Morning Gold & Silver Market Report, 6/13/2012

Ryan Schwimmer

6/13/2012 8:01:00 AM

GLOBAL EASING AMOUNTS TO $6 TRILLION SINCE 2008  

American stock futures are pointing to a lower start, and were pushed even lower after a report indicated retail sales fell in May. Jim Reid of Deutsche Bank said, “In reality, price action is likely to remain unpredictable as we move towards this weekend, as position squaring will likely dominate ahead of the Greek election this Sunday.” The focus is squarely back on Greece in the eurozone, as the latest election could make or break the repeated bailout attempts for the troubled country. Gold recovered from early losses after release of the retail sales report.

Since 2008, more than $6 trillion has been printed as part of money-printing or quantitative easing programs by the central banks of the world. Further quantitative easing remains a near term possibility for all of the “Big Four” (Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Japan). Many investors assume that further easing is sure to happen, said Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Gary Baker.

The central banks seem to know a way to offset the inflation created by money printing, however. According to the World Gold Council, Gold makes up more than 70 percent of the reserves of countries including the United States, Germany, Italy and France. Kazakhstan is the latest to significantly increase its holdings in the metal, and by the end of the year expects to have holdings up to 20 percent. The country has bought 16.2 tons of Gold through April of this year, and expects that number to be 24.5 tons in the second half of the year.

At 9 a.m. (EDT), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,622.50, Up $8.70.
• Silver, $29.02, Down $0.03.
• Platinum, $1,462.30, Up $5.90.
• Palladium, $625.10, Up $0.90.

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