By Barry Stuppler – MintStateGold.com
GOLD
As of 11am PDT today, Gold was trading at $1,522.80, up $4.40 an ounce on active trading. Gold reached $1,511 in Asian trading this morning before demand drove the price higher. Surprisingly the Gold market shook off this morning’s negative Chinese economic news and central bank tightening. Gold appears to be in a holding pattern awaiting some dramatic Greek default news or information on progress on raising the U.S. debt ceiling in Congress.
Ron Paul wants to know if the Gold Bars in Fort Knox are real..
According to an internal Treasury document, Ron Paul, a presidential candidate who chairs the House’s subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, had previously called for the U.S. gold reserve to be counted and for a return to the gold standard. He now appears to be going a step further in his request that representatives from the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Mint testify at a subcommittee hearing on June 23 about the authenticity of the nation’s gold. The Treasury document says it would cost about $15 million to conduct an audit. The process would take about 30 minutes per bar to verify the gold content of each one, or about about 350,000 man hours, which would take 400 people working for six months, according to the document.
SILVER
Silver shows excellent support at $ 34.50 and rallied higher, trading at $35.48 at 11am PDT today. The $0.49 per ounce increase in the price was done with excellent trading volume. Last night we saw major demand from Asia as silver hit the support $34.50 area. In the past month we have seen heavy buying from the Chinese and Indian markets every time Silver reached the mid $34 price range. Demand continues to be strong in the U.S. also, with the U.S. Mint announcing on June 8th that it sold a record 19,718,500 One Ounce .999 Silver Eagles.
INFLATION RATE IS PICKING UP IN GOLD/SILVER CONSUMING COUNTRIES
The Chinese government reported today that Consumer inflation rose to its highest level in nearly three years in May, up 5.5 per cent from a year earlier. The Chinese middle class is very sensitive to inflation numbers and release of this information is very likely to increase gold demand in china, already on a record pace.
India reports that the inflation rate rises more than expected. Indian inflation rose faster than expected in May, raising expectations of a further interest rate rise. The wholesale price index rose by an annual rate of 9.06%, up from the April figure of 8.66%
Negative U.S. Economic News Keeps coming
Sales at U.S. retailers declined 0.2% in May to a seasonally adjusted $387.1 billion, the Commerce Department estimated Tuesday. This was the first decline after ten months of gains, as sales rose a downwardly revised 0.3% in April.
Wholesale costs in the U.S. rose more than forecast in May, led by higher prices for fuel and the fastest rise in 30 years for apparel and textiles. The 0.2 percent increase in the producer-price index compares with the 0.1 percent median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, Labor Department figures showed today
