By Barry Stuppler – MintStateGold.com
GOLD
Last night we saw sizeable Asian demand for gold and silver, which drove the markets higher. Gold traded between $1,815 and $1865 per ounce with heavy trading action between $1835 and $1845 per ounce.
I expect to see increasing physical demand ahead of India’s wedding season, and the cloudy outlook of the global economy continues to brighten gold’s appeal as a safe haven. At 11am PDT Gold is trading at $1,855.30 per ounce, up $32.10 on heavy volume.
U.S. investors are anxiously awaiting President Obama’s job speech at 7pm EDT today, when he is expected to announce $300 Billion in tax cuts, infrastructure spending, a jobs program with employment incentives and direct aid to state and local governments.
SILVER
Watching Silver and Gold trading overnight in Asia was different. It appears that Silver has considerably more support in the $41.50 per ounce area, compared to what Gold showed in the $1820 area. Both Silver and Gold rallied from those levels, but Silver’s rally was far more impressive. At 11am PDT Silver is at $42.36 per ounce, up $0.71 since yesterday in active trading.
Other Important news that affects precious metal prices:
The European Central Bank on Thursday cut its forecast for economic growth in the euro zone and said risks for the economy remain on the downside due to the ongoing tension in markets and the potential for those tensions to spill over into the real economy. At a press conference, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the ECB expects annual real gross domestic product growth of between 1.4% and 1.8% in 2011, and between 0.4% and 2.2% in 2012. In June, the ECB had forecast that growth would be between 1.5% and 2.3% in 2011 and between 0.6% and 2.8% in 2012. Trichet said annual inflation is expected to be in a range of 2.5% to 2.7% in 2011 and 1.2% to 2.2% in 2012. The 2011 inflation forecast is unchanged, while the 2012 forecast was narrowed from a range of 1.1% to 2.3% in June
The U.S. Labor Department reported today that applications for unemployment compensation rose slightly last week, indicating little change in a weak U.S. jobs market in which net hiring remains near a standstill. Jobless claims rosefro 412,000 to 414,000.
