Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Gold has traded within a twenty-dollar range this week and remains bullishly impulsive until and unless it pulls back to the $1650 level or lower.  Tuesday's rally to a tick below $1675 deprived us of the downward trajectory that we need for Hidden Pivot purposes.  It also limits the bearish targets that we can infer from this week's rangebound trading.  But gold has a tendency to punish buyers who chase it as it moves up, so the prudent thing now is probably to stand ready to buy the dip if we get one.  (Posted by Doug “harry” McLagan)

After scuddling sideways for two days, index futures are trading exactly where they were two weeks ago. It would seem that stocks are already on autopilot ahead of Labor Day weekend.  Will they hit the ground crawling come Tuesday?  That'd be my guess if there's 'no news,' but we'll have to wait and see.

Yesterday's low took out the 1404.50 midpoint support of the pattern shown, hinting of more weakness to come.  Assuming nothing happens to change traders' wishy-washy mood overnight, we might expect the downtrend to continue to 1393.25, the 'D' target of the pattern.  You can bottom-fish there, but only using camouflage, since the support lies in the thick of a bunch of "structural' lows made between August 5-13.  Click here for a free trial subscription that will allow you access to all features and services at Rick’s Picks, including real-time updates and a chat room that draws experienced traders from around the world 24/7.

[Sean Rakhimov, editor of SilverStrategies.com, is one of the savviest precious-metals commentators we know – not to mention, an early graduate of the Hidden Pivot Course that we offer each month to traders of stocks, options and commodities. In the article below, he explains why investable quantities of silver are shrinking. Mainly, it’s because some key South American countries have been nationalizing mines more and more aggressively, crimping supplies and scaring away outside investors.  What can we do about it?  With some specific suggestions, Sean advises watching the silver pros and putting our money where they have been putting theirs. RA] For a while, we’ve had a nagging feeling that we’ve been witnessing something profound that the markets have yet to grasp.  We are not talking about a global smorgasbord of events that has been amply covered elsewhere.  As readers might know, our particular interest is in silver, and that is where we see an elephant in the room that has yet to attract any headlines. No doubt most readers are aware of the recent developments in countries like Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and others, with respect to what can be broadly classified as “resource nationalism.” Our general views on the subject were detailed a few years ago.  As discussed by this writer and others, such developments are not new and certainly not limited to silver or even the mining sector.  However, in our opinion, it is in the silver space that these events are likely to have the most profound effect. Why? Because the silver sector is so small and the above-mentioned countries collectively make up a big piece of it. According to CPM Group’s 2012 Silver Yearbook, the countries named above are projected to produce some 170 million ounces of silver this year versus anticipated total global silver production