Bullion & Business Weekend Recap – April 17, 2010

Bullion and other commodities fell Friday as a stronger dollar played into the mix. But the biggest negative mover was the news that U.S. regulators charged Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of fraud.

The announcement shook markets, including metals, crude and stocks. Oil fell the most in 10 weeks while major U.S. stock indexes tumbled, although ending mixed for the week. Major European indexes closed with weekly losses.

In New York weekly precious metals prices, June gold fell $25.00, or 2.2 percent, to finish at $1,136.90 an ounce. Silver for May delivery tumbled 68 cents, or 3.7 percent, to $17.675 an ounce.

In other metals, July platinum lost $32.10, or 1.9 percent to $1,695.30 an ounce and June palladium advanced $18.25, or 3.6 percent, to $531.85 an ounce.

"Goldman is a major player in gold, silver, all commodities," Frank McGhee, the head dealer at Integrated Brokerage Services Inc. in Chicago, said on Bloomberg. "They have massive positions. This puts a big question mark on all commodity activity."

"Gold prices were already under modest profit-taking pressure in early trading Friday as the U.S. dollar index and crude oil futures prices were lending to selling interest in the precious metals," said Jim Wyckoff of Kitco News.

"Then around mid-morning the news reports surfaced that Goldman has been charged with fraud. Another market-maker, Paulson & Co, was also charged with defrauding investors. Reports also said Paulson & Co. has a large long position in a gold exchange traded fund, which lent more selling pressure to gold futures, amid the uncertainty of the situation."

In weekly London bullion prices, gold was fixed to $1,151.50 an ounce, declining $1.00, or 0.1 percent. Silver moved in the other direction by 0.1 percent, rising a penny to $18.350 an ounce.

Platinum settled at $1,708.00 an ounce, falling $10.00, or 0.6 percent while palladium climbed $21.00, or 4.1 percent — the same weekly percentage gain as the prior week, to $532.00.

"Risk appetite is what has been moving the gold market in the last several months. Risk appetite today took a huge hit as people are very concerned. When they think it’s a level playing field, they hear news like today," James Cordier, a portfolio manager at OptionSellers.com in Florida, said on MarketWatch.

"The commodity markets have been closely correlated to rising stock markets, so any derailment of that trend was going to be slightly negative for commodities," Robin Bhar, an analyst at Credit Agricole, said on Reuters.

To follow are silver, gold, platinum and palladium performance charts, oil news, week-ending stocks, and precious metal article summaries.

London Fix Charts: Silver, Gold, Platinum and Palladium

(April 9 – 16)

The London Fix is one of the most used bullion quotes around the world. The London AM fix for gold and platinum begins at 10:30am GMT (5:30am in New York), and the PM fix begins at 3pm GMT (10am in New York). The London Fix for silver begins each business day at 12pm GMT (7am in New York).

London Fix Precious Metals Prices

World Business Weekly News: Oil, Gasoline, and Stocks Prices

Oil prices fell Friday on a "selloff triggered by news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Goldman Sachs, one of the largest commodities brokers, with fraud," reported Claudia Assis and Polya Lesova, of MarketWatch.

"This is putting selling pressure on the market and appears to be extending to a variety of markets, from the euro to the commodities to the stock market," Peter Beutel, president of trading adviser Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut, said on Bloomberg.

New York crude oil for May delivery closed to $83.24 a barrel, tumbling $2.27, or 2.65 percent — the biggest one-day percentage loss dating back to February 5, 2010. For the week, oil fell 2.0 percent.

Prices at the pump climbed two-tenths of a cent between Friday and Saturday. The national average for regular unleaded gasoline is $2.864 a gallon, according to a AAA fuel report. The price is one-tenth of a cent higher than last week, 6.5 cents more than a month back, and 81.2 cents above that of a year ago.

U.S. stocks tumbled on Friday as well, with the Goldman Sachs charges cited as a major reason for the fall of financial shares.

"The Street is worried about more regulation and thinks that something like this is going to cause it," Tom Schrader, managing director at Stifel Nicolaus, said via CNNMoney.com. "There’s also the fact that Goldman could be facing some punitive damage and it’s a pretty widely held stock."

"All the financial-sector stocks are getting hit because investors don’t know how broad-based this will be," Tim Speiss, head of personal wealth advisors at Eisner LLP, said on MarketWatch.

For the week, the Dow rose a slight 0.2 percent, the S&P ended down 0.2 percent and the Nasdaq gained 1.1 percent.

Friday closing figures for the three major US indexes follow:

• The Dow lost 125.91 points to close at 11,018.66.

• The S&P declined 19.54 points to finish at 1,192.13.

• The NASDAQ retreated 34.43 points to 2,481.26.

And in other world markets:

• The German DAX lost 110.55 points to close at 6,180.90.

• The Paris CAC 40 ended down 79.02 points to close at 3,986.63.

• The London FTSE 100 declined 81.05 points to finish at 5,743.96.

For the week, the DAX finished lost 1.1 percent, the CAC 40 fell 1.6 percent and the FTSE 100 retreated 0.5 percent.

Bullion and Business Articles

In related bullion, business and United States Mint news, interesting or quick-read articles from the week include:

• Under A Cloud – Jon Nadler, Kitco Metals Inc.
  Gold prices were aiming towards their first weekly loss in one month early this morning on a number of external unfriendly factors. The stronger dollar was cited as the primary mover at this point; however a manifest gain in scrap gold flows on the back of a four-month peak in gold prices during this week also contributed to further profit-taking among speculators. Recall that surging supplies of recycled bullion actually surpassed mine output during the early part of 2009, on similar price gains.

  However, a discernable pattern of weak gold during European trading hours due to the euro’s problems and stronger gold during New York’s market sessions –as futures specs keep loading up on the metal– has kept the yellow metal largely balanced this week. The metal’s behavior in this regard is precisely the inverse of that which stubborn conspiracy zealots keep offering up as explanations whenever gold declines.

  The net loss –albeit potentially portending a technical bearish signal for the weekly close– may end up being only 0.50% to 1%, or so opines trading room chatter. News of the deployment of a team of IMF "S.E.A.L." (Size-up, Evaluate, Ascertain, Lend) experts into the heart of Athens pressured the euro and undermined Prime Minister Papandreou’s assertions that Greece does not ‘formally seek’ the agency’s assistance. Markets perceive the ‘landing’ as the precursor to the official process of the IMF’s Greek rescue mission…

• America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins Program
  The United States Mint will issue a new series of coins in 2010 that are composed of silver and depict American National Parks and National Sites.

  These coins are not the collector versions of the circulating America the Beautiful Quarters. They are, however, similar in name as they are called America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins and they share the same reverse designs.

  Both new U.S. Mint coin series, the America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program and the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin™ Program, are authorized by the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008. The act was signed into Public Law 110-456 by former President Bush on December 23, 2008…

• US Mint Silver Dollars Easing, First Spouse Gold Rising
  United States Mint commemorative sales are slowing as the days since their launch pass. Weekly gains have fallen by a bit more than half as most coin collectors who wanted them now already own them.

  First Spouse Gold Coins, on the other hand, had their own mini surge despite their age.

  As far as America’s newest and smallest coin, the 2010 Lincoln cent, the public appears less excited about buying rolls of them as compared to their 2009 counterparts. To the numbers…

  2010 Boy Scouts Silver Dollars have scored 290,392 or 83.0 percent of their maximum 350,000 mintage. On sale for just over three weeks, reported gains have declined from 214,672 to 51,844 and now 23,875…