Silver price breaks above $30 and now heading to $50-60?

By Peter Cooper from ArabianMoney.net

Silver is always the most volatile of metals in terms of price. Today the silver price has broken through $30 an ounce and that is a significant move in the technical charts.

Earlier in August chartist Herbert Moolman highlighted a pennant pattern in the silver price chart that could have meant either a rise or a fall in the price, see below:

What we have now is the price breakout that confirms the next move in the silver price is going to be up, and given the established high volatility of the silver price it should be a big one. It could well be a new all-time high above $50 and towards the $60 by the end of September target set in the Old Dubai Gold Souk at the start of the year.

Correction over
The long sideways consolidation from the 50 per cent correction from almost $50 in April 2011 seems to be over and silver is resuming its upward march towards regaining the price it last held 32 years ago.

People talk about the S&P 500 index as looking cheap at 13-14 these days but that is nothing by comparison to a commodity that still trades for less than it did three decades ago. Silver is also still cheap in comparison to gold against which it is always benchmarked and gold prices are rising strongly too.

You won’t get many gifts as an investor this autumn but silver is probably going to be one of them.

FOMC minutes bullish for silver?

Aug 22, 2012 by silverfuturist

"The minutes of the last FOMC meeting showed members believe that further quantitative easing of monetary policy will be required if the U.S. economy does not show improvement soon."

Gold and silver the best bet for commodities says Pru Saxena

Marc Faber's forecasts for the global economy

Aug 22, 2012 by investmentsummits
 

Marc Faber discusses what opportunities are likely to emerge for institutional investors if sovereign debt continues. Furthermore, he assesses the possible impact of social and political unrest in North Africa and the Middle East, and how hedge funds can invest in emerging markets.

Jim Rogers: How to 'Protect Yourself' From 'Debased' Currencies

Wed 22 Aug 12 | 12:00 AM ET

In this excerpt from CNBC Asia's "Squawk Box," investor Jim Rogers says another currency crisis is coming and tells investors how to "protect" themselves from it. Video link

 

 

SGT Report interviews Alasdair Macleod on Gold and Silver

Aug 22, 2012 by SGTbull07

Russian Foreign Ministry: it is time London recognized Assange’s right to political asylum

From rbth.ru

The Russian Foreign Ministry is puzzled by the decision of the British Foreign Ministry to deny WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange his right to political asylum – especially considering that London previously turned down Moscow’s requests for extradition of some high-profile figures.

On Aug. 16, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said that his country would grant Assange political asylum. The British authorities claim that, despite this decision, they have plans to arrest Assange and extradite him to Sweden. Assange has been living in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since June.

“It is known that dozens of suspects of grave crimes have found refuge and feel safe in the UK, despite demands for extradition, including from Russia. What about Assange’s right to asylum, considering that London absolutizes this right when it comes to anyone else in this category?” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a statement.

Specifically, Moscow is seeking extradition of businessman Boris Berezovsky, who moved to the UK in 2000. In 2003, a British court refused to extradite him at the demand of the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office. Instead, Berezovsky was granted refugee status in the UK. Meanwhile, back in Russia, Berezovsky was twice tried in absentia and found guilty of fraud, embezzlement and laundering corporate money from AvtoVAZ, LogoVAZ and Aeroflot. At the end of these trials, he was sentenced to 13 years and six years in prison. Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika has previously said that Russia would continue its efforts to seek Berezovsky’s extradition.

Read more

The World's Most Expensive Cupcake

Go Long Chocolate?

Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) leads the world in production and export of the cocoa beans used in the manufacture of chocolate,[1] as of 2009, supplying 30% of cocoa produced in the world. West Africa collectively supplies two thirds of the world's cocoa crop, with Ivory Coast leading production at 1.22 million tonnes, and nearby Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Togo producing additional 1.41 million tonnes.[2][3][4]

Aug 22, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish
 

What is behind renewed instability in Ivory Coast, and is the nation slipping back into civil war?

Guns & Butter

"Countdown To Currency Collapse" with Max Keiser. 

Guns and Butter - August 22, 2012 at 1:00pm

Click to listen (or download)

BHP Billiton delays Olympic Dam Expansion and takes 2.1M oz of future Silver and 700K oz of Gold off the market EVERY YEAR

Olympic Dam Update

BHP Billiton Press Release

22 August 2012

BHP Billiton announced today that it will investigate an alternative, less capital-intensive design of the Olympic Dam open-pit expansion, involving new technologies, to substantially improve the economics of the project. As a result it will not be ready to approve an expansion of Olympic Dam before the Indenture agreement deadline of 15 December 2012. The Company will discuss the implications of this decision for the Indenture agreement with the South Australian Government in the coming months.

BHP Billiton CEO, Marius Kloppers, said current market conditions, including subdued commodity prices and higher capital costs, had led to the decision:

“As we finalised all the details of the project in the context of current market conditions, our strategy and capital management priorities, it became clear that the right decision for the Company and its shareholders was to continue studies to develop a less capital intensive option to replace the underground mine at Olympic Dam.

“As with any capital commitment, all investment options are scrutinised as they move through our approvals process and our highest returning projects are prioritised. Value is always our primary consideration. We believe today’s decision reflects an appropriate, prudent and disciplined course of action.

"However, the long term outlook for the copper market remains strong and we will continue to work closely with all stakeholders as we refine our longer term development plans for this unique, world class ore body. We want to find the right solution to unlock this resource,” he said.

BHP Billiton Chief Executive Non-Ferrous, Andrew Mackenzie, said the South Australian Government’s support for the project should be commended:

“The South Australian Government has been fully supportive of Olympic Dam and has created an environment that is highly conducive to business investment. We have been very much encouraged by their attitude to business development and the Olympic Dam expansion project.

“Olympic Dam is a resource of enormous potential and we will continue to work on technological and design alternatives that have the potential to substantially improve the economics of the expansion, while also completing some early stage site works.”

As a result of this change, the Company will recognise impairment and other charges of US$346 million before tax (US$242 million after tax) in respect of the Olympic Dam Project in the 2012 financial year.

-------------------- / -------------------

The following was sourced from the Olympic Dam Expansion EIS available here

Olympic Dam hydrometallurgical plant

FOMC minutes from August meeting released

Press Release

Source

Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June suggests that economic activity decelerated somewhat over the first half of this year. Growth in employment has been slow in recent months, and the unemployment rate remains elevated. Business fixed investment has continued to advance. Household spending has been rising at a somewhat slower pace than earlier in the year. Despite some further signs of improvement, the housing sector remains depressed. Inflation has declined since earlier this year, mainly reflecting lower prices of crude oil and gasoline, and longer-term inflation expectations have remained stable.

Consistent with its statutory mandate, the Committee seeks to foster maximum employment and price stability. The Committee expects economic growth to remain moderate over coming quarters and then to pick up very gradually. Consequently, the Committee anticipates that the unemployment rate will decline only slowly toward levels that it judges to be consistent with its dual mandate. Furthermore, strains in global financial markets continue to pose significant downside risks to the economic outlook. The Committee anticipates that inflation over the medium term will run at or below the rate that it judges most consistent with its dual mandate.

To support a stronger economic recovery and to help ensure that inflation, over time, is at the rate most consistent with its dual mandate, the Committee expects to maintain a highly accommodative stance for monetary policy. In particular, the Committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to 1/4 percent and currently anticipates that economic conditions--including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through late 2014.

The Committee also decided to continue through the end of the year its program to extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities as announced in June, and it is maintaining its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities in agency mortgage-backed securities. The Committee will closely monitor incoming information on economic and financial developments and will provide additional accommodation as needed to promote a stronger economic recovery and sustained improvement in labor market conditions in a context of price stability.

 For more details go here

Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman; William C. Dudley, Vice Chairman; Elizabeth A. Duke; Dennis P. Lockhart; Sandra Pianalto; Jerome H. Powell; Sarah Bloom Raskin; Jeremy C. Stein; Daniel K. Tarullo; John C. Williams; and Janet L. Yellen. Voting against the action was Jeffrey M. Lacker, who preferred to omit the description of the time period over which economic conditions are likely to warrant an exceptionally low level of the federal funds rate.

Italy's Mario Monti optimistic on economic crisis

Aug 22, 2012 by PressTVGlobalNews

While the economic crisis keeps hurting the Italians badly the Prime Minister Mario Monti has recently stated that a year ago the economic crisis was worse than it is today and the time is close when the crisis will come to an end.

Greece: more time, more cuts?

Aug 22, 2012 by Euronews http://www.euronews.com/

Greece's Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is on a charm offensive meeting eurozone leaders to try to persuade them that all his country needs is more time to get its economy sorted out - and slash its deficit.

South African mining unrest spreads

Aug 22, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish

Strikers from two other mines have joined thousands protesting at the Lonmin mine where 34 strikers were killed by police.

and the Platinum price continues to rise

 

Syria update

Aug 22, 2012 by RussiaToday

The conflict in Syria has long stopped ending up at its borders. The drawn-out fighting has seen a mass exodus of Syrians into neighbouring states. Also, clashes of pro- and anti-Assad supporters in Lebanon, have left seven killed and dozens injured.