Stock Picks Expert

In August of last year, I warned of a large potential drop in silver, which many vociferously refused to believe. However, before the correction began, I also provided a downside target of the $26.80 region in the futures for a potential bottom, which was, in fact, .80 within the actual bottom four months later.

In my last article, I stated that, "[i]n my opinion, silver is about to complete its corrective decline and should maintain support within the $26 region in the futures." I also stated that the next move in silver to the upside will be quite strong, and will exceed the $50 region a lot faster than most people believe. Since that article about a month ago, silver has rallied $8 to the $34 region in the futures, or approximately 30%.

Cyclical Effects

As you can see from the chart below, over the last 37 years, the greatest

By Jonathan Yates

No one creates a bull market for gold like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. It’s not just that his policies that have lifted the price of the yellow metal to record highs — his mere words can spur it higher.

Testifying February 2 before the House Budget Committee of the U.S. Congress, Bernanke warned there would

(Click chart to expand)

Recently released data from the US Geological Survey shows that global gold production, after falling every year between 2001 and 2008, finally rose for the past three years. In 2011, production reached 2,700 metric tons. However, in a larger context, the past decade has been quite poor for gold production and the compound annual growth (CAGR) rate has fallen well below the average of the past 110 years. The high cost of marginal supply and the poor production performance of the large cap gold miners fits in nicely to the theme.

As I mention in my article, " Record Breaking Sales Of Bullion Coins Continues ," in recent years, sales of silver (SLV) American Eagle (AE) coins from the U.S. Mint have been setting record after record. And, given the sales numbers in January, this might be another record breaking year.

In January, the U.S. Mint sold 6,107,000 ounces of silver (PSLV) American Eagle bullion, the second highest total ever for sales in the first month of the year. Last year, the U.S. Mint sold 6,422,000 ounces of silver AE coins in January, en route to the single year record of 39,868,500 ounces.

Below is a chart of the year-to-date silver (SIVR) AE bullion coin sales from the U.S. Mint through January 31 for all years the program has been in existence:

Gold (GLD) was also off to a strong start in 2012 both in terms of price performance and American

Endeavour Silver Corporation (EXK) announced today that it is forecasting its eighth consecutive year of production growth for 2012. The company owns and operates two high-grade, underground, silver-gold mines in Mexico, the Guanacevi Mine in Durango State and the Guanajuato Mine in Guanajuato State.

Endeavour's silver production is forecast to rise 16% in 2012, to 4.3 million ounces (oz) and gold production is anticipated to increase 24% to 26,000 oz (5.6 million oz of silver equivalent production at the current silver:gold ratio of approximately 50:1) as shown in the table below.

Cash costs of production are expected to remain in the US$5.50 to US$6.00 per oz range, but will

As I mentioned in <a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/322073-nevsun-another-great-gold

Gold's London AM fix yesterday's morning was USD 1,744, GBP 1,106.74, and EUR 1,327.65 per ounce.

Tuesday's AM fix was USD 1,738.00, GBP 1,102.23, and EUR 1,317.27 per ounce.

Gold consolidated on Tuesday's gain in Asia overnight and then rose in early European trading from below $1,735/oz to $1,748.60/oz. A break above resistance at $1,750/oz. could see gold quickly challenge $1,800/oz. However, there is also the possibility of a correction after the large gains seen in January.

January 2012 - Gold, Silver, Currency and Asset Performance Review

GOLD

Gold was again one of the top performing assets and currencies in January. Its 11% gain in January surpassed the 10%gains seen in all of 2010.

(Click to enlarge)

U.S. Dollar Versus G10 Currencies and Gold

It was gold's best start to the year since the start of the bull market in 2000. There are conflicting media reports as to whether this

Markets seem to be in a state of confusion, as positive news and data is offset by just as many negative factors. Some investors feel that 2012 will continue to see its nice rally, as this past month was the best January for equities since 1997. Others think that the fun is over as a number of potential issues have begun to rear their head. One of the most disturbing bits of news is the potential for Standard & Poor’s to downgrade U.S. debts <a

I have had ambivalent feelings for a while towards the last leg of the gold bull market. For some background I started to amass a physical holding in gold via gold coins that were purchased in 2003 through 2005. I happily held and doubled my money in them when I unloaded them in 2007. To say the least I was early but more importantly for purposes of this article I have not held a position since.

There are 3 major events/headlines that have conspired to make me believe now is an excellent opportunity to go long gold for some capital gains. I don't see a double from here, however a double digit gain would suit me quite nicely. 3 reasons follow:

1. The Fed announcement on Wednesday Jan 25th that they will keep interest rates low into 2014. I interpret this to mean that the US dollar will stay weak. Gold

A precious metal which receives much less attention than gold or silver is platinum.

The metal is used in catalytic converters, electrical contacts and electrodes, jewelery and a number of other applications. It can be found in nickel and copper ores, as well as some native deposits, mostly in South Africa which accounts for 80 percent of the world production.

So what happens in South Africa is of the utmost importance to the platinum market.

Several weeks ago, the price of platinum rose above $1,500 a troy ounce for the first time in a month and has since continued on to trade above $1,600 an ounce. Platinum is now up about 20 percent from a low reached in late December.

The reason? Fears of power shortage in South Africa. Several weeks ago Eskom, South Africa's state-owned electricity company, warned consumers to prepare for possible power shortages in the weeks ahead.

2012 may have started off like a bull, but it appears that the bears are lurking in the shadows, waiting to make their move. This week has already seen a disappointing halt to the surge that general markets had enjoyed to start the new year, as drama from overseas as well as lackluster earnings have put a damper on investor confidence. But commodity investors can take advantage of this lull with a number of different products that have been profiting from these turbulent markets; namely precious metals. These elusive investments have been outperforming most assets in the trailing week, leaving many investors chomping at the bit for juicy returns.

The precious metals category consists of gold, silver, <a href="http://commodityhq.com/commodity/precious-metals/platinum</span rel="nofollow">

By Taras Berezowsky

Even though Eastman Kodak (EK) has declared bankruptcy, there is just enough industrial demand being mustered in the solar panel, battery and conductor sectors, not to mention investment in ETFs and physical metal, to give the silver price its best start in a new year since 1983.

According to a recent article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, silver as a commodity is back in business. The silver price hit $33.8575 yesterday (up 22 percent since Dec. 31), and a survey of analysts points to a price average of $37.50. Silver is notorious for its volatility, and indeed proved the most volatile metal tracked by Bloomberg over the last eight months, dropping 44 percent over that time period.

Manufacturers on a Slow Rebound

Eastman Kodak and other photographic film manufacturers used to account for a good percentage of silver demand, but that has “slid at least 66 percent in the

It's not often that a financial market tells us its intentions in a clear and obvious way. But occasionally it happens.

And it just happened last Wednesday.

First, to set the stage: gold came into last week off a 17-week correction, with the direction of the next 17 weeks still up in the air. The big correction in 2008 lasted 34 weeks, so gold was at a critical balance point heading into the Fed meeting -- it was either going to move into the next up leg now, or in 17 weeks, in early May.

This was a major balance point that could have gone either way, mostly because there is a big scary bogey still out there, namely another round of deflation and de-leveraging emanating from Europe.

The last recession in 2008, with its accompanying financial crisis, caused a massive bout of deflation, which slaughtered gold and other financial

The junior gold sector (small developer and exploration companies) had a very difficult year in 2011 but has led the recent recovery (at least statistically) in the precious metals sector. Two of our favorite exchange traded funds, GDXJ and ZJG.to are up 30% and 25% respectively. That exceeds GDX (large caps) which has rebounded 15%. These are significant gains but barely put a dent in the low valuations for the sector. Ratio analysis shows us how undervalued the smaller gold stocks are yet an examination of history shows this is not out of the ordinary at this point in a bull market.

First lets take a technical look at

With the prices of gold (GLD) and silver (SLV) off to the races to start 2012, let's check in on the miners' stocks to see if they are keeping pace. A popular exchange-traded fund among investors seeking exposure to mining stocks is the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX), managed by Van Eck Global. As I mentioned in " How Well Do You Know Your Gold Miners ETF? " GDX is not just exposed to companies typically thought of as being appropriate for gold investors but also has exposure to the stocks of companies investors often target for exposure to silver. Silver Wheaton (SLW), Pan American Silver (PAAS), and Silver Standard Resources (SSRI) are three examples of this.

GDX closed 2011 at $51.43. As of January 31, 2012, it stood at $56.46, a 9.78% year-to-date (YTD) return. By comparison, GLD is up 11.40%, and SLV is up 19.82% through January