Closing Gold & Silver Market Report – 10/19/2012

SPAIN CAUSES COMMOTION IN THE MARKET; FISCAL CLIFF HERE BEFORE WE KNOW IT

Spain unsuccessfully requested a bailout today from the eurozone to rescue itself from a financial collapse, which directly affected the euro and gold negatively by pushing both down. "We're hearing Europe, the financial crisis; you're starting to hear that again, so the dollar strengthened a little bit. And then you're hearing OK news out of China, so that means the Chinese central bank may be delaying their new stimulus measures," said Yu-Dee Chang, chief trader at Ace Investment Strategists.

The fiscal cliff is approaching quickly as the market watches from afar to see how our government decides to handle the tax and spending cuts for the American people. The choices will not only affect all U.S. citizens, along with the economy. "The fiscal cliff impacts the economy both by creating uncertainty and by imposing austerity," Ethan Harris, Bank of America's North American economist, said in a report. "If we go over the cliff for an extended period of time, a recession is likely."

At 4 p.m. (EDT), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,722.50, Down $22.20.
• Silver, $32.11, Down $0.78.
• Platinum, $1,618.00, Down $23.20.
• Palladium, $627.20, Down $21.00.

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