Mid-Day Gold & Silver Market Report – 10/12/2011

Peter LaTona

10/12/2011 12:10:00 PM

European Make-Or-Break It Summit on October 23 – Investors will keep a sharp eye out for any indications of what plans may be announced at this critical summit. Four euro zone leaders told Reuters today, that Greece’s private creditors, (largely banks, pension funds and financial institutions) are going to have to take more of a loss, than at first indicated. In July, Greek private investors were told to expect a “haircut” of 21%. Today, these four euro zone leaders have indicated losses could be up to 50%. If this turns out to be correct, it will place significant pressure on the European banking system. Although U.S. banks and financial institutions probably have little exposure to Greek debt, they certainly have exposure to European banks.

Slovakia did conduct another vote and they have approved a plan to participate in the euro zone rescue fund. This was a critical vote in that all 17 euro zone countries needed to vote yes for any plan to be ratified. Markets rallied on the news.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania state capitol filed for bankruptcy protection today. This is the largest city bankruptcy filing since Vallejo, California in 2008.This leads some investors to wonder whether this will be an isolated case or a sign of things to come.

At 12PM (CT) the APMEX precious metals prices were:

• Gold price - $1,685.50 – up - $22.60
• Silver price - $32.86 – up - 83 cents
• Platinum price - $1,554.50 - up $35.70
• Palladium price - $614.00 – up $7.70