Fw: Buying signals abound in gold -- AND silver:
From WND Sponsor
> Lear Financial
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> If you can't see the signals, you really need to get out more.
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> The precious metals, particularly gold and silver, have been transmitting some serious buying signals of late. You can even witness them in the media. For instance, you rarely saw gold or silver covered with any depth in the mainstream press in the '90's. But gold was, in fact, the cover story of the Money section of USA Today just a few weeks ago. It was due, in no small part, to investors having put $650 million in gold funds this year.
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> Buying signals abound. They're everywhere. Even at the Mint. You need only glance at the U.S. Mint's statistics. Not surprisingly, the Mint sold close to 50,000 Gold Eagles this last month. That's up a steep 20 percent from a year earlier. And the Mint isn't the only one feeling it, either. Many coin dealers are bragging about whopping increases in sales. One statistic shows gold sales up 50 percent for dealers. Some dealers have already sold as much in the first half of 2002 as they did the entire banner year of 1999 when people were worried about Y2K.
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> But overlooked in the mounting gold fray is silver. As rock solid as the fundamentals for gold are - and they are impressively solid - the case could be made that they're even stronger for silver. More and more experts are saying as much. According to futures guru, R.E. McMaster, there are reportedly only about 100 million ounces of silver available in the market...while, short positions are approximately 1.8 billion ounces, "a huge spread in favor of the bulls in silver."
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> There's more. Let's turn to those U.S. Mint statistics again. The Mint is doing such a bang-up job selling coins that sales of silver Eagles were reported to be 1,745,000 in August, which is more than twice the monthly average (by comparison, last August saw only 474,500 silver Eagles sold). In fact the Mint is doing such a good job that it just drained its entire stockpile of the precious metal in July. "No problem," you might think, "they'll just turn to the government's silver stockpile without missing a beat." But that's no longer possible. See, back in 2000, Washington turned over what was left of its strategic silver stockpile - 15 million ounces - to the Mint. And that's what the Mint just used up. This is evidenced by President Bush signing legislation in July allowing the Mint to purchase silver directly from the open market for the first time since the '60's.
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> "Once the U.S. Mint depletes its silver reserve, they must then purchase silver for its coinage programs from the open market, for the first time in forty years," said a Washington press release. That translates to about 15 million ounces of silver, or about 25 percent of all US mine production. However that's not an order quite as easily filled as one might think. Because, despite the fact that all the mines in the world produce about a half a billion ounces of silver each year, every single ounce of it is being used up. In fact, the silver market has been in a deficit situation for twelve consecutive years now. There's far more silver needed than is produced. So, to say the least, that 15 million ounces the Mint requires will have a significant impact on the silver market.
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> "It's just one more indication that those above ground stocks of silver are getting lower and lower and at some point the laws of supply and demand are really going to kick in there and hit the price of silver," said Vicki VeltKamp, a representative of the Idaho silver industry. She obviously understands that silver mine production cannot "instantly" ramp up to suit heightened demand since 75 percent of silver production is just a by-product of lead-zinc, copper or gold mining operations. To boost silver production would also mean boosting the production of those other metals, too, which isn't necessarily an option. Meanwhile industrial, consumer, and jewelry demand for silver - a demand that didn't even exist the last time silver soared to $50 an ounce - are up all over the world. Not to mention the fact that the US is about to embark on war with Iraq and might have to do a quick shuffle to restock its now non-existent strategic silver hoard. So one of the great supply/dem!
> and shortfalls in history exists at this very moment. All told, the silver deficit for 2002 is estimated to be somewhere around 120 million ounces, up from 83 million ounces in 2001. The "new buyer in town," the Mint, will only magnify this deficit.
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> Make no mistake, there is a silver showdown coming. Superinvestors like Warren Buffet are preparing for its approach. In 1997, Buffet quietly acquired about a third of the above-ground supplies of silver (130 million ounces) while the precious metal was still at rock bottom. Silver wouldn't have to move very far to more than justify Buffet's purchase. Think about it: at around $14, silver would have tripled in price...and still would be considered cheap! So if you're reading all the signals the precious metals are sending, today is the time to invest in cheap gold and cheap silver. Because one day in the not-too-distant future it will be a lot better to pat yourself on the back than to kick yourself silly.
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