Gold, Silver, Metal Prices: Commentary – 1/29/2010

G(reat) Domestic Product. Not So Great Fundametals

Good Morning,

Gold was still headed for its second monthly drop this morning, as the US dollar’s robust gains kept a lid on the enthusiasm (and manifest bets) that were all the rage in the opening week of this year. The greenback took out the 79 level on the trade-weighted index this morning and albeit some of its latest gains may appear overdone for the moment, the lack of firmness in its rivals continues to make for attractive bets for currency and commodity market speculators.

The final session of the final January trading day in New York opened with a $1.50 loss in the yellow metal, which was quoted at $1083.90 per ounce. Gold traded in a band of from $1078 to $1088 overnight, as few additional physical buyers (other than pre-Chinese New Year buyers) emerged to take advantage of yesterday’s further significant dip. Today’s GDP numbers may yet aim gold back towards yesterday’s lows.

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© Jon Nadler, Kitco Metals Inc. for Coin News, 2010. |
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Gold Declines Slightly, Silver Drops 1.4%

US gold futures gave back early gains on Thursday and declined for a second session as the dollar climbed to a more than six-month high against the euro. The yellow metal retreated 90 cents. In other commodities, silver fell 22.8 cents, crude oil lost 3 cents, but platinum gained $1.80.

The major US indexes tumbled, with technology stocks leading the decline.

New York precious metal figures follow:

• Gold for April delivery ended down 0.1 percent to $1,084.80 an ounce. It ranged from $1,074.40 to 1,096.90.

• Silver for March declined 1.4 percent to finish at $16.212 an ounce. It ranged from $16.015 to $16.755.

• April platinum rose 0.1 percent to close at $1,493.90 an ounce. It ranged from $1,486.00 to $1,526.40.

In PM London bullion, the benchmark gold price was fixed earlier in the North American day to $1,088.00 an ounce, which was a decline of $6.75 from Wednesday. Silver fell 12 cents to $16.620 an ounce. Platinum was settled at $1,517.00 an ounce for a loss of $2.00.

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Rare Coin News This Week

What’s New on CoinLink ……..

Greg Reynolds reports on the Unique 1907-D Proof Double Eagle recently purchased by Park Avenue Numismatics at the FUN show. This is a Must Read article for anyone interested in Branch Mint proof Gold.

Over the last two days, Stack’s held its annual January Americana in its private gallery in New York City. The sale began with a packed auction room and saw spirited and competitive bidding throughout both sessions. A total of $5 Million in rare coins and currency was sold.

The numismatic press recently announced that the new 2010 cents having a shield reverse were inexplicably released in Puerto Rico in advance of their scheduled February release date. NGC has received a number of these for certification

While working on the third edition of his Dahlonega gold coin book. Doug Winter reviews the PCGS and NGC population figures in order to help establish overall and comparative rarity levels for each issue from this mint

Laura Sperber provides some thoughts on The Size and Scope of Today’s Rare Coin Market. Always a good read, Laura offers up a “No Holes Bared” evaluation of the current market.

DVD’s of the educational presentations delivered at the Money Show of the Southwest are now available for collectors from Cointelevision.com, which is a free video news service website that offers video clips from these coin conventions as well as segments from many educational presentations.

Recently CoinLink has been running a number of articles centered around both the concept and desirability of “Origianl Surfaces” on coins. In the upcoming Stacks Americana Sale this week, there is a perfect example of the type of coin we have been talking about, Lot 3534 : an 1860-D Half Eagle PCGS MS-63.

Held as part of the 38th annual New York International Numismatic Convention, A.H. Baldwins & Sons New York Sale proved to be a welcome move away from the subdued bidding of 2009. The majority of the interesting lots offered during the course of the week were from the Baldwin’s/Dmitry Markov/M&M auction and the high prices achieved reflected the recent trend for buyers paying well above estimate for quality and rarity.

During 2009, Doug Winter wrote a series of “ten rarest” articles on all the major denominations of Liberty Head gold coinage. Here he presents The Ten Rarest Early Quarter Eagles.

Continuing with News across the web, we have a new posting of – Coin News Daily – providing short excerpts and links to other news across the web that we have found, and which you may find of interest. We also provide Daily Updates on Precious Metals in The Bullion Report, with Charts, Video Headlines and News.

You can access ALL the News Here

Rare Coin News January 17-23, 2010

What’s New on CoinLink ……..

Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS at www.PCGS.com) will display a spectacular collection of early U.S. half dollars, offer special discounts for coins submitted for authentication and grading, and give collectors and dealers an opportunity to have their coins digitally imaged with the PCGS TrueViewTM photo service during the Long Beach Coin, Stamp & Collectibles Expo (www.LongBeachExpo.com), February 4 – 6, 2010.

Greg Reynolds provides the definative assesment of Heritage’s Platinum Night auction which included an incredible selection of U.S. gold coins. The total prices realized for Platinum Night alone was more than $25 million. The most famous coin in the sale is the Olsen-Hawn 1913 Liberty Nickel, which realized about $3.74 million.

NGC recently graded the finest known example of a legendary Spanish rarity, the 8 Escudos of Charles II from the Spanish Mediterranean Island of Majorca.

Kerry Wetterstrom, representing the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild, opposed adding U.S. import restrictions on coins at a Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC) hearing November 13, 2009.

Ponterio & Associates, Inc., the world and ancients auction division of Bowers and Merena Auctions, conducted its Official Auction of the January 2010 New York International Numismatic Convention (N.Y.I.N.C.) and realized more than $2.5 million.

Doug Winter offers a re-evaluation of the Type Two Double Eagles; “As recently as a few years ago, collecting Type Two Liberty Head double eagles was very popular. A marketing firm located in the Southwest had actively promoted this series, other firms had jumped on the Type Two bandwagon and the series had caught on with collectors.”

A decade after its first appearance, the precedent-setting “Ship of Gold” display showcasing California Gold Rush-era sunken treasure recovered from the 1857 shipwreck of the SS Central America again will dock in Long Beach, California.

Stacks will be offering the first silver coin of the new United States the Half Disme. This denomination is one of the 1792 coins struck before the cornerstone of the new Philadelphia Mint was laid.

Rare Coin Wholesalers (www.rcw1.com) has moved to new offices at 8105 Irvine Center Drive, Suite 440, in Irvine, California. The new phone number is (949) 679-1222, and the toll-free number remains the same, (800) 347-3250.

The United States Mint will open sales for rolls of 2010 Native American $1 Coins at noon Eastern Time (ET) on January 22, 2010. The 25-coin rolls, priced at $35.95 each, contain circulating quality Native American $1 Coins from the United States Mint facilities at Philadelphia or Denver.

Continuing with News across the web, we have a new posting of – Coin News Daily – providing short excerpts and links to other news across the web that we have found, and which you may find of interest. We also provide Daily Updates on Precious Metals in The Bullion Report, with Charts, Video Headlines and News.

You can access ALL the News Here

Jim Rickards has much to say about gold on King World News

10:50a ET Saturday, January 30, 2010

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

Jim Rickards, senior managing director for the Omnis consulting firm in Virginia, was interviewed for almost an hour this week by Eric King of King World News and discussed the secrecy and obfuscation of the gold market, the need for central banks to devalue their currencies against gold to avert deflation, the bursting of economic bubbles, the parasitism of the big financial houses, and many other things. You can listen to the interview at the King World News Internet site here:

http://www.kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/Broadcast/Entries/2010/1/30_J…

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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Ted Butler’s weekly interview with King World News

10a ET Saturday, January 30, 2010

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold (and Silver):

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David Reilly: Secret banking cabal emerges from AIG shadows

By David Reilly, Bloomberg

The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water, and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.

Wednesday’s hearing described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.

We’re talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system — apart from the matter of AIG’s bailout — deserves further congressional scrutiny.

The New York Fed is on the hot seat for its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30 billion, insurance contracts AIG sold on toxic debt securities to banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Societe Generale, and Deutsche Bank AG, among others. That decision, critics say, amounted to a back-door bailout for the banks, which received 100 cents on the dollar for contracts that would have been worth far less had AIG been allowed to fail.

That move came a few weeks after the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department propped up AIG in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s own mid-September bankruptcy filing.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was head of the New York Fed at the time of the AIG moves. He maintained during Wednesday’s hearing that the New York bank had to buy the insurance contracts, known as credit default swaps, to keep AIG from failing, which would have threatened the financial system.

The hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform also focused on what many in Congress believe was the New York Fed’s subsequent attempt to cover up buyout details and who benefited.

By pursuing this line of inquiry, the hearing revealed some of the inner workings of the New York Fed and the outsized role it plays in banking. This insight is especially valuable given that the New York Fed is a quasi-governmental institution that isn’t subject to citizen intrusions such as freedom-of-information requests, unlike the Federal Reserve.

This impenetrability comes in handy since the bank is the preferred vehicle for many of the Fed’s bailout programs. It’s as though the New York Fed was a black-ops outfit for the nation’s central bank.

The New York Fed is one of 12 Federal Reserve Banks that operate under the supervision of the Federal Reserve’s board of governors, chaired by Ben Bernanke. Member-bank presidents are appointed by nine-member boards, who themselves are appointed largely by other bankers.

As Rep. Marcy Kaptur told Geithner at the hearing: “A lot of people think that the president of the New York Fed works for the U.S. government. But in fact you work for the private banks that elected you.”

And yet the New York Fed played an integral role in the government’s bailout of banks, often receiving surprisingly free rein to act as it saw fit.

Consider AIG. Let’s take Geithner at his word that a failure to resolve the insurer’s default swaps would have led to financial Armageddon. Given the stakes, you might think Geithner would have coordinated actions with then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Yet Paulson testified that he wasn’t in the loop.

“I had no involvement at all, in the payment to the counterparties, no involvement whatsoever,” Paulson said.

Fed Chairman Bernanke also wasn’t involved. In a written response to questions from Rep. Darrell Issa, Bernanke said he “was not directly involved in the negotiations” with AIG’s counterparty banks.

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Why Soros Is Probably Buying Gold Now

Peter Cooper submits:

Given the moves by rival hedge fund managers like John Paulson into the yellow metal, it would be surprising if that living trading legend George Soros is not buying gold at the moment.

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Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver Fall Slightly on the Week

Gold briefly spiked higher following this morning’s GDP report to see a gain of $6.05 at $1090.15 before it fell back off to see a $9.50 loss at $1074.60 by midday, but it then rallied back higher into the close and ended with a loss of just 0.21%. Silver jumped to $16.34 and dropped to $16.014 before it also rose in late trade and ended with a gain of 0.12%.

Read more….

COT Silver Report – January 29, 2010

COT Silver Report – January 29, 2010

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