Daily Market Report 01/18/12

GOLD

Today’s IMF announcement about boosting its lending resources combined with reports of increasing demand for Gold in Asia has provided strong demand for gold.  The low/high trading range for Gold overnight has been $1,641/$1,664 per ounce. At 11am PDT, gold is trading at $1,660.70, up $3.20 per ounce on excellent consolidation support. 

The price of Gold has recently been taking direction from China. China’s appetite for gold continued to grow at a rapid pace in 2011. Metals consultancy, GFMS (The World’s leading economics consultancies in precious metals), reported that investment in gold bullion rose 45% to 258 metric tons, and jewelry fabrication rose 16% to eclipse the 500-ton mark for the first time.

Demand for gold, the ownership of which was banned in China until 2003, has exploded in the East Asian nation amid rising income levels, rapid urbanization, and fears of runaway inflation, GFMS--a unit of Thomson Reuters Corp. (TRI)--said in an update to its 2011 Gold Survey report. "Chinese consumers continued to look to gold as a means of diversifying assets, protection against rising inflation and a weakening domestic currency," it said.

SILVER

Finally, silver is showing more strength then gold today. Silver is building excellent support above $30 per ounce during the past three trading days. Demand and trading volume on the Asian commodity markets is growing for silver. At 11am PDT Silver is trading at $30.55, up $0.37 on heavy volume. 

Other Important news that affects precious metal prices:

The output of the nation’s factories, mines and utilities rebounded in December after struggling in November, the Federal Reserve said Wednesday. Industrial output rose 0.4% in December, in line with expectations.