PHYSICAL BUYERS DRIVE GOLD MARKET

After last week’s Gold and Silver prices hit a two year low, physical buyers jumped on the opportunity to buy at the reduced market pricing. That buying of Gold and Silver gave prices a boost this week. On Monday, the Gold price recovered some of the ground lost after last week’s major price drop as expectations for the metal remain positive among many investors. “As the price moved over $1,400 per ounce, physical traders, on the expectation that Gold could possibly correct back higher, rushed into Gold.” MKS Group Senior Vice President Frederic Panizzutti said. The demand for physical Gold along with continued support by central banks has helped buoy prices over the last few sessions. One of the driving factors of the increase in the Gold price this week was the U.S. durable goods report, which was lower than expected. “Overall, the weak tone of this report underscored the emerging narrative of a considerable slowing in economic growth momentum in March,” TD Securities senior economist Millan Mulraine said. Many economists blame the slowdown on the budget cuts that took place earlier in the year and believe businesses are being more hesitant due to the uncertainty in the economy. Gold climbed to its highest price in ten days during overnight trading on Thursday, hitting $1,447.66 an ounce. The increase is credited to a weaker dollar, firmer prices in other commodities and a ninth straight session of physical Precious Metals demand. Investors have also noted that Russian and Turkish central bank purchases, as reported by the International Monetary Fund, increased in March. Daily outflows from exchange traded funds (ETF) are keeping the largest Gold backed ETF, New York’s SPDR Gold Trust, at its lowest level since late 2009.

IS GOLD UNDERVALUED DUE TO ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY?

Gold’s price movement over the past few weeks has the market questioning whether the bull run is over. Compared to fiat money, the yellow metal continues to be undervalued, according to Hinde Capital CEO Ben Davies, who believes Gold has held its ground throughout history and is currently being pressured by paper money. Author Detlev Schlichter said, “After 40 years of relentless paper money expansion and in particular 25 years of Fed-led global bubble finance, the dislocations in the global financial system are so massive that nobody in power dares to turn off the monetary spigot and allow market forces to do their work, that is to price credit and to price risk according to the available pool of real savings and the potential for real income generation rather than according to the wishes of our master monetary planners.” The continued easing in the major global markets is not the only sign of uncertainty that investors are taking note of. Volatility in equities markets remains as many experts have cut corporate earnings projections for the second quarter. Economists who initially forecasted a 6.2 percent increase at the beginning of April have scaled back their predictions to 5.5 percent expansion in the coming quarter. “The earnings season has been enough to hold stocks where they are in light of some less than hoped for macro data,” Federated Investors Inc. fund manager Lawrence Creatura said. “Time will tell if it will remain enough as we move through what’s a seasonally more difficult time.” In Europe the debt crisis is spreading to the eurozone’s stronger economies now, according to German industrial giant Daimler, maker of Mercedes-Benz autos and trucks. Daimler said it is feeling the effects of the crisis in Germany, signaling the spread of the problem from the smaller countries to the eurozone’s economic powerhouse. High Frequency Economics chief economist Carl B. Weinberg said, “The EU has made Europe a much more cohesive economy, which is good when things are going up, but when things are going down the multiplier is very strong. An outgoing tide lowers all ships.”

At 5:00 pm (EDT), the APMEX precious metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1463.70, Down $0.80.
• Silver, $24.04, Down $0.21.
• Platinum, $1479.30, Up $13.70.
• Palladium, $683.00, Down $0.40.

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