Gold
Gold rose above the $1,020/oz barrier in late trading in Asia and rose to new 18 months highs at $1,023.60/oz this morning. Despite most analysts calling for a correction, there is buying at these levels and the market appears well supported. Gold’s rise is again in all major currencies and not just in dollar and euro. Gold is again knocking on the €700/oz mark. British pound weakness has seen sterling gold rise from £570/oz to over £615/oz in the last month, as sterling has again come under pressure. This contradicts the oft repeated misconception that the falling dollar makes gold cheaper for holders of other currencies. Gold is becoming more expensive in all major currencies, or to put it more accurately, major currencies are being devalued and are thus falling in value versus gold. This was alluded to by Alan Greenspan last week when he said that investors are buying precious metals to hedge against declines in currencies and that this was "a monetary phenomenon," and "an indication of a very early stage of an endeavour to move away from paper currencies." His words will have been noted by central bankers and large money interests. While gold is overbought in the short term and due a correction, traders may push gold to new record highs prior to taking profits.
Silver
Silver is currently trading at $17.51/oz and has not been here since 27th July 2008. Silver’s technicals and fundamentals remain even more favourable than gold’s, and as ever, silver has received little or no media commentary in recent weeks despite its impressive performance suggesting that silver is only in the intermediate phase of this bull market.
Platinum group metals
Platinum is currently trading at $1,351/oz while rhodium is steady at $1,650/oz.
CORRECTION
In yesterdays GoldCore Precious Metals Update we incorrectly said that Lehman Brothers collapsed 18 months ago. It was in fact Bear Stearns that collapsed 18 months ago which contributed to gold reaching its record nominal high of $1,033/oz on March 17th 2008. Lehman Brothers collapsed 12 months ago with the anniversary this week.
