USD sinking like Tim to ocean bottom

Silver falls to one-month low after COMEX margin hike

From Reuters:

SINGAPORE, May 5 (Reuters) - Silver prices fell 1 percent on Thursday to a one-month low, after the CME Group hiked margin requirement on COMEX silver again, while gold held steady.

FUNDAMENTALS

* Spot gold was little changed at $1,516.29 an ounce by 0042 GMT, after falling for three sessions straight.

* COMEX gold futures GCcv1 edged up $1.30 to $1,516.60.

* COMEX silver futures SIcv1 fell 1.2 percent to a one-month low of $38.91. Spot silver fell by 1 percent to $38.92.

* The CME Group set successive hikes on COMEX silver futures margin, pushing margin up 84 percent in just eight days.

* As COMEX silver tumbled under the weight of surging margins, the iShares Silver Trust , the world's largest silver-backed exchange-traded fund, experienced a near 5 percent fall in its holdings.

* Mexico massively ramped up its gold reserves in the first quarter of this year, buying over $4 billion of bullion as emerging economies move away from the ailing U.S. dollar, which has dipped to 2-1/2-year lows.......read on

Tim's "Death" brings smiles all around

From: AlJazeeraEnglish | May 4, 2011

The revelation that bin Laden was not armed when he was shot dead has prompted questions about whether the US actually set out to kill him.

Mexican Central Bank buys 100 Tonnes of Gold

From FT.com:

Mexico has quietly purchased nearly 100 tonnes of gold bullion, as central banks embark on their biggest bullion buying spree in 40 years.

The purchase, reported in monthly data published by Mexico’s central bank, is the latest in a series of large gold buys by emerging market economies intent on diversifying reserves away from the faltering US dollar.

China, Russia and India have acquired large amounts of gold in recent years, while Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bolivia have made smaller purchases.

Central banks became net buyers of gold last year after two decades of heavy selling – a reversal that has helped propel the price of bullion to a series of record highs. On Wednesday gold was trading at about $1,510 a troy ounce, down 4 per cent from a nominal record high of $1,575.79 reached on Monday.

As a result of Mexico’s purchase, central banks, sovereign wealth funds and other so-called “official sector” buyers are on track to record their largest collective purchase of gold since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, which pegged the value of the dollar to gold, in 1971......read on

Eric Sprott on Silver and miners

Eric Sprott, Chairman, CEO & Portfolio Manager of Sprott Asset Management talks to Eric King of King World News about the Sprott fund selling some of its PSLV fund and purchasing Jnr miners and physical silver. Listen here