spooky news...

Good morning and welcome to a Spooktacular Tuesday! Well folks, here we are… the weather is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and the ghosts and goblins are coming out tonight. I understand that one of the top costumes this year is an inflatable T-Rex. How things have changed. Paul McCartney and Wings greet me this morning with their title track from the 1973 album, “Band on the Run.”

The New York Spot Prices gained a bit of ground yesterday with Gold closing up $2.80 settling in at $1,276.00, Silver was down $0.02 to $16.83, and Platinum was up $2.00 closing at $917. In overnight trading Gold lost $2.30, Silver is even, and Platinum is down $1.00. Let’s see how things progress when the New York Market opens.

The DJIA closed down yesterday -85.45 at 23,345.74. The NASDAQ was down as well. The $USD was mixed. The £GBP (British Pound) gained a bit, along with ¥RMB (Chinese Renminbi or Yuan), Indian Rupee, and Brazilian Real. So for the most part, none of the markets saw any real or significant gains. Maybe it was just a really great day to enjoy the last bit of great weather before old-man winter comes calling?

I don’t expect precious metals to gain any traction this morning as there is a downpour of data being released and most of it is already factored in. First up is the employment cost index, followed by the Case-Shiller Index that I discussed yesterday. Then we have the Chicago PMI, consumer confidence, and housing vacancies. Finally the Dallas Fed’s Texas Service Sector Outlook and another $50 Billion in Treasuries to be auctioned. Tomorrow as the FOMC meeting wraps up and this is when we expect to hear about a December rate increase. And President Trump is expected to announce his pick for Federal Reserve Chair on Thursday. But as I said, we’ve had a lot of information leaks over the past weeks so most data is factored into the markets already. So as Obi Wan said… Nothing to see here… Move Along.

Here’s a headline for all of you! This morning, CBC News out of Ottawa, Canada is reporting that a one ounce bar of 99.9999 gold was purchased by an Ottawa jeweler on October 18th directly from a Royal Bank of Canada branch. Yet yesterday, they found after testing, that although the bar had been sealed properly in its Royal Canadian Mint blister-pack, the bar contained no gold at all. There is a real concern this morning that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Here is the report: CBC NEWS.

So where are precious metals headed? It seems we are likely to have a second month in a row of decline in gold futures. (Remember that spot is directly tied to futures trading.) “Gold itself appears to have lost any risk-aversion premium for now and is thus completely at the mercy of the nuances of the U.S. bond and stock market, and by default the U.S. dollar,” according to Jeffery Halley, a market analyst with OANDA. With that in mind, I do believe we could see precious metals move into a more positive position as I see the economy is much more fragile than we are being led to believe. I just finished reading a couple of articles about the auto industry and the issues they are dealing with. Keep in mind, where the auto industry goes, there goes the nation. So, I was astounded to read that 86% of new car sales are 100% financed for 72 months and yet are kept for less than 42 months. Crazy isn’t it? Most manufacturers are financing versus traditional lending to allow buyers to continue this trend and build a huge amount of debt for the buyers and the industry. It’s not surprising that the government had to step in once, and it looks likely they’ll be needed again very soon.

So bottom line… do I hold, sell, or buy? Right now, I see this as a time to buy!

Well, I’ll let that be it for today. Go out there and make a difference! See ya’ll later!

*Disclaimer: Precious Metal Musings™ is written for entertainment and news purposes only and should not be used in making purchases and/or sales of precious metals.