Mid-Day Gold & Silver Market Report – 4/19/2013

Ted Prince

4/19/2013 12:00:00 PM

RETAIL DEMAND FOR GOLD SOARS AFTER DRASTIC PRICE DIP

As Gold struggles to regain some of the ground it lost after suffering major losses earlier this week, individual investors are taking advantage of the price slump with a frenzy of physical bullion buying. "It's just like the sales after Christmas," said Nigel Moffatt, treasurer at Perth Mint. "Anything you could buy $200 cheaper today than you could last week becomes fairly tempting. It is surprising how such enormous liquidation brings such enormous interest at the other end from small investors.” As supply lines for physical bars and coins remain strained amid unusually strong retail demand, premiums for products are being forced to multi-month highs. In the U.S., two days of sales for the Gold American Eagle surpassed figures for the entire month of March. Gold and Silver manufacturers are ramping up production of coins and bars to meet the public desire for physical precious metals as retail investors appear undeterred by the drastic decline in prices. Jordan Eliseo, chief economist at ABC Bullion said, "When they see the gold price drop this low, they don't see 'collapse', they see 'bargain' and move in to buy heavily."

Equities remain fairly stable today following a week of turbulent price fluctuation. The S&P 500 recovered from a six-week low today after the release of better-than-expected earnings data. Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates has retained an optimistic outlook for the market, which has fallen 2.5 percent since its all-time high on April 11. Saut stated, “Earnings are going to continue to come in better than most people think. Companies have pretty much guided down and expectations are pretty low in terms of upside surprises.” Investors will await further market indicators to determine what investment strategy they deem most suitable.

At 1 p.m. (EDT), the APMEX Precious Metals spot prices were:

• Gold, $1,397.00, Up $2.00.
• Silver, $23.18, Down $0.18.
• Platinum, $1,425.10, Down $4.90.
• Palladium, $680.30, Up $10.40.

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