Unless something very startling happened late in the trading day, gold is on track to post another down week.
In early market action gold was bouncing off its lows, up $0.22 to $1,696.81, and silver was down $0.05 to $32.49, raising the silver/gold ratio to 52.2.
Commodities other than gold and silver were enjoying weakly positive trading with crude oil, platinum, palladium and copper all trading higher as the euro gained on the dollar in currency markets.
Most analysts are attributing the movement in gold prices to a lack of progress in the talks centered around the fiscal curb, the latest fabricated financial media crisis. Certainly there will be real market effects if sequestration kicks in, but the greater effect will be psychological. When the market has convinced itself something bad is going to happen on a certain day it almost inevitably becomes a self-fulling prophecy.
Overall the economic news remains positive with manufacturing picking up in China and demand for industrial commodities showing some improvement. Equity markets in the U.S. and Europe remain near their highs for the year, with both the Dow and S&P higher on the month, while corporate balance sheets remain largely healthy.
I had a very different attitude toward the housing market in 2005. Everything I saw said valuations were unsustainable and I put most of the real estate we owned up for sale. At the time people told me I was out of touch with the market reality. Instead of gloom and doom the mood was one of unbridled optimism.
During the subsequent market crash, when layoffs were happening by the hundreds of thousands a month and the financial media was in a doomsday panic, I was buying equities all the way to the bottom.
It’s good to keep in mind that what may be big news in financial and political circles likely isn’t going to change a well-structured, long-term investment strategy. The financial and political media have an interest in keeping readers stirred up but panic and fear are your biggest enemies in investing and that’s particularly true in precious metals.
When the market gives you lower prices on gold and silver, disregard the media panic and stick to your plan.
Chris Poindexter, Senior Writer, National Gold Group, Inc