Doug Casey's 30 years experience in the resource business give him a rare and deep knowledge of this sector. More importantly, however, is that he is the most instinctive contrarian I have ever met and that, in my opinion, is the key to his remarkable success as a speculator - Rick Rule, Global Resources
Dave Forest
Dave Forest is a geologist, researcher and contributing editor for More
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04/27/2005
The Daily Resource - 4/27/2005
Gold bucked its usual trend yesterday, showing strength even as the dollar staged its biggest gain against the euro in two weeks. As trading opened yesterday, the metal took off from $434/oz, reaching as high as $437. The strong dollar then managed to beat gold back to near $435 temporarily before the metal once again surged, to a $437 close."Gold seems to be firming here and may be getting ready to test the $450 level again," investment strategist Kevin Kerr told Marketwatch. Overnight, however, gold has fallen more than $2.50 to a current $434.30. Silver on the day spiked as high as $7.31/oz before declining to a current $7.19.
The aforementioned dollar gains came as reports from Europe showed declining confidence in two of the Union's major economies. Germany's GfK index of consumer confidence dropped to 4.9 points in April from 5.1 in March. At the same time, the French government reported that manufacturing confidence dropped to its lowest level since October 2003.
The dollar also took strength from news that US new home sales were up 12 percent in March to an all-time record level. As a result, the euro fell 0.5 percent against the dollar, reaching as low as $1.2917. Currently, the going value is $1.2923. (Up-to-date currency prices)
Oil remained largely steady on the day, following assurances by Saudi officials that the market is adequately supplied and that high prices are the result of a bottleneck in American refining capacity. Crude added a few pennies on the day, currently trading at $54.10.
President George Bush apparently agrees with the Saudi assessment of America's energy situation. Government aids reported yesterday that Bush will soon propose using closed military bases as sites for new oil refineries. It was also stated that Bush will work on streamlining the licensing of new nuclear power plants in order to ensure US energy supply.
In other oil news, Shell Canada reported yesterday that the company's first quarter profit rose 13 percent, with net income reaching C$417 million. Shell said that the gains were the result of higher energy prices, which helped offset lost production due to technical problems at its Athabasca Oil Sands Project in Alberta.
Base metals got pummeled yesterday, with copper plunging nearly 4 cents to a current $1.5128/lb. Zinc shed nearly 2 cents to $0.5723/lb and aluminum dropped more than 1 cent to $0.8245/lb.
Brighter news for one of the base metals came from nanopowder manufacturer QuantumSphere yesterday, with the company announcing that it has developed a cobalt-nickel compound that could eventually replace platinum as an autocatalyst in automobile emission-reduction systems. "QuantumSphere is one of the leaders in the race to develop catalysts that do not contain platinum," researcher Robert Dopp said. "To achieve this goal, they have developed a line of pure nickel, copper, silver and other metallic nanoparticles."
That's what's happening... until tomorrow!
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