Daily Market Report 3/15/13

GOLD

Gold has tested resistance at the $1,600 level in two of the past three trading sessions. However, with U.S. equities at all-time highs, Gold was unable to break through the psychological level. The yellow metal is now consolidating for another attempt, and is finding support as the U.S. Dollar weakens versus the Euro.

At 11am PDT today, Gold is holding in a narrow $10 price range, with a low of $1,588 and a high of $1,598, and currently trading at $1,594.50 per ounce, up $1.50 from yesterday.

Physical demand for Gold up nine-fold in the past five years

According to a major British physical precious metal dealer that operates vaults in London, New York, and Zurich, there has been a nine-fold increase in the number of Gold bullion investors in the past five years since the financial crisis of 2008. Residents of Great Britain are among the most enthusiastic Gold buyers.

More than 45,000 people have used this dealer to buy physical bullion, and between them they now own 32.9 tonnes of Gold bars and coins, worth £1.11bn ($1.61bn) - 10 times the value of British holdings in their vaults five years ago - with British households accounting for over half that total. Most of these new investors choose to keep their heavyweight investment in Switzerland.

SILVER

Physical demand for Silver keeps growing as the U.S. Mint reports 12,578,000 1oz Silver .999 Eagles have been sold in 2013. I expect to see similar type numbers for Canada, Australia, and other countries when they report 1st quarter sales in April. Silver is having a difficult time staying above the key $29.00 per ounce level. At 11am PDT today, Silver is trading unchanged at $28.85 per ounce.