Down grade of US Debt

There is nothing else to talk about except the Down grade of US Debt. On this news gold has made new highs and looks like it may have more opportunity to go higher. Concerns that this will only add to the woes in the USA has many fleeing. The thinking is that the economy will come to a crawl. This thinking process has most in a depression even before it actually happens. Truth be told there is one thing they are not taking into account. People are still working and producing. Even though last week’s Retails sales numbers were bad it would not be a big surprise to see the number improve to the upside for August on the back of Back to School spending. Still with all the bad news out of Euro Zone as well, investment money will be holding onto the yellow stuff. At this time it is about to attempt a move over the price of Platinum. One thing for certain is that the platinum jewelry market should get a shot in the arm if these prices persist. But for the most part PGMs are not participating with gold due to weakness of industrial commodities in general. The stock market is also taking a hit but not as hard as many were projecting. No US News today.

	DEC-Z	Sep-U	Oct-V	Sep-U
8/8/2011 10:05	Gold	Silver	Platinum	Palladium
Last	1,701.00	39.27	1,724.00	732.10
Price Change	49.20	2.75	4.90	(9.65)
Current Low	1,701.10	38.32	1,724.00	732.30
Current High	1,718.20	40.40	1,732.90	743.50
EFP	2.40/2.90	.01/.04	2/6	0/4
London PM Fixes:
AU	1,693.00	PT	1,725.00
PD	733.00
London AM Fixes:
AU	1,709.75	PT	1,716.00
PD	730.00	AG	39.860
	RH	call	RU	175.00
			IR	1,100.00
EUR	1.4174	1.4402	1.4176
JPY	77.71	78.46	77.74
GBP	1.6345	1.6472	1.6347
Copper	4.11	Crude	84.22

After reaching an all time high of 1684 gold

After reaching an all time high of 1684 gold has finally began a bit of a retreat. Yesterday we saw some downward action on a slight correction but this morning the driver has been the better than expect good jobs numbers lowering the Unemployment Rate to 9.1%. The new numbers and including the better than expected revisions throws a wrench into the doomsayers perception of things. Honestly I myself was starting to fall under the influence of this negative outlook. Still much more is needed to truly indicate a turnaround. But this is a true glimmer of hope in what has been a very dark cloud this week. The Platinum group metals after taking a hit yesterday, following base metals which drove a downward collapse due to demand concerns, sadly continue this morning. This indicates that overall the attitude has not changed from the investor’s point of view. Euro Zone concerns still remain and Japan intervention was rumored again last night strengthening the US dollar. Let’s hope today’s numbers are the beginning of a string of positive news to come.

	DEC-Z	Sep-U	Oct-V	Sep-U
8/5/2011 10:11	Gold	Silver	Platinum	Palladium
Last	1,661.10	39.10	1,713.30	742.05
Price Change	2.10	(0.83)	(16.10)	(10.90)
Current Low	1,661.20	38.34	1,713.60	742.20
Current High	1,673.00	39.87	1,727.50	754.00
EFP	2.40/2.90	.01/.04	2/6	0/4
London PM Fixes:
AU	1,658.75	PT	1,709.00
PD	742.00
London AM Fixes:
AU	1,665.00	PT	1,700.00
PD	739.00	AG	39.240
	RH	1,925.00	RU	175.00
			IR	1,100.00
EUR	1.4184	1.4232	1.4186
JPY	78.43	79.41	78.45
GBP	1.6318	1.6351	1.6320
Copper	4.20	Crude	85.94

Date	Time	Statistic	For	Actual	Forecast	Expects	Prior	Revised
5-Aug	8:30 AM	Nonfarm Payrolls	Jul	117K	50K	84K	46K	18K
5-Aug	8:30 AM	Nonfarm Private Payrolls	Jul	154K	75K	100K	80K	57K
5-Aug	8:30 AM	Unemployment Rate	Jul	9.10%	9.30%	9.20%	9.20%	-
5-Aug	8:30 AM	Hourly Earnings	Jul	0.40%	0.10%	0.20%	0.00%	-
5-Aug	8:30 AM	Average Workweek	Jul	34.3	34.3	34.3	34.3	-
5-Aug	3:00 PM	Consumer Credit	Jun	-	$5.0B	$5.0B	$5.076B	-