United Coin and Precious Metals 3/17 950 Silverado Street La Jolla, CA 92037

Wall Street Journal reports that the gold price is slipping.

“We are a few days, or I could even say a few hours, away from a resolution,” French President François Hollande said at a conference in Paris.

“Some people are just getting out of this market to avoid the volatility and paring back positions until they get a clearer understanding,” said Frank Lesh, a broker and futures analyst with FuturePath Trading in Chicago. “Just because Greece gets a deal now doesn’t mean that their problems are solved.”

“The stock market is still up and strong and siphoning money away from gold to stocks,” said George Gero, a senior vice president with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures.

“Fund managers will move money to wherever there’s better performance,” Mr. Gero said.

“If (Friday’s) jobs data do miss, it will be supportive of gold because of how much this market is hinging on the Fed decision,” Mr. Haberkorn said.

“The easing of tensions in the euro zone, with optimism around a Greek deal and Draghi’s comments, has lifted the stock markets today, dampening interest for safer assets like gold,” ActivTrades chief analyst Carlo Alberto de Casa said.

“But a more decisive move for gold could come from the U.S. data front on Friday.”

“I still believe gold will go lower in coming months, but at the moment there is not enough momentum to push the market in that direction, because of patchy US economic data and dollar moves,” ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said.

“If you have a consistent set of stronger data, you will get that move lower.”

The likelihood of higher interest rates in the U.S. has been a concern for investors in gold, which doesn’t pay interest or dividends and costs money to hold. But gold buyers say those worries are receding as U.S. economic growth continues to disappoint. This has led investors to shift their expectations away from rapidly tighter U.S. monetary policy toward only modest rate increases. Gold should remain competitive with interest-bearing assets in this environment, and could rally if inflation pressures resurface, these traders say.

Texas is opening a new bullion depository which was approved on May 31 by lawmakers.

Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, worked for two years to enable the comptroller’s office to create the depository, making Texas the first state in the nation to do so.

“When I filed it, I just got these letters from literally all over the world,” Capriglione said. “People were saying, ‘I want to put my gold in Texas.’ They just have this image of the wild, wild west.”

Texas plans to make revenue off the fees.

“What that does is create kind of this economic shelter, if you well, for the state of Texas to be able to protect it from an imbalance,” to hedge against an economic downturn or inflation, he said.

The legislation is expected to be signed off by the governor.

As Dallas Morning News Reports:

Another gold bill by Sen. Konni Burton, R-Colleyville, that didn’t get traction this session would have allowed Texans to use gold or silver pieces minted by the federal government as legal tender. However, federal law already treats them as such.

This is big news for gold bugs and we know this at United Coin and Precious Metals. We expect further moves like this by a myriad of not only US states but also nation-states. This will increase demand. Gold and silver might be a soft market these days, but that does not take away from the reality that gold and silver bullion are both here to stay.

Gold is not the only commodity falling  and its “largely thanks to dollar strength,” according to Tyler Richey, an analyst for the 7:00’s Report.

“Gold broke out last week as investors interpreted mostly soft economic data as reason for the [Federal Reserve] to delay “rate liftoff” to the end of 2015 or even out to 2016,” he said. “However, after … [the] strong housing starts number, and with multiple other reports due out later this week with optimistic results expected, the uptrend in gold is being tested.”  Continue reading →

Gold prices saw their highest level in three months as doubts about Greece’s ability to pay its debts spurred investors. But that’s not the only reason why the gold price has been volatile. Read to the bottom to learn more…

“We have limited time now, limited time and still a very important job to be done,” Pierre Moscovici, the European Union economics commissioner, told reporters at a briefing.

This is leading to a higher gold price.

“What you’re seeing now is gold driving higher on the uncertainty of what’s next, and what happens when they get to the next cliff,” saidBob Haberkorn, a senior commodities broker with RJO Futures in Chicago.

“There’s a lot of strength in gold based on Greece,” he said.

Then there’s the algos, which affect markets in many ways.

“The algos use similar sorts of momentum-driven models — it can all be liquidity in the same way, particularly around economic data releases or when gold prices are at well-identified technical levels,” one gold market participant says.

“Real money funds investment people just aren’t playing the gold market, central banks, the whole lot of them aren’t trading the gold market the way they used to,” David Govett, head of precious metals at trader Marex Spectron, says.

They are investing less, leaving more room for algos to take over and wreak havoc.

“A lot of the trading centres around the fixing and the futures market. London has already seen that massive decline in trading liquidity and volumes,” Ross Norman, head of broker Sharps Pixley, says, referring to the twice daily gold auction used to set a price. “The fix has more prominence than ever given the spot rate has less of a role.”

Chinese demand will likely change this.

“We will undoubtedly have a Chinese fixing price before the end of the year and we will see a rapid development of a Chinese gold options market — they’ve got a very deep liquid lending market and so the idea that liquidity is moving east is correct,” one market participant says. “They do need to take stock of where the London market is going and what role it’s got to play going forward.”

Do you have any questions on the price of gold? Contact United Coin & Precious Metals today, or stop on by our La Jolla shop, for your one stop shop for precious metals in San Diego County.

Germans are buying gold at a frantic pace because they are worried about the future.

According to the World Gold Council, in a report released Thursday, demand for gold bar and coins increased 20% in Germany during the first quarter, compared to a year prior. Continue reading →

The Economist recently published a big hit article on the gold market, misleading the reader about why one buys gold and what its uses are. Moreover, the article does little to truly examine the pre-1933 gold market, which United Coin & Precious Metals specializes in, and discuss its art-type aspects and otherwise. Continue reading →

Gold has been on the tips of many people’s tongues for awhile now due to the likelihood that, in the coming years, the Fed will raise its interest rate. Gold has become less attractive to many as an investment in recent years, though, due to the relatively stable economic outlook, a rising stock market and low inflation. Many experts believe this will change in due time.

Gold has been around $1,200 for quite awhile now.

1. You can buy gold in yen or euros, with two exchange traded funds (ETFs) enabling you to invest in gold . GYEN and GEUR are available from the Advisor Shares Gartman ETFs listed on the NYSE that allow you to trade gold against the two currencies. This is a highly risky means of buying coins and is really warned against here at UCPM due to the paper base of the assets. This is not real gold.

2. Buying gold in dollars is not hard as well, with the easiest way to buy or sell the price of gold in dollars being the  SPDR Gold Trust, GLD, which represents the largest of these ETFs available on the NYSE. The shares trade based on the price of gold bullion. There are also “leveraged” gold ETFs, which magnify gains and losses. This is a highly risky form of buying gold and many people lose significant money doing this.

3. Gold stocks or mutual funds mean many publicly traded gold mining companies. This is a good way of holding stake in the gold market, with less risk than GLD and other funds.

4. Coin store. Governments mint coins and that is why investors have the option to buy gold coins in their own neighborhood. You can walk into a coin store during regular business hours and buy your coins. That is what United Coin & Precious Metals does, serving the San Diego, Calif. and La Jolla.

5. Online buying. You can also, instead of going to your local store, buy coins online. You can compare prices and get digitized customer service. Of course you have to wait to get your coins.

United Coin & Precious Metals recommends option four, due to its transparency and the ability of the customer to walk out the door same day with the metals. It is not common in San Diego County for this to be the case. But at UCPM…It is.