Gold and other precious metals spiked Thursday, as did crude oil and US stocks following a report by the Commerce Department saying the economy expanded at a 3.5 percent annualized pace in the third quarter. Gold’s rise broke a losing streak that had extended to five days. The Dow and S&P enjoyed their best one-day jumps in three months.

New York bullion figures follow:

• Silver for December delivery jumped 41.5 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $16.655 an ounce. It ranged from $16.12 to $16.71.

• Gold for December delivery advanced $16.60, or 1.6 percent, to $1,047.10 an ounce. The yellow metal ranged from $1,048.40 to $1,026.90.

• January platinum surged $31.30, or 2.4 percent, to $1,338.20 an ounce.

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Read the rest of Gold, Silver and US Stocks Rally (2,395 words)

Gold ended slightly lower Wednesday, marking the fifth consecutive day the yellow metal has declined. Again cited as the catalyst for the loses was a rallying US dollar. Silver and platinum also fell, as did crude oil which plunged 2.6 percent. US stocks followed along, with the three major indexes tumbling between 1.2 percent and 2.7 percent.

New York precious metals figures follow:

• Silver for December delivery fell 30 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $16.240 an ounce. It ranged from $16.155 to $16.77.

• Gold for December delivery declined $4.90, or 0.5 percent, to $1,030.50 an ounce. The yellow metal ranged from $1,042.60 to $1,027.10, which is the lowest price since Oct. 6.

• January platinum ended down $12.10, or 0.9 percent, to $1,306.90 an ounce.

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Read the rest of Gold Continues Decline for Day Five, Stocks Tumble (2,367 words)

New York gold futures ended lower Tuesday for the fourth straight day as the US dollar advanced on news of a decline in consumer confidence. Silver was hit exceptionally hard for the second straight day, falling more than 3 percent. Platinum declined as well. In other markets, crude oil finished 1 percent higher and US stocks ended mixed.

New York precious metals figures follow:

• Silver for December delivery plummeted 55.5 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $16.540 an ounce. It ranged from $17.250 to $16.500.

• Gold for December delivery declined $7.40, or 0.7 percent, to $1,035.40 an ounce. The yellow metal ranged from $1,044.30 to $1,032.90, which was the lowest level since Oct. 6.

• January platinum fell $26.80, or 2.0 percent, to $1,319.00 an ounce.

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Read the rest of Gold Drops for Fourth Day, Silver Plunges, Stocks Mixed (2,493 words)

Przemyslaw Radomski submits:

This essay is based on the Premium Update posted October 23rd, 2009

The crude oil market has lost most of its popularity since it is no longer near $150 per barrel (no longer do oil-related topics dominate the main financial websites), but nonetheless I’m sure that nobody can deny crude oil’s importance in today’s globalized economy. It is vital for both businesses and individual consumers, as fuels are derived from it. Most of us need to drive and purchase goods that also need to be transported to us directly or indirectly.

Read more »

Precious metals enjoyed modest gains on the week as the US dollar was the predominating driver of where prices went. A weaker greenback on Friday combined with lower crude oil prices helped gold slide slightly from earlier week highs. Oil did jump nearly 3.5 percent this week while gasoline prices at the pump were almost 13 cents higher than last Saturday.

In other markets, US stocks declined for the first week in three while European indexes finished mixed with the London FTSE advancing.

In London bullion weekly figures, gold climbed 1.4 percent, silver rose 2.0 percent and platinum jumped 2.4 percent. Friday precious metals prices follow:

London silver closed to $17.65 an ounce, rising 34 cents from last Friday’s close. New York December silver futures ended at $17.723 for a 30.3 cent weekly increase.

London gold was fixed at $1,061.75 an ounce for a $14.25 gain on the week. New York gold for December delivery finished at $1,056.40 for a weekly gain of $5.70.

London platinum ended at $1,372.00 an ounce, advancing $32.00 since last Friday’s close. New York platinum for January delivery ended at $1,369.50 for a $21.00 weekly rise.

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Read the rest of Bullion & Business Weekend Report – Oct. 24 (1,447 words)

Gold declined nearly $6 Thursday, breaking away from a four-day winning streak as the US dollar gained ground. Silver and platinum also fell, as did crude oil which retreated from a one-year high. US stocks rallied on positive news from several corporate earnings reports.

New York precious metals figures follow:

• Silver for December delivery fell 28 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $17.545 an ounce. It ranged from $17.365 to $17.790.

• Gold for December delivery declined $5.90, or 0.6 percent, to $1,058.60 an ounce. The yellow metal ranged from $1,052 to $1,062.40.

• January platinum edged lower by $4.50, or 0.3 percent, to $1,369.90 an ounce.

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Read the rest of Gold, Commodities Decline; Stocks Rally (468 words)

The Daily Reckoning

“Who goes borrowing, goes sorrowing.”

– Ben Franklin

Today’s reckoning is going to be short. We’re on the road again…this time to Ireland where our Family office is headquartered.

The quote above comes from one of America’s founding fathers. But it was recalled to us neither by America’s president, nor America’s secretary of the Treasury, nor by America’s top banker. Instead, the Telegraph in London reported it from the mouth of Cheng Siwei, a “top member of the Communist hierarchy.”

The Telegraph reports:

“Cheng Siwei, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee…said Beijing was dismayed by the Fed’s recourse to “credit easing”.

“We hope there will be a change in monetary policy as soon as they have positive growth again,” he said at the Ambrosetti Workshop, a policy gathering on Lake Como.

“If they keep printing money to buy bonds it will lead to inflation, and after a year or two the dollar will fall hard. Most of our foreign reserves are in US bonds and this is very difficult to change, so we will diversify incremental reserves into euros, yen, and other currencies,” he said.

China’s reserves are more than – $2 trillion, the world’s largest.

“Gold is definitely an alternative, but when we buy, the price goes up. We have to do it carefully so as not to stimulate the markets,” he added.

The Chinese now have the wind at their backs. Having done the stupidest things a nation can do – for a period of about half a century – the Chinese are getting smart. They’re discovering the wisdom Americans have forgotten.

“A penny saved is a penny earned,” is another of Franklin’s quips. In China it is practically the national motto. The Chinese save 25% to 40% of their income.

And now, with their $2 trillion in national savings, they’re going on a buying spree. But unlike Americans in the Bubble Epoque, the Chinese aren’t buying cheap consumer goods. They’re buying real assets…raw materials…and key supplies of essential resources, such as rare metals.

Ultimately, gold is money…it’s a way to store wealth over the long term.

Just ask Terry Herbert. The man spent his time with a metal detector, looking for treasure in England’s green and golden fields. He’d been looking for years, but when he finally found something important it “brought tears to my eyes,” he says.

What Mr. Herbert found was perhaps the greatest discovery of buried treasure in English history – 1,500 different artifacts of gold and silver…dagger hilts, crosses, helmet cheek pieces and other items of war booty from the Anglo-Saxon period, about 1,400 years ago.

Had Mr. Herbert stumbled upon some IOUs from a Saxon chieftain, it would have been a remarkable discovery. Its historical value might have been inestimable. But what he found weighed in at 11 pounds of gold. In addition to the value to museums and historians, it has monetary value. Even if you melted it down, erasing all trace of its history and provenance, it would still be worth about $160,000 at today’s price – probably about as much as it was when the Saxons stole it.

Gold’s “price has been remarkably similar for centuries at a time,” wrote Roy W. Jastram in his 1977 book, The Golden Constant. “Its purchasing power in the middle of the twentieth century was very nearly the same as in the midst of the seventeenth century.”

Gold outlives paper money, empires, governments…all of us and all our institutions.

The Chinese have metal detectors too. And they know there’s not much real value behind the dollar.

“The dollar is finished,” says historian Niall Ferguson. The Chinese are dumping it, he says.

Ferguson speaks for the popular intelligentsia. His ideas reflect those of fund managers, hedge fund operators, bankers, politicians and speculators. They’re all convinced that the dollar is doomed.

The Financial Times elaborates:

“The financial crisis vividly taught investors the importance of tail risk, a massive one-off event that can crush the value of portfolios. As the dust settles, fear of another ‘tail’ to sting portfolios is uppermost in the minds of many investors and money managers.”

Oh, Mr. Market…where’s thy sting? It’s inflation, they believe.

It’s the risk “that the huge liquidity injections being made by central banks could spark a surge in either inflation and/or long-term interest rates beyond 2012,” continues the FT.

“Inflation is the single biggest topic for discussion among our clients,” says a private banker.

What’s remarkable about inflation is that there is so little of it. It makes us think this story may have a twist.

Until tomorrow,

Bill Bonner
The Daily Reckoning

The Golden Road Out of Financial Crisis originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, a FREE daily e-letter, offers a “uniquely refreshing” perspective on the global economy, investing, and today’s markets.

More articles from The Daily Reckoning….

Gold ended higher Wednesday and for the fourth straight day as a decline in the US dollar propped precious metals higher — silver and platinum advanced as well. In other markets, crude oil surged above $81 a barrel to a one-year high while US stocks retreated from their own earlier one-year highs.

New York precious metals figures follow:

• Silver for December delivery rose 26.7 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $17.825 an ounce. It ranged from $17.300 to $17.835.

• Gold for December delivery climbed $5.90, or 0.6 percent, to $1,064.50 an ounce. The yellow metal ranged from $1,048.10 to $1,065.70.

• January platinum advanced $18.10, or 1.3 percent, to $1,374.40 an ounce.

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Read the rest of Gold, Silver Rise; Stocks Fall (1,839 words)

CISA figures showed that daily crude output rose to within a whisker of August’s record levels

Read more….

By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gold futures rose on Monday, as investors
embraced more risk, pressuring the dollar, lifting stocks and helping
crude-oil futures test new highs for the year above $79 a barrel.

Copper also gained more than 4% before giving back some gains after
China estimated that its economy grew 9% in the third quarter.

Gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, rose
$2.60, or 0.2%, to $1,054.10 an ounce on the Comex division of the New
York Mercantile Exchange. The thinly traded October contract also
gained 0.3% to $1,053.50. . . .

The dollar, which has been used as a safe-haven currency, sank further, while the euro rose 0.2% to $1.4942. The dollar index
/quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0
(DXY
75.34,
-0.30,
-0.40%)
lost 0.3% to 75.409. See Currencies.

A weaker dollar lifts the price of dollar-denominated commodities and heightens gold’s appeal as a safe asset.

Crude-oil futures rose as much as $79.05 a barrel, a new high for the year.
See Futures Movers.

Gold rose “with oil reaching a new high for the year above $79 a
barrel, and the Federal Reserve signaling interest rates will stay near
record lows for the foreseeable future, the beleaguered greenback fell
to a 14-month low on the dollar index,” said analysts at GoldCore in a
note.

The dollar came under further pressure after the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York clarified it has been testing reverse repurchase agreements
for technical reasons, and that the tests should not be seen as hints
of a tighter monetary policy. See full story.

Separately, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke called for policy makers to watch
for the restrengthening of unsustainable global imbalances driven by
high levels of Asian exports and low U.S. savings rates as the global
economy rebounds. See full story.

Read more….