Closing Gold & Silver Market Report – 3/16/2012

PRECIOUS METALS PRICES REMAIN STEADY; OIL CONCERNS RISE

Precious metals prices remained relatively steady in afternoon trading. Technical selling to balance portfolios after a week of rising oil prices, the dollar’s decline in value and better than expected consumer prices pushed investors towards selling their positions to cover shortcomings throughout the week. These concerns and issues generally tend to point towards inflationary concerns. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said, “We still face a dangerous and uncertain world” when it comes to oil prices, because there is not an easy fix to solving the gasoline issue for domestic consumers.

Saudi Arabia is looking to become a resource that the U.S. will turn to in terms of covering any potential oil shortage in production from the U.S. There seems to be concern over a seasonal impact to production that is contributing to U.S. shortcomings with oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico just starting to come on-line following the winter season. Saudi oil production has been on the rise with two key refineries boosting their production to cover global concerns. The Iranian stand-off has pushed some Middle East countries to push Saudi Arabia to increase oil prices, but Saudi Arabia is standing beside the U.S. According to Amy Jaffe, energy policy expert for Rice University, “Beyond the expansion at Motiva, there has been a major public shift by the Saudis since the Iran tensions started to raise the price of oil… Saudi Arabia and the United States are trying to show the Iranians they (the Iranians) will have little flexibility, and they shouldn't count on the world needing all the oil that Iran produces.”

At 4:15 p.m. (CDT) – the APMEX precious metals spot prices were:

• Gold - $1,662.00 – Up $1.00.
• Silver - $32.63 – Down $0.14.
• Platinum - $1,673.00 – Down $11.90.
• Palladium - $701.00 – Down $8.90.