debt has been selling it all year. Russia has reduced holdings by over 50%. China by 10%. The gorilla in the room is the Federal Reserve, which increased holdings and now holds more US debt than the next largest 3 combined. That of course is not listed on the report.

Yet the dollar is high this weekend. Plus, insufficient bidders showed up to buy the German bond issue. So they have slipped. Was the subterfuge of actually funding Greece seen through, after saying "nein" for so long? Maybe it's time to buy some. And Gold is down. The only thing up is inflation. I have the opinion that some influential retail outlets may be offering "silver-only" priced buys in the near future (6-8 months), since many shoppers are sitting hard on their wallets. Also, having a slider-operation in Forex might prove to be profitable in the months before the election. ("WHAT election?" some folks say.) Are any of you moving your funds around, yet? EBG

 

[smokingman]

Great article you should read.
Whither Gold | ZeroHedge

 

[smokingman]

Economy: Retail sales were up 0.4% in January compared to December, the Commerce Department reported.
Sales were expected to have risen by 0.8%, according to a survey of economists by Briefing.com.
A surprise 1.1% drop in auto sales put a crimp in the overall advance. Excluding auto sales, retail sales rose 0.7% in the latest report.
The report revised December data lower, suggesting an even weaker holiday shopping season than previously reported. Overall spending was revised down to essentially no gain after a 0.1% increase in the initial report last month, and there is now a 0.5% drop in spending excluding autos.


http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/14/markets/markets_newyork/index.htm?iid=HP_LN

 

[smokingman]

Bloomberg killed all charts yesterday.Commodities,stocks,currency...everything.

You can now only see one year charts(instead of 5-20 years) on the site.
Just so you know they are trying to help you.

"Welcome to the new Quote page We've upgraded our Quote pages to give you more of the data you've come to expect from Bloomberg."

DXY Quote - DOLLAR INDEX SPOT - Bloomberg

2+2=5

Brought to you by the ministry of truth.

You can click detailed interactive chart and from there get the 5 10 or 20 year tabs,but it is much slower and cumbersome to do so.

 

[teddy12b]

My personal assessment of silver is that in around a month and a half (give or take two weeks) it's going to hit another bottom on spot price in the $26 - $28 range. Maybe lower, but not by much. I suspect that will be the last drop in price before the panic/fear driven purchasing of the 2012 election & Aztec Calendar. People are going to get crazy stupid on buying guns & ammo this year based on those two events. I expect the election to have more of an impact, but a 2000 year old calendar with an end date will also rattle some cages.

In any case, I'm not looking to buy silver for investment purposes. I'm looking at buying it for prepping, but because I'm on a limited budget I like to look for the opportunities to buy it low.

It'll be interesting to look back on this post in about two months from now.

 

[smokingman]

This needs to be posted.It is the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.The reason it needs to be posted.Since 1980 according to the government our average inflation rate is 9.6%
$1.00 in 1980 is equal to $2.75 now in the official calculator.

Inflation Calculator: Bureau of Labor Statistics

 

[ATOMonkey]

This needs to be posted.It is the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.The reason it needs to be posted.Since 1980 according to the government our average inflation rate is 9.6%
$1.00 in 1980 is equal to $2.75 now in the official calculator.

Inflation Calculator: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Yep... that sounds about right... sigh....

 

[Just4Fun]

I agree with Teddy12b. Silver has one last dip before it takes off. Check out this site: Gonzalo Lira

 

[smokingman]

I agree with Teddy12b. Silver has one last dip before it takes off. Check out this site: Gonzalo Lira

Silver was up more than 4% today.Almost 5 million ounces standing for delivery so far this month,over 5 million in delivery last month(usually January is the slowest month of the year).Comex dealer inventory below 35 million ounces for only the second time in history(compared to 120 million ounces in 2008).I would call that bullish for silver?

Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report

As far as deflation,if it shows up at all you can bet the FED will print like mad(QE3).

 

[teddy12b]

While there's never any surefire way to predict the markets, I still suspect that silver has one more "big" dip before it explodes. There's just too much of a connection to traders & speculators on silver right now and it's far too conected with the swings in the markets. This next dip will be when I jump on the wagon pretty hard. I fully anticipate prices to be through the roof by the Nov election.

While I say all of that I am completely confident that I could be absolutely wrong. Yesterday's big jump on the spot prices really made me question theory because those are the kinds of one day gains I expect to see after this next drop. Today it's already dropped around $0.40 an ounce, but that's at 9:30 in the morning. We'll see how the day ends, but one thing that's for certain is that it's a very interesting roller coaster to watch.

 

[smokingman]

While there's never any surefire way to predict the markets, I still suspect that silver has one more "big" dip before it explodes. There's just too much of a connection to traders & speculators on silver right now and it's far too conected with the swings in the markets. This next dip will be when I jump on the wagon pretty hard. I fully anticipate prices to be through the roof by the Nov election.

While I say all of that I am completely confident that I could be absolutely wrong. Yesterday's big jump on the spot prices really made me question theory because those are the kinds of one day gains I expect to see after this next drop. Today it's already dropped around $0.40 an ounce, but that's at 9:30 in the morning. We'll see how the day ends, but one thing that's for certain is that it's a very interesting roller coaster to watch.

Silver:$35.25 up 2.7% today so far

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Sprott-Physical-Silver-Trust-cnw-2277163831.html?x=0

TORONTO, Feb. 22, 2012 /CNW/ - Sprott Asset Management LP ("Sprott") is pleased to provide investors with an update on the status of the silver bullion purchased by the Sprott Physical Silver Trust (NYSE ARCA: PSLV) (TSX: PHS-U.TO - News) ("Trust") through the follow-on offering of Trust Units that was completed on January 23, 2012.​

The Trust has now successfully received physical delivery of the silver bars purchased through the follow-on offering. The Trust's silver holdings now total approximately 32,878,296 silver ounces in bullion bar form. The silver bars are currently being processed into inventory by the custodian of the Trust. Once the inventory process has been completed, a list of all bars held by the Trust will be published on its website: www.sprottphysicalsilver.com.

 

[smokingman]

Lets talk about silver.It is probably a rare opportunity to purchase some physical silver at this point.
First I would like to point out some market action.
Lets start with Spot.Sprott Physical Silver Trust
They just put out a prospectus a few days ago.To buy 1.5 BILLION in physical silver.Roughly 8% of yearly production. Sprott To Buy $1.5 Billion In Silver

Next lets talk about the CFTC.New limits are going into effect in January.
Speculative Limits - CFTC

CFTC finalizes position limits - CFTC Law Regulatory News | CFTC LAW | Forex, Futures and Derivatives Regulatory News

Then this from the head of the CFTC.
The CFTC did not include any details explaining why it chose to release an update at this moment. However, in an interview with a gold advocacy website, CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton recently expressed a strong belief that the silver market is being manipulated: “I believe that there’s been violations of the law, [t]he Commodity Exchange Act… in the silver market and I think any such violation, of course, should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I believe there has been repeated attempts to influence prices in the silver market. And there’s been fraudulent efforts to persuade and deviously control the price.”
CFTC update on longstanding silver probe - CFTC Law Regulatory News | CFTC LAW | Forex, Futures and Derivatives Regulatory News
Now lets go over to the COMEX and see where things currently stand.
The CME notified us that we had 484 notices filed for first day notice or 2,420,000 oz of silver. To obtain what is left to be served, I take the Oi standing for December (2131) and subtract out today's deliveries (484) which leaves us with 1,647 notices or 8,235,000 oz left to be served upon.


Thus the total number of silver oz standing in this delivery month of December is as follows:


2,420,000 (oz served) + 8,235,000 (to be served upon by the end of December) = 10,655,000.



Harvey Organ's - The Daily Gold and Silver Report

Lets also look at historical inventory at COMEX.
World Of Wallstreet: COMEX Registered (Dealer) Silver Inventory Over Time: Can You Spot A Trend?
Or down 38% in the last year.

I am not offering financial advice.I am not paid anything.I am not a lawyer.
That said.It looks like a great time for the silver investor.

I posted this January 24.Silver was $32.18 that day.Today it gained over 1 dollar an ounce.10.4% gain in one month,and that is just the start.

2/23/2012
DOW:12,984
Gold:1780.00
Silver:$35.56
Corn:642.5

It looks like they are setting up for a silver raid today though.So it will probably drop on Friday.I do not expect it to drop much or often for quite awhile after that.

 

[John Galt]

God, guns, gold (silver) and groceries are the only investments one should be making for the next few years.
My .

 

[Stschil]

European Gold Confiscation in near future?

Just read this on Zerro hedge

Projected PIIGS Pillage: 3233.5 Tons Of Gold To Be Confiscated By Insolvent European Banks | ZeroHedge

While hardly discussed broadly in the mainstream media, the top news of the past 24 hours without doubt is that in addition to losing its fiscal sovereignty, and numerous other things, the Greek population is about to lose its gold in a perfectly legitimate fashion, following amendments to the country's constitution by unelected banker technocrats, who will make it legal for Greek creditors - read insolvent European banks - to plunder the Greek gold which at last check amounts to 111.6 tonnes according to the WGC. And so we come full circle to what the ultimate goal of banker intervention in the European periphery is - nothing short of full gold confiscation. So just how much gold will be pillaged by the banker oligarchy

 

[smokingman]

There was an epic raid on silver Friday.102.5 million ounces of paper shorting in less than 7 minutes or 3 years of USA production,15% of the worlds production for a year.Read the entire article.The raid failed and silver closed up.That is 102.5 million ounces that someone(JPM)will have to cover.
Love the charts on this one.Tick by tick.
SilverDoctors: Cartel Dumps 102.5 Million Ounces of Paper Silver in 7 Minutes, Yet RAID FAILS!

I just realized something.COMEX dealer inventory sits at 34.9 million ounces.If the person on the other side of that trade stands for delivery,where will COMEX get the other 67 million ounces to meet physical delivery of the contracts?

Got silver?

 

[smokingman]

Just in on Reuters.
G20 calls for 2 trillion dollar rescue fund.

G20 inches toward $2 trillion in rescue funds - Yahoo! Finance

• G20 Finance leaders push to increase European bailout fund to $2 Trillion
• Want to combine ESM & EFSF, creating ~$1 Trillion dollar fund
• IMF to request $500 - $600 Billion in "new resources", which combined with current funds puts it at ~$1 Trillion dollars
• Germany remains the thorn in the socialists Eurozone's side
  • Schaeuble: "It does not make any economic sense to follow the calls for proposals which would be mutualizing the interest risk in the euro zone, nor in pumping money into rescue funds, nor in starting up the ECB printing press"

So this is on top of Wednesday's $600B LTRO?
Saturday Crisis Update: G20 Wants to Push European Bailout Fund to $2 Trillion | ZeroHedge

Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, said more funds are essential. "In order to overcome the crisis, you have to get ahead of the curve and have a big enough bazooka," he told reporters.
"The negotiations are now going on," Rehn said, adding he was confident that a decision to merge the European funds would be taken in March.

 

[smokingman]

Grant Williams On The Simplicity Of Owning Gold | ZeroHedge

Two short videos worth watching.

 

[smokingman]

Forbes gets it spot on.
Gasoline Prices Are Not Rising, the Dollar Is Falling - Forbes

Panic is in the air as gasoline prices move above $4.00 per gallon. Politicians and pundits are rounding up the usual suspects, looking for someone or something to blame for this latest outrage to middle class family budgets. In a rare display of bipartisanship, President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner are both wringing their hands over the prospect of seeing their newly extended Social Security tax cut gobbled up by rising gasoline costs.


Unfortunately, the talking heads that are trying to explain the reasons for high oil prices are missing one tiny detail. Oil prices aren’t high right now. In fact, they are unusually low. Gasoline prices would have to rise by another $0.65 to $0.75 per gallon from where they are now just to be “normal”. And, because gasoline prices are low right now, it is very likely that they are going to go up more—perhaps a lot more.

"Assuming that gold prices remained at today’s $1,759.30/oz, WTI prices would have to rise by about 22%, to $128.86/bbl, in order to reach their long-term average in terms of gold.....At this point, we can be certain that, unless gold prices come down, gasoline prices are going to go up—by a lot. And, because the dollar is currently a floating, undefined, fiat currency, there is no inherent limit to how far the price of gold in dollars can rise, and therefore no ultimate ceiling on gasoline prices."

 

[pjcalla]

Grant Williams On The Simplicity Of Owning Gold | ZeroHedge

Two short videos worth watching.

Thank you for those. That is really eye-opening! I have thought this for awhile, but to see it presented clearly and concisely was great. Oh, by the way, silver is up $1.70 today.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Everyone should hedge against inflation by buying commodities. This is just my opinion.

In most cases the #1 best hedge is food. It's not getting any cheaper and everyone needs it.

Number 2 is consumable goods. Same reason.

Number 3 is durable goods. While the price of durable goods, like appliances, can come down, they typically increase in price over time as well. Also, everyone needs a fridge.

Number 4 is long term storage of fuel, whether it be gasoline, propane, or LP gas. Once again, you're going to use it anyway, so you may as well buy a lot while it's cheap.

Number 5 would be precious metals. The reason being, that precious metals provide no actual wealth (since they are not used as currency) and are subject to market volatility, but traditionally are an excellent hedge for long term growth against the currency.