Mid-Day Gold & Silver Market Report – 11/14/2012

GOLD MOVES UP; EUROPE GRINDS TO A HALT

Gold prices are moving up at the halfway point of the week. The main release today is the minutes from the recent U.S. Federal Reserve meeting. Most experts believe there will be no groundbreaking information from the meeting, just more of the same actions. The government’s looming budget talks have dominated the headlines, and for good reason. If there is not a clear plan of action before the end of the calendar year, the country could be headed for a recession. “It’s easier to say that we've got two sides at the table that have historically shown no desire to cooperate with one another, why would we expect a change of behavior now? I don’t know,” said Lawrence Creatura, portfolio manager at Federated Investors.

Superstorm Sandy’s effects will be felt for months to come. After hitting the East Coast of the U.S. and shutting down everything in its path, reports have started showing the underlying damaged. For the last four months, retail sales in the U.S. had continued to rise until October. Since then, a few retail sectors like groceries and gas stations did better, but most others did not. “Even though we cannot isolate the effect, we did receive indications from the companies that the hurricane had both positive and negative effects on the retail sales data,” the Census Bureau said.

As governments in Europe start to implement spending cuts to help curb the region’s growing debt, citizens have taken to the streets in protest. Spain and Portugal have seen a massive stoppage of flights, ports, trains and factories. This is the first time the two countries’ major labor unions have organized one general strike. While the governments try to appease the masses, the people don’t see it helping. “I’m on strike because those who work are basically being blackmailed into sacrificing more and more in the name of debt reduction, which is a big lie,” said Daniel Santos de Jesus, who teaches architecture at the Lisbon Technical University.

At 1 p.m. (EST), the APMEX precious metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1731.80, Up $5.00.
• Silver, $32.81, Up $0.27.
• Platinum, $1592.50, Up $6.10.
• Palladium, $642.10, Up $4.50
  

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