Existing Home Sales had a reading of 4.62M on Friday, which was lower than the expected 4.68M.

Existing Home Sales  had a reading of 4.62M on Friday, which was lower than the expected 4.68M. Can’t blame the result on weather, but we can blame it on affordability! People are simply not making the money they should to buy houses for sales. Richard Fisher, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, supports the Fed’s continuation of tapering. According to James Bullard, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Fed created a “pessimistic problem” when they announced in December to keep rates low well into 2015. Bullard believes this announcement may have signaled that the economy will not strengthen until next year. As a result, the FOMC rephrased its outlook by adopting thresholds that will give investors indications of when rates may increase. By not having a completion date of the reduction stimulus, Bullard discussed that more aggressive cutbacks should be expected depending on improvements in the labor market. Have a great day.

Westminster Mint Issues New 2 oz. Silver Bullion Rounds for Only $0.49c per oz. Over Spot

Westminster Mint provides an online platform and dependable service for people who require low prices and fast physical delivery of their gold and silver bullion. “Our new 2-ounce silver bullion rounds offer significant cost of manufacture savings that can be passed along to the consumer,” said Ian Clay, President of Westminster Mint.

Westminster Mint issues New 2 oz. Silver Bullion Rounds for only $0.49c per oz. over spot!

Plymouth, Minnesota (PRWEB) February 21, 2014

Westminster Mint has just released a new 2-ounce silver bullion round with the popular American Buffalo design. These rounds are struck from 2 ounces of .999 fine silver and are individually hallmarked stamped for weight and purity. “By issuing rounds that are twice as thick as regular rounds we can save on striking fees and pass the savings on to our customers,” said Ian Clay President of Westminster Mint.

Last year Westminster Mint offered several short term promotions featuring a 2-ounce silver bullion round with a silver eagle design for $0.49c to $0.79c per round. “These promotions were a massive success,” said Ian Clay. The company now plans to promote 2-ounce rounds using both the silver eagle design and the new American Buffalo design for $0.49c per ounce above the price of spot silver through June 2014. The rounds measure 39 mm in diameter are 5 mm thick and are made to ISO 9001 standards in the United States. The rounds are sold individually or in tubes of ten.

The Fed Minutes were released yesterday and the tapering continues!

The Fed Minutes were released yesterday and the tapering continues! Certain policy makers expressed concern yesterday that it’s time to raise rates before the mid-year since we are approaching the 6.5% unemployment rate threshold. On the other hand, doves feel it’s  too soon to raise rates as lingering effects of the financial crisis remain. The overall sentiment for the U.S. economy is positive as officials blame weak economic data on bad weather. The reduction program will continue as seen appropriate “until the outlook for the labor market has improved substantially in a context of price stability.”  The Fed reiterated that the cut back in asset purchases is not on a pre-set schedule and the pace of tapering is contingent upon labor market conditions and inflation meeting its long term objectives. The precious metals complex didn’t take the news so well and prices dropped instantaneously. Tapering is unfavorable for gold and so are talks about raising rates as investors would prefer to put their money into interest bearing assets. The Core CPI (MoM) is .1% as expected and Initial Jobless Claims for the week ending 2/15 is 336,000 vs. the forecast of 335,000. Have a great day.

After disappointing initial claims and retail sales hurt the USD, gold was able to spike to 1300 yesterday for the first time since November 8th. Janet Yellen was unable to speak yesterday since D.C. was covered in snow.

After disappointing initial claims and retail sales hurt the USD, gold was able to spike to 1300 yesterday for the first time since November 8^th. Janet Yellen was unable to speak yesterday since D.C. was covered in snow. Platinum and Palladium traded higher yesterday as South Africa concerns continued to fuel higher. The DJIA managed to close on the upside at 16027.59 despite weak retail sales. Investors are trying to determine the path for gold since it broke above 1300. Bulls feel there is potential for the metal to move higher if the Fed tapers in continued increments and if India eases its import restrictions. Bears are anticipating the drop, it’s just a matter of when. Based on all this crazy weather, it looks like we can expect February’s NFP numbers to be skewed once again! This is the week the Bureau of Labor Statistics goes around to do their survey for their jobs report and if people have not been going to work and getting paid then perhaps February’s report will miss expectations. Have a great day.

Markets still managed to rally on Friday despite a disappointing jobs report. I guess this means that bad news can be good news!!

Markets still managed to rally on Friday despite a disappointing jobs report. I guess this means that bad news can be good news!! The dollar fell in response to the data and gold was able to see some gains throughout the day. The question to ask is when will we see a solid jobs report whose numbers are not biased towards the weather? We’ve already seen snowstorms in February so perhaps we will have to wait until March to get a better snapshot of the U.S. economy. It’s unlikely that the Fed is going to put tapering on hold. Perhaps the Fed would question its pullback effects if it saw weaker employment data and lower inflation rates down the road. The issue at hand is whether the economy is performing poorly because the recovery has become stagnant or because the snow storms have been slowing down manufacturing growth and people from job hunting. Economists would like to believe it’s because of the weather. If the weather is to be blamed then why did we see a decline in the unemployment rate? There are 2 reasons to consider: the unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans expired in December so people are actively seeking for jobs and getting hired while others are simply tired of looking for work and have exited the labor force. Have a great day!

The stock market finally reversed its downward trend and rallied yesterday with the Dow closing at 15628.53.

The stock market finally reversed its downward trend and rallied yesterday with the Dow closing at 15628.53. The markets in China are back after their week long holiday from celebrating the New Year. Today is the day that investors have been anxiously waiting for- the Nonfarm Payrolls number and the Unemployment Rate. NFP figures for January are up 113,000 vs. December’s figure of 75,000, but still way below the consensus of 185,000. The Unemployment Rate is at 6.6% vs. last month’s number of 6.7%. Gold spiked to a high of 1272 due to another month of a disappointing job report. I guess we can blame the weather for the weak data once again! Investors are questioning how the Fed would interpret this report. Does this mean they may consider putting the taper on pause or perhaps nothing can hold them back since they have already started scaling back? I guess we will have to wait until the next Fed meeting in March to find out! Have a great weekend!!!