Daily Market Report 2/20/14

GOLD

Gold is trading lower this morning after the release of the Federal Reserve minutes late yesterday, showing that officials couldn’t agree about the outlook for short-term interest rates. Gold tested support at $1,307 this morning before demand appeared. At 11am PDT today, Gold is down $3, trading at $1,317.00 per ounce on average volume.

Gold Smuggling Doubled in India Last Year

The amount of smuggled Gold doubled in India during 2013 due to the import restrictions put in place to contain the current account gap. According to estimates by the global precious metals consultancy GFMS, 150 to 200 tonnes were smuggled in 2013 from Dubai, Singapore, and land routes of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. The agency estimated 112 tonnes had been smuggled in 2012.

SILVER

Today, Silver has been trading in a narrow $0.40 per ounce price range between $21.39 and $21.79 per ounce. If Silver can just stay above $21 for the balance of the week and next Monday, I believe it will help change many of the professional commodity trader’s negative sentiments that have been in the trading pits for the past few months. At 11am PDT today, Silver is trading at $21.67 per ounce, down $0.17 on normal volume.