Gold & Silver Market Morning

Gold Today -On Friday New York closed at $1,092.10 up $2.80. The dollar is down more than half a cent at $1,0976, with the dollar Index weaker initially before rising to 97.85 down from 97.90. This morning the LBMA gold price was set at $1,094.80 up $3.45. The euro equivalent was ?1,001.01 up ?3.25. Ahead of New York's opening, gold was trading in London above $1,094.30 and in the euro at ?1,000.50.

Silver Today - The silver price closed at $14.77 up 12 cents in New York. Ahead of New York's opening it was trading at $14.94.

Gold _{(very short-term)} The gold price should consolidate in New York with a positive bias, today.

Silver _{(very short-term)} The silver price should consolidate with a positive bias, in New York, today.

Price Drivers

There were sales from the SPDR gold ETF of 0.24 of a tonne but none from the Gold Trust on Friday. The holdings of the SPDR gold ETF are at 667.694 tonnes and 161.83 tonnes in the Gold Trust. With so little sold from these gold ETFs the gold price floated higher and in Asia it started to accelerate higher to $1,098 before pulling back in London's morning.

As you can see from New York's close the 'bear raid has stopped, it seems, with less than quarter of a tonne sold from the SPDR gold ETF. If the market believes the selling has stopped there is only one way the market can go apart from sideways. It would take a headstrong seller to enter the market now unless he had a hefty amount of physical gold to sell. Meanwhile, the first buyer to break cover may find himself leading a herd?

Chinese demand is there solidly, as this morning's price testifies and we are three weeks from the beginning of the gold season. Europe is on holiday until then, thereafter entering the busiest time in the developed world's gold season too. We watch to see if instead of seeing the developed world unloading gold into Asia Shanghai comes to the developed world to take more gold from there to eliminate the premium? This would tell us just how far the evolution of the gold market has come this year and just how far Shanghai's pricing power has grown.

The news out of the U.S. on Friday was good for the economy and the prospect of a rate hike either in September or December seems certain. But this did not prompt gold sales in the U.S. or London. Has the rate hike been discounted in the gold price? Friday's behavior tells us, yes it has.

Oh, just in case you had forgotten Greece, it must have a bailout solution before August 20 or it will miss a payout to the ECB. The fact that a nation must borrow to service debt could not be a louder signal of its bankruptcy. More on this in our newsletter - Subscribewww.goldForecaster.com [See our new gold buying, transferring and storing website:www.Stockbridgemgmt.com ]

Silver- Silver running ahead of gold higher. Subscribe www.SilverForecaster.com

Regards,