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The metals were hit today along with stocks. Stocks were hit because of the lousy economic indications from companies, and the sour words from the Philly Fed's Charley Plosser (see the post below this).
Gold and silver were hit pretty much on a matter of principle I think. The principle is that this is the end of quarter, and so we will see selling today and maybe a little tomorrow as the funds hit they bow-wows and raise some cash for the end of week ramp-o-rama.
The metals may not participate since the Big Shorts need some help on their mark to market losses. And their guiding principle is 'do what thou wilt' with Other People's Money.
Let's see how this plays out.
The Philly Fed's Charles Plosser did a reverse jawbone on Fed policy today when he remarked:"We are unlikely to see much benefit to growth or to employment from further asset purchases. Conveying the idea that such action will have a substantive impact on labor markets and the speed of the recovery risks the Fed’s credibility.”
Read the entire story here.
In case you were wondering Plosser is not a voting member of the Fed's FOMC this year.
It is one thing for a nobody like myself to say this sort of thing, but when the President of the Philly Fed says it, it can move markets, and it did. It did not help that Catepillar had guided lower last night and the market was primed for some profit taking at this stage of the end of quarter two step dance.
It is going to take significant financial and economic reform and rebalancing to sustain this recovery. Plosser didn't recommend anything other than to say that the Fed cannot do anything more, and that it 'risks its credibility.'
Sorry Charlie. It doesn't have any credibility anymore. The last two bubbles fixed that.
Sheila Bair beat up Turbo Timmy and his bankster buddies in the early releases of her new book. He is the bailout king according to her and raised some serious questions about his catering to a few of the big TBTF's like Citigroup.
David Malpass was the 'closer' on Bloomberg TV today. He said some odd sounding things for someone who is a famed 'chief economist.' But that is what it said on his business card at Bear Stearns so it must be true.
If this is going to be a typical end of quarter shenanigan fest then we should see the selling dry up tomorrow and a ramp into the weekend coming.
Jitters over Iran are not helping markets to keep their paint from peeling. But the paint will probably go on the tape nonetheless.
It appears that Sprott has drawn down the cash levels in the Silver trust to add additional bullion to the funds holdings.
The Silver Trust spent approximately $23,000,000 of their cash to buy 680,104 ounces of silver bullion or about 33.82 per ounce.
The Trust typically does not operate with cash levels much lower than this. They need to pay all the expenses of the fund's administration including record keeping and storage fees.
I suspect that they may act to raise cash levels, probably by doing another follow on offering within the next three to four months. They will probably wait for the premium to expand a bit first, depending on how they view the physical market for bullion shaping up.
