Precious Metals

Gold jumped up about midway through trading in the Far East and continued its rise through London and the Comex open to an intraday high just north of $955. But at around 10 a.m. in New York the yellow metal got knocked down below $950 where it stayed through the Globex close, finishing at $949.10/oz., up $11.40. Overnight, gold is little changed.

Platinum experienced a sharp sell-off late in Hong Kong, but clawed its way back to post a decent gain for the day, closing at $1181/oz., up $9. Overnight, platinum is slightly higher.

Silver made big gains through Hong Kong and early London trading that were far too substantial to get wiped out by the 10 a.m. sell-off in New York, after which it remained range-bound between $13.60 and $13.65 and closed near the middle at $13.63/oz., up 22 cents. Overnight, silver is trending lower. (Click here for

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Gold was off steeply in the far East on Tuesday, falling nearly to $940, but as soon as Hong Kong closed, it was up, up and away, with the metal surviving an early dip in New York to push almost back to positive territory, as it finished at $952.10/oz., down $4.40 from Friday. Overnight, gold has drifted lower.

Platinum fell in the far East and Europe, plummeted again in the first hour in New York, before regaining some of its footing during the rest of the day, but still ended at $1133, down $20. Overnight, platinum has been flat.

Silver had a wild day, plunging from Hong Kong to the mid-point of the London session and putting in a bottom at $14.28, rose to the New York open, dropped off to mid-morning, then rallied to the noon hour and leveled off for the rest of the day, closing at $14.61, down

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Gold climbs to $1250, Oil at $200

by The Investment U Research Team

We don’t know if its scaremongering, boasting, gamesmanship or true prognostication, but this morning we’re looking at a couple of reports – One from Standard Bank Group on gold’s price future, and the other from Saudi Arabia warning of $200 oil prices.

Gold has been fluctuating – it’s currently at $950. And oil has been sitting around $60 a barrel. Oil looks to be the safer of the two bets here. Besides, we’d rather see the opportunity for a 230% return on oil than a 32% return from gold.

While the Saudi’s argue that oil’s price is going to rise because of the lack of investment in production, its pretty clear that oil’s price will rise because two big reasons.

We haven’t found a new

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The base metals were all flashing green on Friday. Copper moved higher in the pre-dawn hours, went flat until late morning, then shot up again to finish barely off its intraday highs at $2.0954/lb., up 7¼ cents.

Nickel crashed from the late pre-dawn hours to late morning, but then moved up sharply to regain positive territory and close at $5.3093/lb., up 5½ cents. Zinc was up steadily all day, ending at $0.6705/lb., up 4½ cents. Aluminum had a good day, adding a penny and a third, to $0.6762/lb., while lead was strong as well, tacking on just under 3 cents, to $0.6271/lb.

Copper led the industrial metals higher, prolonging its recent strong run to a 2-week high as the somewhat upbeat economic numbers combined with continually dwindling supplies to give the metal a shot in the arm.

Inventories monitored by the LME were off sharply again yesterday, falling by 7,075 metric tons, to

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In a bold move Standard Bank Group of South Africa agreed to buy 33 percent of Troika Dialog for USD 200m (1x book value). Troika is Russia's oldest investment bank. It is highly respected in Russia and will make it look more like its competitor Renaissance Capital who are diversifying into Africa (the other way around). The deal will increase Troika’s capital base to more than $850 million, making it a formidable competitor to Renaissance. The financing of the deal were adjusted to fit in with South Africa's foreign exchange rules.

Gold was sharply higher in the far East on Wednesday, pushing past $900, but then got stuck in a range between there and $920 straight through the Globex, seesawing back and forth and finally finishing at $906.10, up $19.00. Overnight, gold is sharply lower.