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Friday, October 21, 2011

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3 Bakken Shale Stocks You Must Have

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 06:02 AM PDT

By Dividend Stocks Online:

The Bakken Shale is the 21st century version of the gold rush that brought people to otherwise uninhabited areas of the United States west coast. Out of work families came to these small mining towns in search of their slice of the reported wealth generated by these gold miners.

The Bakken Shale, a 200,000 square mile rock formation in areas of Montana, North Dakota, and Canada's Saskatchewan is a modern day gold rush beginning to catch increasing attention. In a country with an unemployment rate of 9% and much higher for those often referred to as blue collar workers, the Bakken Shale is a place with an almost unlimited amount of well-paying jobs for those willing to put in long days of backbreaking work as well as an almost endless supply of truckers needed, some of which making more than $100,000 annually.

This sparsely populated area is home to some


Complete Story »

Ominous Signals for Silver and Stocks

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 05:06 AM PDT

Cheap Gold Stocks

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 04:59 AM PDT

Perth Mint Profiting From High Gold Price

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 04:39 AM PDT

From GoldMoney:
The owner of Australia's Perth Mint, Gold Corporation, have reported their second-best ever financial results over the past fiscal year. The oldest Australian mint's profits climbed from $18.7 million in fiscal year 2009-10 to $28 million in 2010-11. Moreover, the management of the Perth Mint is optimistic that the gold price will increase further in the coming years. The main reason for this assumption is that it will likely take years to overcome the world's debt problems and the global financial crisis, as the company stated in its 2011 annual report.

The gold price has not peaked yet, according to Edward Harbuz – chief of the Perth Mint. Uncertainty in financial markets continues to grow each day – mainly caused by the world's horrendous debt problems, worries about the stability of the global financial system as well as weakening economic growth rates in Europe and China. The markets are hoping for reassurance from German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at European Council meetings over the next week that the EU is arriving at a plan to address the eurozone's debt crisis. However, the French idea of leveraging Europe's bailout fund (the EFSF) by up to 2 trillion euros has led to disputes among members of Germany´s coalition government as well as between the government and opposition parties. Markets are hoping for some sort of agreement by next Wednesday.

However, many market participants believe that it will be difficult – to say the very least – to find a way out of the continent's over-indebtedness. Nevertheless, gold and silver prices have fallen in the last few days and were once again under sales pressure yesterday. However, the Perth Mint point out that the current economic environment remains extremely supportive for precious metal prices. Though this is good news for those holding the likes of gold and silver to protect their purchasing power, it is bad new for jewellers. In the United States, the jewellery industry has relied on substituting cheaper metals for gold and platinum, owing to the increased expense of using the latter two metals. Many clients are more reluctant to buy expensive jewellery items, following gold's six-fold price increase since the year 2000. Platinum has doubled in price, with US wages and salaries dropping by around 7% adjusted for inflation in the same period.

For this reason there is increasing demand from US jewellers for bronze and copper as substitutes for gold. Platinum is increasingly being replaced by its sister metal palladium, which has the same white colour, but costs only 40% of the current platinum price. Above all, American jewellers are always trying to experiment with new alloys to boost their businesses. But not all customers favour this development. Wealthy clients who buy jewellery partly for investment purposes are increasingly sceptical of some of the new jewellery products, since retailers are increasingly trying to cater to lower income audiences. Many wealthy individuals remain happy to pay the extra premium for expensive jewellery containing gold and platinum.

Read more @ GoldMoney.Com

India's Gold and Silver Imports Jump 80%

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 04:28 AM PDT

From MineWeb:
Investors in India appear to be moving out of cash and into gold and silver. As poorly performing equities hit valuations, analysts and traders insist there is an acceleration in the investing community to asset switch into precious metals.Both the precious metals, gold and silver, recovered sharply in the domestic market on Friday, on fresh buying by stockists and jewellers here. While the yellow metal surged $7.49 to $538.47 for 10 grams, silver rose by around $7.99 to $1051 per kilo.

Traders said revival of buying by stockists and jewellers at existing lower levels was meant to meet seasonal demand and the festival of lights coming up next week, while reports of a firming trend in the Asian region had mainly pushed up both gold and silver prices.The Indian government recently released its export figures. According to the data released by the government for April to September, imports of gold and silver rose by a whopping 80% to $31.1 billion during six months.

India's exports maintained their growth momentum in September 2011, rising by 36.3% year on year to $ 24.8 billion, though there was a `deceleration' due to uncertainty in the US and Europe, commerce secretary Rahul Khullar was quoted by newswires as saying. Even as India's exports grew at an impressive pace, it has raised hopes of crossing the $300 billion mark for the whole year.

Talking about diversification of markets, the official said that in the last six years, India's export and import destinations have shifted from traditional markets to new regions. While exports to the North America (the US and Canada) declined to 11% from 18%, the country's shipments contracted to 19% from 22% during the period from 2004 to 2011."Earlier, North America and Europe accounted for 40% of the country's exports and now this share has come down to 30%. A gap of 10% is really huge," said Satish Mona, an analyst with a brokerage firm.

More @ MineWeb.com

Gold and Silver Stocks Near Record Lows Relatively Speaking

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 04:25 AM PDT

When compared to the XAU mining shares are a relative mega-bargain. 

HOUSTON --  From the Chart Book.  We keep hearing from people we all respect, people like James Turk, of the GoldMoney Foundation, Peter Schiff, of Euro-Pacific Capital, Eric Sprott, of Sprott Asset Management, Rick Rule, of Global Resource Investments, and U.S. Global Investor's Frank Holmes (to name a few very respected voices) … we keep hearing from these experts and many more that mining shares are undervalued relative to the two most popular underlying precious metals, gold and silver.


There are market-centric and liquidity-flight issues that have contributed to the phenomenon of weaker-than-normal performance by the miners, especially since 2008, as any of the above mentioned investing gurus would likely be able to recount.  But even so, when we examine the statistics today for the relationship between mining shares and the metals and compare them to the pre-2008 Panic period, it really is stunning to see just how much confidence has evaporated from the equities markets. 

It is one thing to hear that the metals stocks are undervalued.  Using simple chart ratios we can visualize it clearly.   We shall let the two charts below do most of the 'talking' today.  (Well, sort of, if the old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words is true.)  First the Philly Gold and Silver Stocks Index (XAU) relative to gold metal, and then the same index in terms of silver.  The charts are largely self-explanatory.


20111021XAUgold
(XAU:Gold, 20-years, monthly.  If any of the images are too small, click on them for a larger version.)

If it isn't obvious, the XAU index is very close to the same level as it reached during the 2008-Panic on a relative basis even though gold is nearly $1,000 an ounce higher in price since the ratio lows.  If this ratio is also a measure of investor/trader confidence in the equities markets; if the ratio is also a measure of the amount of liquidity investors have entrusted to the markets, we would have to note that people have, at best, weak confidence and have apparently withdrawn a significant amount of liquidity out of the markets since 2008 and recently.

Given the great tank cars full of uncertainly that have been unleashed upon the markets by the current cast and crew in Washington; given the oceans of sovereign debt and the constant mental beating that issue has delivered to investors here and in Europe lately; and given that investors just survived one economic near-death experience barely three years ago, perhaps it is understandable that mining shares have been unable to "answer" the metals anything like they "used to" or "should" recently.  Once confidence is lost, or worse, abused, it can be extremely slow to recover, in markets … and in life in general, we have found. 

The very sobering question that nags chart wonks like us when viewing a chart like the one above or the one below has to be:  Is the underperformance by mining shares a sign that the metals have run too high in price, or is it a sign that once things "settle down" that the miners are set to skyrocket in a catch-up maneuver? 

When we look at the XAU in terms of silver, the story is even more dramatic. Notice, please, that the XAU:Silver Ratio recently made its lows in April as silver rose up to near $50 with virtually no "answer" from the Big Miners.    

20111021XAUsilver
 (XAU:Silver, 20-years, monthly.) 

Was that a great "tell" or what?  Silver's ascent to near $50 was premature as far as this ratio was concerned. A case of silver metal running up without the miners, and then coming back in. Somewhat troubling is that even after silver has corrected as much as 46% since its April pinnacle the XAU:Silver Ratio is still so bloody close to the all time bottom. 

Recall that Wednesday we shared the silver COT for the COMEX futures traders we track closely, which was about as bullish as it gets?  Well, in some respects the chart above is an argument to that bullish indicator as of right now.  The XAU:Silver Ratio "says" that investors, fund and portfolio managers and traders of all stripes remain either fearful of equities markets in general or skeptical that the metals will hang onto their current levels.  Either that or the market is pricing in a new dynamic, a new equilibrium for their relationship we have never seen before (possible, of course, but very highly unlikely). 

As of right now mining shares are not really signaling either strength or confidence, are they?  As of right now it is patently obvious that the miners are bloody cheap relative to the current prices of gold and silver, are they not? If these ratios are our benchmark of value, then we'd call them mega-cheap on a relative basis right now.     

It may take a while, and it may take longer than most people are mentally geared for, but at some point we can virtually guarantee that these ratios will revert to the mean at the very least.  More likely, the ratios will not just revert to the mean, but they will likely overshoot to well above the mean and then the miners will appear overvalued relative to the metals again. We have to admit that nothing prevents them from getting even more skewed in the undervalued direction first, however.  

That leaves us with the question:  Are gold and silver heading lower or are mining shares heading higher in order for these ratios to revert to the mean?  

Here at Got Gold Report we see the two ratios above as the visualization of a giant sling shot, with the rubber band being pulled farther and farther away from the center and growing tauter.  We can even see the possibility that gold and silver might increase even more strongly than they have already, taking the rubber band to near its breakpoint before investor confidence and/or greed in the mining shares releases the pent up pressure.

No one can see the future – it hasn't happened yet.  We can't know when the mining shares sling shot will finally fire, in advance.  We just want the security to know that we have a few good dogs in the metals and mining shares hunt in advance of when our sling shot lets loose.

After enduring the worry period, the multiple crises and the 2008 Panic period, we sure wouldn't want to miss the "fun" part.  Of course everyone can make up their own minds about such things, and should. 

That is all for now, but there is more to come. 

Invest in Gold – and the Chinese Renminbi

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 04:23 AM PDT

Worried About Silver? Listen to Eric Sprott’s Stump Speech

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 03:47 AM PDT

Hedge fund manager Eric Sprott's speech at this week's Silver Summit turned a room full of nervous precious metals owners into pumped-up silver buyers. Some of the highlights are posted below, and here's a link to a recent Financial Sense interview where he makes many of the same points.

  • The US Mint sells about the same dollar amount of gold and silver coins, which means it sells 50 ounces of silver for every ounce of gold. It's more or less the same story at GoldMoney and Sprott Money.
  • Ten times more silver than gold is produced each year, and the ratio in the earth's crust is 15:1, so how can the price be 50:1? Expect a return to the historical norm of 15:1, which implies that silver will outperform gold.
  • The supply/demand picture has seen a 380 million ounce per year positive swing — in a 900 million ounce market. Where is the silver coming from?
  • The paper silver markets trade a billion ounces a day and the world only produces 900 million in a year. The amount available for settlement of these futures contracts is something like 1.5 million ounces, ludicrously little compared to the amount of paper.
  • "On the physical side I'm seeing only buyers."
  • "There are a lot more people who can afford a one-ounce silver coin than an ounce of gold."
  • Gold will be a reserve currency and silver will also play a role.
  • "We tried to buy 15 million ounces of silver and had to wait three months — and some of the silver we got was manufactured after we ordered. So there's not a lot of silver sitting on shelves waiting for people to buy it."
  • "Somewhere along the line some manufacturer will say 'I can't get the silver I want' and the jig's up."
  • People will prefer gold and silver to having money in a bank where there's tremendous counterparty risk. Three months ago Dexia was considered to be the best capitalized European bank and now they've been nationalized.
  • "You go to some of the biggest names who own gold and ask them about silver and a lot of them haven't even looked at it."
  • Central banks are selling gold surreptitiously.
  • "It's shocking how undervalued the junior miners are…Gold and silver stocks are growth stocks. They all have a plan to increase production dramatically. Small miners can start a new mine and double in size…The relative value of gold stocks will become apparent with time…The breakout, when it comes, will be very sudden."

Full disclosure: The staff at DollarCollapse is massively long precious metals, especially silver.

The Gold Standard Bogus Show – “Gold Standard BS”

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 03:03 AM PDT

It seems the whole world is beginning to accept the likelihood of a global financial apocalypse. As each day passes, the expectation is becoming more real; and with the realization, there is increasing talk of a Gold Standard.

THE NEW GOLD STANDARD PONZI SCHEME
Will there be a return to the Gold Standard? I believe there will be, but it will be nothing like the Old Gold Standard. Rather, it will likely be a new version that will, in the end, prove to be nothing more than another Ponzi scheme by corrupt government "leaders" to do their best to steal the public's wealth.

HOW DO I KNOW?
I don't, but I do know this—the public is being lied to through government reporting now. It has been shown there are false or hidden numbers being provided for the following:
- Inflation
- CPI
- Jobs and unemployment
- Money supply
- Debt
- Bailout dollars' destinations
- Etc., etc., etc.

And don't forget, the government is allowing Ponzi schemes in gold to run unabated now, with ETF's. Those "in the know" report there is not enough gold to cover the positions purchased by investors. One whistle blower states the ratio of real metals to the "reported physical supply" is 1:100. No one outside of a small circle of elites is allowed to view actual inventories—report confirmed.

Many have stated there is no gold in Fort Knox, or any other depository. Again, no one outside of a small circle is able to see the gold the government claims is being held—reports conformed.

Meanwhile, the public-at-large has become dumbed down to holding a piece of paper representing such and such amount of gold in an ETF as acceptable. And, it is being reported that those brave souls who stand for delivery have become accustomed to accepting cash in lieu of physical gold in settlement.

THE PONZI SCHEME CONTINUES FOR A TIME
So when the government acquiesces to the call for a Gold Standard, the Ponzi scheme will continue with people blindly accepting a piece of paper in place of genuine gold as being proof there is an actual inventory in a repository somewhere. All government assurances will be given—but no one from outside the small circle of elites will be allowed to see the tangible inventory.

Yes, there will be a few more brave souls who will want their gold-backed fiat converted to the real thing; but most, swearing not to reveal their outcome, will accept more cash, as is happening with ETF conversions now. A few may even get physical gold, while what little is truly in hand will be rationed to keep the blinders on a trusting, already blind public.

This will continue for a time. It will stave off a final collapse for a time. But until it does, the New Gold Standard will be just another Ponzi scheme to obscure the continuing transfer of wealth from an ignorant public to those in the small circle of elites. If you think metal prices are volatile now—"You ain't seen nothing yet."

Yes, I expect we'll return to the Gold Standard, but while they can get away with it, it will be the "Gold Standard Bogus Show—"Gold Standard BS" for short. How long will it last? My best guess is it will last somewhere around a time, times, and half a time.

Sovereign Silver Buying, Middle-East Shortages

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 02:18 AM PDT

From KWN:
On the heels of KWN reporting the Chinese buying massive amounts of gold yesterday, King World News has now interviewed the "London Trader" to get his take on the situation in silver. The source stated, "The price of silver has no reality to the paper market at all, absolutely zero reality there anymore. There is extraordinarily tight supply right now in Asia. When you order silver there is so little available at these prices, that's the trouble. You can order it all day long, but you are going to have to wait for it."

The London Trader continues:
"Chances are you are not going to get quantity at this price. If people have physical silver they are not selling it at these levels. Supply/demand is tight and you know there is a big wait involved in getting your silver. If I put in an order for tonnage, I have to find a wholesaler that actually can source it at this price and then there is the significant wait time.

Read more @ King World News

Marshall Auerback: Gold and Silver Opportunities in Turbulent Times

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 02:07 AM PDT

Gold Stocks to Retest Lows

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 01:51 AM PDT

Why the gold selloff is not over yet

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 01:37 AM PDT

From Gold Scents:

At this point, I think it's pretty clear the general stock market is now in the initial phase of a new bear market. It's trying to generate a bear market rally over the last three weeks, but so far it's been pretty weak. That doesn't bode well once the cyclical and secular bear trend resumes.

The HUI mining index is now on the verge of breaking down out of the multi-month megaphone topping pattern. Once it does, that will confirm that the bear now has his teeth in the last holdout sector. The sector that led the bull market over the last 2 1/2 years and now the last sector to succumb to the deflationary forces.

As I have noted in the chart, I do expect the miners will find at least temporary support at the 200-week moving average. That should correspond with gold putting in an intermediate degree bottom sometime in the next two or maybe three weeks. Presumably, it will come with gold below...

Read full article (with charts)...

More on gold:

Top trader Gartman warns of another gold selloff

These gold mining stocks could lead the next rally

A cheap new place to buy gold and silver you probably haven't considered

US Dollar Plunges to Post WW II Low Against the Japanese Yen

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 01:29 AM PDT

Underemployed And Hating Life

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 01:14 AM PDT

Today, millions of smart, hard working Americans are flipping burgers, waiting tables or working dead end retail jobs not because they want to, but because they have no other options.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 14 million Americans are currently unemployed and another 9.3 million Americans are currently "underemployed".  During this economic downturn, a lot of Americans have been forced to take part-time jobs because they have been unable to find full-time jobs.  For many, this can be a soul-crushing experience.  It can be easy to become very bitter when you have worked very hard all your life and yet you find yourself having to take a job that only pays you a fraction of what you used to make.  A lot of young college graduates end up hating life because the only jobs that they can seem to find do not even require a college degree and don't even come close to enabling them to keep up with their crippling student loan debt payments.  Sadly, the underemployment problem continues to grow even worse.  In September alone, the number of underemployed Americans rose by close to half a million.

There are other measurements that indicate that unemployment in America is even worse that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is indicating.

For example, a recent Gallup poll found that approximately one out of every five Americans that currently have a job consider themselves to be underemployed.

In addition, according to author Paul Osterman about 20 percent of all U.S. adults are currently working jobs that pay poverty-level wages.

When you try as hard as you can and you still can't pay the bills, it is easy to end up hating life.

What some Americans are going through is absolutely heart breaking.  Just consider the following story from a recent article on Fox News....

Damian Birkel, of Winston-Salem N.C., found himself in similar circumstances. He was a marketing manager at Sarah Lee in the early 1990s when he was downsized. Since then, he has been laid off from three other jobs, including one at a recruiting firm.

"I felt like I had 'loser' tattooed to my forehead, and 'will work for food' tattooed to my chest," he says. 

The hardest part was telling his young daughter that there might not be enough money to pay the bills -- among them, sending her to summer camp. "She brings her piggy bank and says, 'Daddy, why don't you break into the piggy bank so that you can pay some of the bills.'"

How would you feel if your little daughter said that to you?

Unfortunately, the number of good jobs just continues to decrease.

There are fewer payroll jobs in the United States today than there were back in 2000 even though we have added 30 million extra people to the population since then.

And the mix of jobs that our economy is producing continues to change.

Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs.  Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs.

What that means is that the middle class is shrinking.

A lot of young people are coming out of college right now and are having their dreams absolutely crushed.  Large numbers of them are entering the "real world" with nightmarish student loan debt burdens and only a limited number of them can find decent jobs.

A recent USA Today article told the story of one of these very frustrated young Americans....

Kate Wolfe chased a dream when she moved to New York after college, looking to break into acting while working as a maître d'.

Her $50,000 worth of student loans were a distraction she could handle. Then the uninsured 25-year-old was mugged last year, and the final indignity was the $30,000 emergency room bill.

We are pumping out tons of college graduates, but we are not pumping out nearly enough jobs for all of them.

If you can believe it, in the United States today there are 317,000 waiters and waitresses that actually have college degrees.

That is an absolutely horrifying statistic.

But the truth is that the lack of good jobs is hitting every age level really hard.

For example, the average American family is under a tremendous amount of financial stress in this economy.  Once you adjust it for inflation, median household income in the United States has declined approximately 10 percent since December 2007.

Meanwhile, the cost of food, gas, health insurance and just about everything else a family needs has gone up significantly.

Our politicians keep talking about "jobs, jobs, jobs" but the number of decent jobs continues on a very clear downward trend.

Back in 1980, 52 percent of all jobs in the United States were middle income jobs.  Today, only 42 percent of all jobs in the United States are middle income jobs.

Sadly, it now looks like even the low income jobs are starting to dry up.

Mall vacancies recently hit a brand new all-time record.  Major retail chains all over the country are announcing layoffs.  Things do not look very promising for the upcoming holiday season.

So what are our leaders doing about all of this?

Well, unfortunately they continue to fumble the football very badly.

According to a recent ABC News report, the U.S. government actually gave a $529 million loan guarantee to an electric car company that decided to make its cars in Finland....

Vice President Joseph Biden heralded the Energy Department's $529 million loan to the start-up electric car company called Fisker as a bright new path to thousands of American manufacturing jobs. But two years after the loan was announced, the job of assembling the flashy electric Fisker Karma sports car has been outsourced to Finland.

If we don't figure out how to stop millions of jobs from leaving this country we are going to be in a world of hurt.

The trade policies of the federal government are neither "free" nor "fair" and they are causing the standard of living of American workers to rapidly sink toward the level of the rest of the world.

We are told that it is "inevitable" that we are going to be deindustrialized and that we are going to become a service economy.

But guess what?

Service jobs generally pay a lot less than manufacturing jobs do.

A "one world economy" where our labor force is merged with the labor forces of the rest of the globe is not a good thing for the average American worker and it is not a good thing for America.

But of course trade is not the only reason why we are losing good jobs.  There are a whole bunch of reasons why this is happening.  For many more reasons, just check out this article.

A lot of you that are reading this article are unemployed or underemployed right now.

Unfortunately, there is not much hope that the U.S. economy is going to experience a significant turnaround any time soon.

In fact, it is likely that things are going to be getting even worse.

Our economic system is dying.  Now is the time to try to get as independent of it as you can.

Don't count on a job ("just over broke") as your only source of income.  In this economy, no job is safe.

There are millions upon millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans that never dreamed that their lives would go so horribly wrong.

But they did.

Our nation is experiencing the consequences of decades of very bad decisions.

There is no help on the horizon and the calvary is not on the way to rescue us.

You better prepare accordingly.

Why Declines in Gold Do Not Change the Bullish Outlook at the Moment

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 01:00 AM PDT

SunshineProfits

LISTEN: Bob Hoye talks with Dominic Frisby

Posted: 21 Oct 2011 12:49 AM PDT

Dominic Frisby asks Bob Hoye, of Institutional Advisors, about gold and mining stocks. They talk about markets in general and more specifically about gold, gold mining stocks, commodities, energy prices. Bob Hoye expects a new recession to come very soon. He expects lower stock prices within the next couple of years, with much higher prices for gold stocks. They talk about history and the performance of gold stocks in the 1930s.

Bob Hoye talks about his experience in mining exploration, discovery plays and when to get out. He sees growing investment demand for gold in a deflationary scenario, and how this will eventually affect gold stocks.The beginning of a great depression, according to Bob Hoye, is normally marked by a mania in paper assets and the stock market normally behaves as a leading indicator. They point out the similarities between 2011 and 1937. They talk about the history of the Great Depression, the gold standard and fiat currencies.

~TVR

Tocqueville's Hathaway Muses About Intervention Against Gold

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 09:24 PM PDT

¤ Yesterday in Gold and Silver

The gold price opened quietly in Far East trading early Thursday morning...but it wasn't long [8:30 a.m. Hong Kong time] before a not-for-profit seller showed up...and had gold down about twenty bucks by their lunchtime.

From there, gold pretty much traded in a ten dollar range until late in the New York lunch hour, where it hit its low of the day [$1,602.70 spot] before rising to close the electronic trading session at $1,620.20 spot...down $22.50 on the day.  Net volume was about the same as Wednesday's... around 180,000 contracts.

The silver price action was, as always, far more 'volatile'.  Like gold, it got sold off during the early part of the Hong Kong trading day...and was down about 75 cents by 1:30 p.m. on their Thursday afternoon.  But, by 10:15 a.m. in New York, silver was back above its Wednesday closing price before a serious not-for-profit seller showed up...and within the space of two and a half hours, had peeled $1.62 off the price.  The low tick was $29.86 spot.

Once the seller disappeared at 12:50 p.m. Eastern time, silver gained back about half of its losses, but still closed down 65 cents at $30.58 spot.  Net volume was pretty chunky at 48,000 contracts.

Here's a partial ino.com dollar chart from yesterday, as it's obvious they're having problems with it.  If there's much co-relation between the dollar price action and the price action of gold and silver...particularly between 10:15 a.m. and 12:50 p.m. Eastern time, I certainly can't see it.

The gold stocks followed the precious metal price like a shadow yesterday...with the 10:15 a.m. Eastern time high...and the 12:50 p.m. low...standing out like the proverbial sore thumbs.  The HUI finished down 0.84%...and after Wednesday's out-of-the-blue pounding the stock took, I guess one should be thankful for small mercies.

The silver stocks turned in a rather mixed performance, with Nick Laird's Silver Sentiment Index showing a decline of 'only' 1.35%.

(Click on image to enlarge)

The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that 37 gold and 15 silver contracts were posted for delivery on Monday.  None of these deliveries removes gold from the Comex-approved depositories, which is where all this gold is stored.  All that happens is that the ownership of individual bars changes from the old owner to the new owner...and all these 'owners' are to be found in the Commercial category of the Commitment of Traders.

I was told that this photo was taken in the gold vault at the Bank of England.  I would suspect that the Comex vaults look somewhat similar.

(Click on image to enlarge)

There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday...and over at SLV, another 632,611 troy ounces were withdrawn.

The U.S. Mint had another sales report.  The sold another 6,000 ounces of gold eagles...500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes...and 125,000 silver eagles.

Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Wednesday, they reported receiving nothing as far as silver goes...but shipped 423,806 troy ounces out the door.  Most of the action was at Scotia Mocatta...and the link is here.

The movements reported in this report is actual physical metal that arrives and leaves the Comex warehouses.  Every single bar in these five warehouses is owned by somebody, as there is a Registered Warehouse Receipt written for every bar stating who the owner is.  All of it is for sale at some price.  But, for the moment, that sale price is very high, as nothing is leaving the exchange.  New silver has to be brought in to meet delivery demands because all the silver bars currently sitting there gathering dust, aren't for sale at current prices.  This is why there is such frantic in/out action.  It's a sign of physical tightness.

Here's an interesting chart that was sent to me by West Virginia reader Simon Elliot yesterday.  It shows us something that virtually all of us are painfuly aware of...and that's how poorly the precious metal equities are doing relative to the price of gold itself.

(Click on image to enlarge)

These stocks are screaming buys in my opinion...and if you were 'bottom fishing'...this would be just about as close to the bottom as you're going to get.

Since yesterday was the 20th of the month, The Central Bank of the Russian Federation updated their website for September showing their gold purchases for that month.  They reported buying another 200,000 ounces, bringing their gold reserves up to 27.4 million ounces.  Here's Nick Laird's graph of the banks purchases going back six years.

(Click on image to enlarge)

I have a more reasonable number of stories today.  Of course that depends on your definition of the word.

Just like horseshoes, hand grenades and atomic bombs...close is usually good enough for most precious metal stock traders.
The Best Gold Stock Opportunity I've Seen in Two Years: Jeff Clark. Chinese buyers love gold's dips in London. China rare earths supplier suspends production. Kitco's creditor protection extended.

¤ Critical Reads

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The companies that control the world's wealth

A trio of complex system theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, claim that a select group of global bankers own a large chunk of the global economy.

The study found that of the 43,060 transnational corporations (TNCS) in existence, a group of 1,318 companies formed the heart of the world's financial system.

This group could further be distilled to a core group of 147 companies which controlled 40 per cent of the wealth. The core group was dubbed the 'super entity' by the researchers and was largely made up from corporate banks like Barclays and Goldman Sachs.

No surprises here.  This story was posted over at the Australian division of finance.yahoo.com yesterday...and I thank Nick Laird for sharing it with us.  It's also a must read...and the link is here.

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Fed Should Buy More Mortgage Bonds: Fed Governor

The Federal Reserve should consider buying more mortgage bonds to support a fragile economic recovery and a downtrodden housing sector, Fed Board Governor Daniel Tarullo said on Thursday.

"I believe we should move back up toward the top of the list of options the large-scale purchase of additional mortgage-backed securities," Tarullo said in text prepared for deliver at a conference at Columbia University. "There is need, and ample room, for additional measures to increase aggregate demand in the near to medium term, particularly in light of the limited upside risks to inflation over the medium term."

QE3 anyone?  This Reuters piece was posted over at cnbc.com early yesterday evening...and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending it along.  It's worth skimming...and the link is here.

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Sedan again as Germany imposes terms

German victory. Defeat for France, Spain, Italy, and the Greco-Latin sphere.

My instant impression from the leaked EU summit draft is that the accord is minimalist, and largely a German Diktat. It has the makings of a diplomatic Sedan 1870.

If this is what landed on Nicolas Sarkozy's desk at the Elysee on Wednesday, one starts to grasp, sort of, why he left Carla Bruni to labour alone as he dashed to Frankfurt to meet the two other women in his life, Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF chief Christine Lagarde, as well as the European Central Bank's old and new chiefs.

The text may well be very different by Sunday. It had better be.

This Ambrose Evans Pritchard from yesterday morning's edition of The Telegraph...and it's well worth the read.  This is Roy Stephens first offering of today...and the link is here.

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European debt crisis talks plunged into chaos as leaders announce another summit

A statement released by the Elysee Palace said that Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel would meet to discuss their "ambitious and comprehensive response" to the crisis ahead of the European Council summit on Sunday.

But in a tacit admission of the gulf between them, the statement added that resolutions would be "finally adopted" at a "second meeting no later than Wednesday".

Insiders said the weekend's summit of European leaders came close to being cancelled altogether, with the French president Mr Sarkozy having to beg German Chancellor Mrs Merkel not to pull the plug during frantic telephone calls.

This Roy Stephens offering was posted in The Telegraph just before midnight in London last night.  It's a must read...and the link is here.

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The World from Berlin: The 'Absurd Logic' of Leveraging the EFSF

Following the news that Berlin and Paris remain divided on how to make the euro-zone bailout fund more effective, European efforts to stem the debt crisis have taken another blow thanks to a split between the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

The IMF has rated EU projections for Greece's debt as too optimistic, and wants to delay approval of the next tranche of aid until after the Brussels summit this weekend to see if a clearer picture emerges, EU officials said.

Without a loan payment of €8 billion euros from the EU and IMF, Greece faces a default next month, a development that could also threaten to drag Spain and Italy into the mire through a contagion effect. Euro-zone leaders are racing to agree on new steps to reduce Greece's debt, strengthen the capital of banks and leverage the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) euro backstop fund to stem contagion to bigger economies -- but progress appears slow.

This piece was posted over at the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and is Roy Stephens third offering in a row.  It's well worth the read...and the link is here.

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S&P sees downgrade blitz in EMU recession, threatening crisis strategy

Standard & Poor's (S&P) is to warn that a double-dip recession in Europe would imperil France's AAA rating and set off a string of downgrades across Southern Europe, undermining the EU's debt crisis strategy. 

The report, due Friday, said a double-dip recession would lead to a downgrade of "one or two notches" for France, Spain, Italy, Ireland and Portugal, both because of tumbling tax revenues and the extra costs of propping up banks.

The scenario looks increasingly likely after Germany slashed its growth forecast from 1.8pc to 1pc for 2012. Greece and Portugal are contracting at alarming speeds. Italy and Spain are already in industrial recession.

This Ambrose Evans-Pritchard story that was posted in The Telegraph yesterday evening

Even slipping toward $1,600, gold outperforms, Davies tells King World News

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 09:24 PM PDT

Even slipping toward $1,600, gold outperforms, Davies tells King World News

Hinde Capital CEO Ben Davies told King World News yesterday that even as it has slipped back toward $1,600 gold is still performing better than most other assets...and should resume its rise shortly. An excerpt from the interview has been posted at the KWN website...and the link to the blog is here.

Why I was completely wrong about gold

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 09:24 PM PDT

Why I was completely wrong about gold

Is gold headed higher or lower?  Higher, most likely, as long as the world continues to fall apart in slow motion.  But really, who knows?

What has become clear to me...a former gold skeptic...is that railing against gold as a purely sentiment-driven, fundamentals-less asset is a technically correct but ultimately meaningless accusation.

And in the sweeping conundrum that has become our financial and investing landscape, that may be one of the best reasons yet to own the bararous relic.

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Kitco's creditor protection extended

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 09:24 PM PDT

Kitco's creditor protection extended

Kitco Metals Inc. requested and has received a second Superior Court extension of creditor protection, this time until April 18, 2012. The Montreal-based company entered creditor protection in July in the wake of a Revenue Quebec clampdown against 100 companies suspected of participating in a false-billing scheme in the gold-trading sector. Revenue Quebec is seeking $300 million from Kitco, which has denied any wrongdoing and is contesting the assessment. In its latest court filing, Kitco said operations are once again relatively stable, but indicated it may transfer its scrap-gold business to a new operator if Revenue Quebec continues refusing to reimburse sales taxes. The company said such action makes it impossible to operate the business profitably.

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European brinksmanship rattling markets

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 09:15 PM PDT

Precious metal prices came under pressure again yesterday, as the US dollar bounced on news that there will need to be a second European Council meeting next Wednesday in order for France and Germany ...

Gold & Silver Market Morning, October 22, 2011

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 09:00 PM PDT

WATCH: Massive Puts Suggest Year End Crash?

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 08:57 PM PDT

Massive Put Options Purchased on the S&P 500 Indicating a Year End Crash? In this live SPX.X index options education trading video we'll cover the massive dollar amounts totaling over $600M purchased on the S&P 500.Who's Buying All Those S&P 500 Put Options? S&P 500 Put Option ALERT!StockMarketFunding.com reports that the SPX.X S&P 500 1200 December 2011 Put regular expiration has our record volume level for daily and weekly volume.

Today 34,009 have traded hands today, roughly $186,166,550 for this strike alone. As we were typing this article another 3k contracts printed, 2k at the high of the day of $59.

To give you an idea of the average daily volume, SMF took a look at the average weekly volume since the inception of this contract and that average is 8,871 contracts weekly. Today's put buying on this S&P 500 contract brings the weekly total to 98,324. This represents a 1,108% increase when compared weekly average of 8,871.

So who's Buying All Those S&P 500 Put Options? Institutional traders and hedge fund managers expecting a drop and looking to profit off a market decline by options expiraiton on November 18, 2011.

New CFTC rules weigh on silver and copper prices

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 05:42 PM PDT

And now, The "pay me my silver or go to jail" song

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 04:08 PM PDT

The Gold basis is Dead - Long Live the Gold Basis!

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 04:00 PM PDT

Worthless Trillion Dollar Paper

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 03:00 PM PDT

Dollar Daze

Wave 5 of ONE - Silver

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 01:25 PM PDT

Day's beginning is hidden in midnight, so is upleg in last down leg....................what do you say?

Life After Debt

Posted: 20 Oct 2011 12:03 PM PDT

An NPR Planet Money report today uncovered a government report through the Freedom of Information Act that detailed the repercussions of a special what-if scenario: What if the U.S. government paid off its entire debt?

Description: 
Having no debt is an impossibility in the current financial system, meaning an infinitely expanding monetary system.

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