[Blockierte Grafik: http://www.goldseek.com/news/LemetropoleCafe/lmpc.jpg]
http://www.lemetropolecafe.com
March 25 - Gold $416.90 down 20 cents - Silver $7.58 down 3 cents
Morgan Stanley Fails To Break Gold And Silver Markets
ZitatAssiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit (Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdoes both intelligence and skill)... Marcus Tullius Cicero
GO GATA!!!
An early MIDAS today as I am heading out to San Diego to watch my nieces play on their college tennis team.
Gold came in steady while silver was bombed early by HSBC, a major silver short, and to a lesser extent by silver price manager Morgan Stanley. HSBC offered 400 lots on the opening and all they could get filled was 30 lots. That meant there was an air hole and the silver price was bombed down 16 cents on the opening. Clearly the trade was doing all it could to take silver below $7.50 so the April calls would expire worthless.
Speaking of bombs, the world is going to have to deal with the creepy terrorists for the foreseeable future. Yesterday there were rumors of a bomb in a French train station and today we got this:
"Dutch officials have sealed off part of Amsterdam's central train station due to bomb threat, reports Reuters 7:55 ET"
"Traffic was stopped around 7:30 ET. A spokesman acknowledged that there was a threat that is being taken seriously."
While no one wants this to be a reason for the gold price to go up, it is a new fact of life this sort of tension will continue to be market supportive.
Hawkish inflation remarks by the British sent the pound sharply lower. Meanwhile, remember yesterday’s euro trashing and the "donkey" European rate cut story which was the impetus for its move? Well today the story has changed, as usual, now that the gold price rally was curtailed.
ECB's Welteke, Tumpel-Gugerell Say Stable Prices Best Boost for Consumers
March 25 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank council members Ernst Welteke and Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell said controlling inflation is the best the bank can do to boost consumer spending, the part of the economy policy makers are most concerned about.
Zitat``A central bank has few means'' to spur private consumption, Welteke said in an interview at the Bundesbank in Frankfurt, which he heads. ``Consumer demand could benefit from the increase in purchasing power that stems from price stability.'' ….
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said in a Handelsblatt interview published yesterday that the bank may lower its economic growth forecasts unless consumer demand in the euro region picks up. Trichet blamed unemployment, cuts in welfare and fear of future inflation for consumers' reluctance to spend, suggesting lower borrowing costs may not solve the problem.
Zitat``I can't imagine that there are consumers who link their decision about savings and consumption to the central bank interest rate,'' said Welteke, 61.
Rate Cut Expectations
Europe's shoppers are less likely to respond to lower rates than their U.S. counterparts because they borrow less to fund purchases and buy homes, says Trevor Williams, head of economic research at Lloyds TSB Group Plc in London.
A one-percentage-point reduction in interest rates would raise economic growth by about 0.6 percentage point in the U.S. the following year, compared with 0.3 percent in the euro region, according to Lloyds TSB.
``Trichet says perceived inflation is to blame for weak consumption. That would contradict a rate cut,'' said Daniela Etschberger, an economist at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Frankfurt. Still, "a rate cut would help companies and investment, and that would ultimately benefit consumption.''
Expectations for a reduction in interest rates rose after Trichet's comments.
-END-
Whatever happened to the Egyptian (Bin Laden’s right hand man) who was surrounded on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border? That was worth $4 on the downside for gold. You have to wonder how long the investment world is going to fall for these kinds of planted stories.
After a steady opening, gold tanked almost $2 in sympathy with the silver sell-off, but came back as the funds took on the trade who were protecting their shorts and option exposure. It wasn’t long before gold went positive. The rest of the day was a see-saw affair. Late, Morgan Stanley went ballistic offering gold and silver, trying to break both. They were met by resolute buying.
Their effort to break silver and "give it a lousy close" failed miserably.
The gold open interest gained another 2054 contracts on the break yesterday to 283,893. Once again we see evidence of the investment world’s willingness to take on The Gold Cartel. The silver open interest fell 544 contracts to 119,435 with the March dropping 23 contracts to 248.
There were no deliveries. MIDAS is still waiting for a short to deliver my 5,000 ounces of silver. Two trading days left for the March contract.
Considering the effort The Gold Cartel is making to contain gold, its price performance after the recent run-up is quite admirable. The bad guys have their hands full as a swarm of new buyers is willing to take them on. As far as silver goes, it is normal once a market breaks through key resistance like silver did at $7.50 to go back and test that area. The testing can last days or weeks. Once the test is passed, silver is likely to blow through $8 very quickly.
"Wir brauchen nur einen Teil dessen, was wir momentan vorhalten", sagte Zimmermann. "Ich würde die Mittel wegen der langfristigen Wirkung aber eher für den Schuldenabau verwenden",hob er hervor. "Man verpulvert nicht Tafelsilber, um einmal Essen zu gehen",meinte der DIW-Präsident und zeigte sich skeptisch über die tatsächliche Verwendung der Mittel im Rahmen des vorgeschlagenen Planes. Invesitionen in die Bildung seien zwar schon Investitionen in die Zukunft, und man könne auch Infrastrukturmaßnahmen als solche ansehen.