Monday, March 17, 2008

Gold Boom: Yellow fever grips global markets

Gold for April delivery soared to a record high of $1,001.50 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, before closing up $13.30 at $993.80 an ounce.

MarketWatch reports: Gold futures broke above the psychologically key level of $1,000 an ounce Thursday, propelled by ongoing dollar weakness and bleak news from the financial sector.

"This is just the start of things, and if the government continues to give away money and torpedo the dollar, gold will do nothing but move higher," said Zachary Oxman, Wisdom Financial

Gold at $1,000 "will one day, and likely not too far off in the future, be looked at as a foreshadowing milestone," said Peter Spina, an analyst at GoldSeek.com. "The gravity of the unfolding situation is starting to sink in with investors and that leads many more of them to move capital into real money - into gold and silver.”

Reuters reports: U.S. gold futures surged as a record-low dollar and inflation fears due to crude oil rising to all-time highs prompted investors to enter the bullion market.

"It's psychological and I view this by no means as a significant barrier to gold. And I think the market is going to continue to work its way higher," said Bill O'Neill, managing partner of LOGIC Advisors. "I don't think the mentality relative to the credit crisis will be changing for a while. I can't predict the end of it, but we're not finished here, it's going to drive gold to $1,100 in my view."

"The Federal Reserve is going to cut and inflate our way out of this credit mess and the implications are going to be higher and sustained inflation, and that's been signaled by not just gold but by virtually every commodity and the dollar," said Michael Darda, chief economist of MKM Partners LLC.

Dow Jones reports: Gold extended its contract high to $1,001 an ounce as the dollar weakens, equities are lower and crude oil, while near steady, is still quite strong near $110 a barrel.

“The yellow metal is seeing safe-haven buying on economic worries, including more subprime and bank concerns,” said John Person, president of NationalFutures.com, adding that other precious metals are also moving higher.

Bloomberg reports: Gold rose above $1,000 an ounce for the first time as mounting credit-market losses spurred demand for bullion as a haven from the sagging dollar and equities.

“There is more monetary reflation in the pipes, more interest rate cuts and more flushing of money at the system,” said Martin Murenbeeld, chief economist at DundeeWealth Inc. “The easiest thing to say about gold at the moment is to stay long.”

“The situation in the U.S. could easily spread further, which means other central banks will try to takes steps to support their economy,” Murenbeeld said.

“The dollar weakness is systemic and interest rates are headed lower,” said Robert Gottlieb, managing director and global head of precious metals at Bear Stearns Cos. “As long as there's a great deal of financial uncertainty, gold can go higher.”

Forbes reports: The precious metal hit its all-time high of $1000 per troy ounce Thursday and many speculate that this price is far from the ceiling for the metal.

"I believe gold is going to go higher," said JPMorgan Chase analyst John Bridges. "[Now that we have gotten] above $1,000, we are going to get a whole lot of momentum driven investors who are going to drive the price higher."

May silver rose 42 cents to $20.42 an ounce; April platinum gained $27.50 to end at $2,097.50 an ounce; June palladium rose $5 to $515.90 an ounce; May copper ended down 1 cent at $3.83 a pound. Light sweet crude for April delivery rose 41 cents to settle at a record $110.33 a barrel after earlier surging to a new trading record of $111.

courtesy: resourceinvestor.com

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