08/22/2008 - This week, metals gained back some of the losses of last week, on a falling U.S. Dollar and surging Crude oil prices. The turn around was due, in part, to negative economic data and escalating geopolitical tension. U.S. housing starts fell 11% in July to its lowest point in 17 years. US/Russia tensions escalated further on Thursday after the U.S. agreed to construct a missile defense system in Poland.
December Gold hit a 10 day high of $845 on Thursday, rising nearly 3%, while September Silver rebounded by $0.69, as oil gained more than $5 a barrel and the U.S. Dollar dropped 0.4%, pulling back from an 8 month peak hit earlier in the week. Friday saw a slight dip in prices as the U.S. Dollar posted slight gains. December Gold closed Friday at $833.50 down $5.50. September Silver closed $13.48, down $0.25, and October Platinum closed at $1441.20, down $17.60.
08/15/2008 -- Precious metals, and commodities in general, were down sharply for the week. Since last Friday, gold, silver, platinum and palladium dropped 8.5%, 16.7%, 11.6% and 8.6%, respectively. The primary reasons: a stronger dollar, rising to six month highs, and weak energy/oil prices. Demand for physical metal by manufacturers and bullion investors is starting to reemerge and prices appear cheap. However, large institutional players such as hedge funds and ETFs will continue to have a major influence on prices.
08/13/2008 - The metals market reversed course today as the four metals along with oil staged a respectable comeback. Gold finished the day up $16.90 to end at $831.50. Silver also advanced today after four days of liquidation to finish up $0.36 at $14.845.
08/11/2008 - Precious metals suffered from another steep sell-off as the dollar continues to surge against the euro. The dollar rose 3.6% last week on speculation of weakness in the European economies. Oil also has fallen in spite of the ongoing Russian/Georgian conflict. Gold and silver hit its lowest level since December 2007.
08/04/2008 - Gold and silver fell today to settle at their respective 5 week lows. Oil dropped $4.10 ahead of the federal reserve meeting scheduled for tomorrow. Although the dollar did not rise today, the consensus is the fed will be biased to raise rates thus supporting the dollar. This belief sent oil and most other commodities to lowere levels. August gold dropped $8.90 to settle at $900.10. Silver dropped $0.38 to settle at $17.14.
07/30/2008 - Gold broke through its 100-day moving average today to fall to the lowest level since June 26th. The dollar is taking advantage of a weaker Euro and falling oil to post its second straight gain. Silver is still struggling to break out of its narrow range of the last 5 days.
07/09/2008 - Gold found support yesterday after testing the 100-day moving average of $918.90. Closing above that mark, gold rebounded today to close at $928.60 up $5.30. Silver also tested its technical support level aka 100-day moving average of $17.808. Today, following gold, silver rebounded to finish up $0.22 at $18.175.
