Gold and Silver Market morning, December 18, 2012

Gold Today –New York closed at $1,698.00 up nearly $4. Asian and London dealers moved gold up again, in line with the euro. Gold Fixed at $1,699.50 up $9 on yesterday’s fixing. In the euro it was Fixed at €1,289.258 up €4 while the euro was slightly stronger at €1: $1.3182. Ahead of New York’s opening, gold was $1,699.00 and in the euro at €1,288.02.

Silver Today – Silver closed higher at $32.21, slightly higher in New York yesterday. It opened in London higher at $32.48. Ahead of New York’s opening silver stood at $32.43.

Gold _{(very short-term)}

Gold is expected to continue to consolidate with a stronger bias, in New York today.

Silver _{(very short-term)}

Silver is expected to continue to consolidate with a stronger bias, in New York today.

Price Drivers

Gold & Silver – Small steps toward an agreement are supposed to being made in Washington, but we prefer to act on a deal, not the expectation of one. There was a rise in emerging world demand yesterday, but not sufficient to drive prices much higher.

Once again, the Technical picture of gold is just about at a point from which it is about to experience a strong move one way or the other. Will a U.S. settlement of the Republican/Democrat battle on the brink of the ‘fiscal cliff’ do it? Will a failure to reach a settlement set it off? We expect speculators to try to engineer this coming strong move to create profitable opportunities for themselves.

But the fundamentals for gold remain strong as Asian demand, unaffected by U.S. politics remains solid.

We believe that central bank demand remains solid too, but unobtrusive, unwilling to push prices higher. That accounts for the variability of month-to-month demand from those sources.

The long-term Technical picture points to a strong rise in gold and silver prices, as it has for some time now, as expectations of the next leg of the bull market for gold and silver remain solid. When this happens, it must be said that the short-term influences cannot overwhelm long-term ones as fundamental demand will subjugate the short-term scene just as the turning of the tide always dominates wave patterns.

The problem for investors remains, “will it happen soon or not? Are any falls below $1,700 buying opportunities or not?”[Subscribe to our newsletters at www.GoldForecaster.com and www.SilverForecaster.com].

Regards,

Julian D.W. Phillips for the Gold & Silver Forecasters