Closing Gold & Silver Market Report – 1/19/2011

At 4PM (CT) the APMEX precious metal prices were:

• Gold price - $1,371.00
• Silver price - $28.82
• Platinum price - $1,836.50
• Palladium price - $816.90

Precious metals are not moving much this afternoon after they took advances earlier in the day. Holding back gold prices a little might be the numbers from IAMGOLD that stated that they were over on their predictions for Q4 production in 2010 from 940,000 to 970,000 which has led IAMGOLD changing their forecast for Q1 2011 to be anywhere from 1.1 to 1.2 million ounces. This change in expected supply could affect the price of gold.

We cannot forget about the U.S. debt news that has been kept a little quiet in lieu of all of the world news, Congress is being urged to raise the debt limit. There is talk in the U.S. Congress about raising the debt limit.  Democrats argue that if we increase it, we could be facing worse financial crisis, while Republicans say that we could have bigger issues at hand if we don’t increase it.  With the U.S. economy’s unclear future, the safe-haven appeal of gold as a hedge against inflation is growing. However, belief in gold as an insurance policy and protection as a hedge is still strong. Jim Cramer writes on RealMoney.com that he likes gold as a hedge and that “the amount of money that is being printed worldwide is outrageous and I can only conclude that you need something as a hedge to the printing press.”

Gold spot price was up $1.30 – Silver spot was down 14 cents – Platinum spot price was up $9.20– Palladium price was up $5.40