Bullion Prices & Business Weekend Recap – May 15, 2010

New York precious metals tilted lower on Friday, but posted gains for the week. Gold ended slightly down on the final business day after hitting a new record in morning trading. Profit-taking, a rising dollar and margin selling were cited as pressuring the yellow metal lower.

Other commodities outside of metals declined as well, with crude oil dropping to its lowest price in three months and by nearly 4 percent on Friday alone to under $72 a barrel.

In other markets, both European and U.S. stocks broke a two-week losing streak despite hefty losses on Friday.

In New York precious metals weekly prices, June gold gained $17.40, or 1.4 percent, to close at $1,227.80 an ounce. Its intraday Friday best of $1,249.70 set a new record, topping earlier week setting all-time highs. Gold prices have risen for four straight weeks.

"Gold is maybe a little too popular," Barry James, who manages $2 billion at James Investment Research Inc. in Xenia, Ohio, said via Bloomberg. "We might get a pullback, and that would be an opportunity to increase positions."

"There is some margin-related selling in gold triggered by losses in other assets. And the technical indicators are very high, it’s not surprising that we would have consolidation today," Bill O’Neill, partner of New Jersey-based commodities firm LOGIC Advisors, was quoted on Reuters.

New York silver for July delivery gained 77.4 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $19.225 an ounce. July platinum rose $49.60, or 3.0 percent, to $1,715.40 an ounce. June palladium advanced $17.70, or 3.5 percent, to $527.90 an ounce.

"Investment demand for precious metals is likely to remain strong in the coming weeks as uncertainty lingers about the effective implementation of austerity measures in troubled sovereigns across Europe," analysts at Credit Suisse in a note cited on MarketWatch.

In London bullion weekly prices, gold was fixed to $1,236.50 an ounce, increasing $34.25, or 2.8 percent.

Terry Wooten of Kitco News writes: "Gold has become a second haven for investors in the current Greek -European debt crisis and the International Monetary Fund and central banks appear to have little appetite to sell the metal, according to George Gero, vice president with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures."

Silver soared $1.94, or 11.0 percent to $19.640 an ounce. Platinum settled at $1,721.00, rising $70.00, or 4.2 percent. Palladium was $536.00, gaining $31.00, or 6.1 percent.

To follow are silver, gold, platinum and palladium performance charts, oil news, week-ending stocks, and precious metal article summaries.

London Fix Charts: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Palladium

(May 7 – 14)

The London Fix is one of the most used bullion quotes around the world. The London AM fix for gold and platinum begins at 10:30am GMT (5:30am in New York), and the PM fix begins at 3pm GMT (10am in New York). The London Fix for silver begins each business day at 12pm GMT (7am in New York).

London Fix Precious Metals Prices

World Business News: Oil, Gasoline, and Stocks Prices

Crude oil prices dropped to their lowest level in more than three months "as a rising dollar compounded jitters about Europe’s debt woes and its impact on the global economic recovery and demand for energy," wrote Claudia Assis and Polya Lesova of MarketWatch.

"What has been really driving the turmoil really is the uncertainty regarding the euro-zone sovereign-debt crisis," Victor Shum, a senior principal at U.S. energy consultants Purvin & Gertz Inc. in Singapore, said on Bloomberg. "Investors are trying to make sense whether the bailout package that was announced at the beginning of the week really would have any substantive bite. Lately a lot of doubt has been raised."

On Friday, New York crude oil for June delivery declined $2.79, or 3.8 percent, to close at $71.61 a barrel. Oil prices tumbled for the week, falling 4.7 percent after plunging 12.8 percent the prior week.

Prices at the pump fell six-tenths of a cent between Friday and Saturday. The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.877 a gallon, according to a AAA fuel report. The price is 4.3 cents lower than last week, 1.9 cents more than a month back, and 58.7 cents higher than a year ago.

U.S. stocks declined on Friday, on worries that Europe’s economic woes could spread to the United States, while the euro fell to 18-month lows versus the dollar and gold hit fresh records," wrote Alexandra Twin of CNNMoney.com.

"It’s a classic risk-off trading day," Win Thin, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. in New York, said on Bloomberg. "Commodities are down, stocks are down, emerging markets are down. Europe still has problems … There’s concern that if Europe implodes, the global recovery is jeopardized."

"The selling today really started with the euro and just spilled into the Dow and the other stock indexes, which is interesting to see," currency analyst Joe Trevisani, of the brokerage FX Solutions, was quoted on MarketWatch. "You don’t often get such a coherent message across all the markets. It shows you there are some real doubts out there about whether the euro-zone can pull off this balancing act."

Friday closing figures for the three major US indexes follow:

• The Dow fell 162.79 points to close at 10,620.16.

• The S&P declined 21.76 points to finish at 1,135.68.

• The NASDAQ lost 47.51 points to end at 2,346.85.

Stocks gained for the week, however, with the Dow rising 2.3 percent, the S&P advancing 2.2 percent and the Nasdaq adding 3.6 percent.

And in other world markets:

• The German DAX ended down 195.26 points to close at 6,056.71.

• The Paris CAC 40 declined 171.18 points to end at 3,560.36.

• The London FTSE 100 fell 170.88 points to 5,262.85.

For the week, the DAX rose 6.0 percent, the CAC 40 gained 4.9 percent and the FTSE 100 climbed 2.7 percent.

Bullion and Business Articles

In related bullion, business and United States Mint news, interesting or quick-read articles from the week include:

• Extra! Extra! Read All About It! – Jon Nadler, Kitco Metals Inc.
  Europe’s continuing crisis of confidence undermined the region’s common currency once again overnight and had it breaking the 1.25 level (and crashing to a 17-month low) as aggressive sellers tested the political will of its stewards. As such, not much in the way of a unified ‘will’ was to be gleaned from reports that France’s Mr. Sarkozy had to use threats of leaving the union last Friday in order to extract commitments from other members to come the aid of Greece.

  Thus, here we are, less than one week after the joint announcement of a package, with a euro trading below its levels of prior to the same. The scope and size of the package appear not to faze the ‘wolfpacks’ and Europe’s leaders might now need to resort to something with a lot more mega-tonnage of an effect in their arsenal. Germany’s Ms. Merkel painted the euro situation as something ‘existential.’

  Former Fed Chairmen Messrs. Volcker and Snow chimed in and underscored such a threat while suggesting that consolidation and integration – on all fronts (tax, fiscal, perhaps even political) is required at this juncture, as there was apparently no smoke detector for such an event installed at the inception of the union…

• US Gold Coin Sales Hit 114,000 in May
  U.S. gold bullion coin purchases are soaring this week and for May, already nearing or surpassing past monthly totals with just 13 days of sales recorded.

  As gold continues to score all-time record highs, investors are buying United States Mint gold coins to the tune of 114,000 ounces this month. An additional 3,001 will register May as the best sales month in 2010.

• Bullion Coins Soar, Quarters Proof Set Ends
  There is little excitement in glancing over the latest round of United States Mint sales figures for collector coins and sets, but the pulse quickens when watching how fast gold and silver bullions coins fly out of Mint doors.

  Nearly all numismatic products slowed. Several were actually trimmed to significantly lower levels than previously reported, as if the Mint reconciled a few weeks of returns and cancellations.