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The Week in Review

March 26, 2010

The Week in Review

The Health Care Reform bill passed Congress and was signed in to law by President Obama this week after months of wrangling among the Democrats and Republicans. In a show of just how “bi-partisan” Obama truly is, he dared Republicans to try to repeal the new law. Snuck into the bill at the last minute, and having absolutely zero to do with health care, was a government takeover of the student loan program. Two of the largest US manufacturers, Deere and Caterpillar, said they were expecting a combined $250 million in charges this year as a result of changes brought about by the new law.

On Thursday, the CFTC finally held its meeting to discuss position limits on precious metals. The event was available as a dial in, listen only conference call, and also broadcast on the Internet. Bill Murphy, chairman of the Gold Anti-Trust Action committee, among others, presented evidence of the long rumored manipulation of the gold and silver markets by JPMorgan Chase and HSBC. Just as Mr. Murphy was called to speak, the video feed to the internet was mysteriously cut off. Luckily the telephone conference call audio continued uninterrupted.

First time filings for unemployment were down again last week, but now with the passage of the health bill a reality, some employers are holding off on any hiring until they can fully determine how the new legislation affects them. This means that despite a recent slowdown in layoffs, hiring does not appear to be increasing in the near future. Congress is also preparing to take a two week recess without extending the jobless programs that are due to expire in just a few days.

Europe finally seems to have reached some sort of agreement on Greece’s debt problems. The proposal is a joint agreement between the IMF and the euro zone that would provide loans from other countries using the euro as well as money from the IMF if Greece faced severe difficulties.

Adding to the woes in the European Union that were begun by Greece’s debt problems, Fitch downgraded Portugal on Thursday. The move has been expected for quite some time. Coming at the end of a long struggle to resolve Greece’s problems, this may well fan the flames of anger regarding sovereign debt in the EU once again.

Crude oil prices struggled to stay above 81 this week on an extremely large inventory increase reported by the US.

The dollar rose to a 10 month high against the euro on the news coming out of the summit in the European Union to determine what to do about Greece. Once the EU announced the details of the plan they agreed upon, the dollar began weakening against the euro once again.

Sales of new US homes hit a record low in February, falling for the fourth straight month. A report by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed mortgage applications declining for the second week in a row and refinancing fell to its lowest level in a month as interest rates began rising. This data just reinforces that the housing industry, long touted to be the road out of this recession, appears to be far from any sort of recovery.

US GDP grew less than expected and after-tax corporate profits were lower than expected as well. Consumer sentiment remained unchanged from last month as people waited to see what Congress was going to do with the health care bill.

Friday to Friday Close

Here are your Short Term Support and Resistance Levels for the upcoming week.

Volatility should be expected to continue. The cat is out of the bag regarding manipulation of the precious metals markets by JPMorgan and HSBC. Two days before the March 25^th meeting of the CFTC to discuss position limits, a metals trader in London by the name of Andrew Maguire supplied copies of e-mail communications between himself and several highly placed officials at the CFTC to GATA. These communications took place in January and February and outlined, with remarkable detail, how the silver market (and the gold market) would be manipulated in the days following the communications. The market manipulation occurred exactly as outlined in Mr. Maguire’s e-mails to the CFTC on the dates he predicted. We’ll leave you with a quote from Maguire’s February 9^th e-mail to the CFTC, which was copied to Chairman Gary Gensler: “You will note that the huge footprints left by the two concentrated large shorts were obvious and easily identifiable. You have the data. The signals I identified ahead of the intended short selling event were clear. The ‘live’ action I sent you 41 minutes after the trigger event predicting the next imminent move also played out within minutes and exactly as I outlined. Surely you must at least be somewhat mystified that a market move could be forecast with such accuracy if it was free trading.” The market manipulation scenario played out in Mr. Maguire’s e-mails to the CFTC is playing out once again, just one day after the CFTC meeting. Pay attention to the news coming out of the CFTC. Should they begin taking steps to curtail the obvious manipulation brought about by the massively concentrated short positions by a handful of banks it may be a perfect time to add to, or begin, your precious metals portfolio. Remember, the key to profitability through the ownership of physical precious metals is to actually own the physical product and hold them for the long term. Never over-extend your ability to maintain ownership of your product over the long term.

Trading Department – Precious Metals International, Ltd.

This is not a solicitation to purchase or sell.

© 2010, Precious Metals International, Ltd.

© 2012, Precious Metals International Ltd.
www.wwpmc.com

The Week in Review
Posted by Worldwide Precious Metals on Friday, March 26, 2010

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