Announcer:
Welcome to Money Metals Exchange's weekly market wrap podcast. Helping precious metals investors during these treacherous times. Now, here's this week's market wrap with commentary and analysis from the fastest growing precious metals dealer in America, Money Metals Exchange.
Mike Gleason:
Welcome to this week's market wrap podcast, I'm Mike Gleason.
Well, it was another typical ho-hum boring summer week in the precious metals markets. At least, it was until Thursday, when the metals rallied strongly. Gold gained 2% and broke back above $1,300 an ounce, and silver rallied 3.5% to clear the $20 level once again.
For several weeks now, silver has poked above $20, only to fall back down into a trading range. Both the bulls and the bears have been frustrated in their efforts to move the market out of its recent range. As I've noted in previous broadcasts, the bulls need to produce a strong close above $20 on the weekly charts to help catalyze a rally in silver.
They may finally do it this week. As of this Friday morning recording, silver trades at $20.35 per ounce. Gold hasn't been quite as strong as silver this week, but Gold prices appear poised to finish the week with decent gains. The yellow metal currently trades at $1,310.
Turning to the platinum group metals, platinum prices shined this week on news of labor strife impacting output. Northam Platinum, which operates a major mine in South Africa, warned Thursday that work stoppages will curtail the company's platinum production. Platinum neared the $1,500 level on Thursday, rallying more than 3.6% on the day. The rally pushed the platinum-to-gold ratio up to fresh new two-year highs.
Platinum outperformed palladium this week. Palladium prices gained 2% on Thursday and are up about 1% for the week. However, for the year, palladium is up 5%, while platinum still shows a slight loss.
The U.S. Dollar Index is close to going negative for the year. It's down a little over 1% on the week. After trading as high as 85 in July the Dollar now rests at 81. It got as low as 73 in 2011, around the time that silver prices peaked.
We think the metal to keep the closest eye on in the days and weeks ahead is silver. It led the precious metals decline on the way down, and it should lead the coming rally out of these summer doldrums. Silver reached its most recent cyclical peak near $50 in April of 2011. Gold didn't peak until August of that year, when it hit an all-time high of just over $1,900 an ounce.
We continue to see signs of very strong physical demand for silver. In proportion to its available supply, retail demand for silver is actually far exceeding gold demand. Demand on the retail side for silver coins and bars remains strong even in these relatively slow summer months. Back in the spring, Money Metals Exchangeand other large national dealers were overwhelmed with record-setting buying volume.
It will be interesting to see if we get another buying surge this fall – and whether the market falls into shortage as a result. As of now, Money Metals Exchangeis able to ship most bullion products with little or no delay. We can now deliver privately minted silver rounds and 10-ounce bars without any lead-time. These items also carry the lowest premiums and are the most cost-effective way for investors to obtain silver right now. Meanwhile, delivery delays on Silver American Eagles and Silver Canadian Maple Leafs are also coming down a bit.
In gold we got a shipment of the very popular historic U.S. Gold coins in early this week. Specifically I'm talking about $10 Liberty gold coins, containing just less than half an ounce of gold. And as we've mentioned before you will never hear us offering these coins unless we can get them at bullion prices, and on these $10 Liberty's we're able to sell them at less than 8% over the melt value, which is less than the modern day ½-oz Gold American Eagle. These coins are likely to go quickly so give one of our specialists a call at 1-800-800-1865 to inquire about pricing and availability before we run out. Supplies are quite limited.
Well that will do it for this week's market wrap podcast, thanks for listening. This has been Mike Gleason with Money Metals Exchange, reminding you that we remain fully committed to getting you the most value for depreciating dollar... with speed, with accuracy and with top notch service. Have a great weekend everybody.
Announcer:
Thank you for joining us for this edition of the Money Metals Exchange Weekly Market Wrap. Be sure to come back next week, and don't forget to subscribe to our weekly podcast through iTunes. For answers to all of your questions, or to discretely and securely buy or sell gold or silver coins, bars, and rounds, call 1-800-800-1865. Our knowledgeable and no-pressure specialists are standing by between 7:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. mountain time, Monday through Friday. Visit us at www.MoneyMetals.com or call 1-800-800-1865.
About the Author:
Mike Gleason is a Director with Money Metals Exchange, a precious metals dealer recently named "Best in the USA" by an independent global ratings group. Gleason is a hard money advocate and a strong proponent of personal liberty, limited government and the Austrian School of Economics. A graduate of the University of Florida, Gleason has extensive experience in management, sales and logistics as well as precious metals investing. He also puts his longtime broadcasting background to good use, hosting a weekly precious metals podcast since 2011, a program listened to by tens of thousands each week.
