Morning Gold & Silver Market Report – 5/23/2011

SPANISH ELECTIONS HEAP MORE CONCERN ON EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS – IS ITALY NEXT? – Standard & Poor’s just cut its rating for Italy from neutral to negative. Fitch Ratings cut Greece once again on Friday. The Spanish Socialists Party suffered major losses in local elections, which is a clear signal that Spanish voters do not want austerity measures. All of these factors continue to paint a bleaker picture of euro zone finances. It seems more and more evident that Greek debt will need to be re-structured and the questions that remain are only how much and who is next? If you cannot pay what you owe and there is no political will to cut spending, what is left but restructuring?

The euro continues to decline and the US dollar continues to go up. World equity markets, as expected, are declining on these growing debt fears. The US stock market is set to open triple digits lower. Gold prices would be expected to move opposite of the US dollar, but just as they did last week, gold prices are stuck in neutral.The increasing US dollar would normally send prices down and the increasing fear about the debt crisis at home and abroad, would send prices up.

At 8AM (CT) the APMEX precious metal prices were:

• Gold price - $1,512.30 (up $1.90)
• Silver price - $34.75 (down 43 cents)
• Platinum price - $1,753.00 (down $17.40)
• Palladium price - $726.60 (down $12.80)