Silver, the precious metal that is overshadowed by gold, reached a record high. It closed at $29.39 per ounce, above the previous intra-day peak of $29.34 reached the beginning of November. It then made only a swing high and fell back down under $28. Now we have a decisive close, touching $30.
Silver isn’t used only for… silverware, but also as an alternative to gold. And speaking of gold, it also made a record close at $1413.69, though not a record intra-day high. The intra-day high of $1424 was reached a month ago.
Jean-Claude Trichet dipped into the waters of currency printing, buying bonds of peripheral European countries in big amounts. Ben Bernanke said on 60 minutes that further dollar printing can happen, beyond $600 billion. It might be an extension of QE2 or QE3.
Quantitative Easing is a nice name for currency printing. When there’s too much of currencies, traders are flocking to ancient currencies – gold and silver coins. China is the busiest country regarding precious metals – they are importing gold and calling the US to sell its gold.
The Australian dollar is enjoying these high prices and is approaching parity with the US dollar once again.
Will the ride continue, or are we seeing a bubble?