Market Recap 2/26/10

The Commerce Department reported on Wednesday, that sales of new single-family homes in the U.S. sank 11% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000. It was an unexpected tumble that sent sales to their lowest level since these records began in 1963 and this loss wiped out much of the progress made in the last year, according to The Wall Street Journal. Existing-home sales fell 7.2% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $5.05 million, the lowest in seven months, said the National Association of Realtors.

The Fed is keeping interest rates near zero to encourage lending to businesses and consumers in order to stimulate growth, reported Reuters, which also means there is little money to be made by investors holding cash or bonds. “This is a little different from when you have a robust economy where you can buy the market and everything goes up because you believe in the economy,” said Keith Springer, President of Capital Financial Advisory Services in Sacramento, California.

“American International Group (AIG) warned that it may need more assistance from the U.S. Government, but the insurer said it will have adequate liquidity to ‘finance and operate AIG’s businesses and continue as a going concern for at least the next twelve months,” reported MSN Money. This plethora of weak economic news may bode well for investments in precious metals, which historically are considered a hedge against inflation.

APMEX was able to secure a limited allotment of Scruffy Random-Year Gold Canadian Maple Leaf bullion coins this week, and we are excited to be able to offer them at the very low premium of only $24.95 over spot in any quantity. If you are looking to add gold to your position or portfolio, you will be hard pressed to find a lower premium than this on gold bullion.

Gold:
Spot gold prices opened this week at $1,121.20. The high during the week was on Monday, February 22nd, at $1,130.40, while the low for the week occurred on Thursday, February 25th, at $1,088.50. Gold ended the week down $1.80 at $1,119.40. This week, investors concentrated their interest in Gold American Eagles, Canadian Gold Maple Leafs and 1 gram .9999 Sunshine Minting Gold Bars.

Silver:
Spot silver prices opened this week at $16.37. Silver reached a high of $16.56 on Monday and Friday this week, while the low for silver occurred on Wednesday, February 24th, at $15.62. Silver ended the week up $0.17 at $16.54. Silver American Eagles, 1 oz. APMEX .999 Fine Silver Rounds and Canadian Silver Maple Leafs remained popular with silver investors this week.

Platinum:
Spot platinum prices opened this week at $1,543.90 and ended the week up $4.10 at $1,548.00. This week, Canadian Platinum Maple Leafs, 1 oz. Pamp Suisse Platinum Bars and Platinum American Eagles continued to be popular with investors.

Palladium:
Spot palladium prices opened this week at $443.50 and ended the week down $6.70 at $436.80. This week, the most popular palladium items included Random Year 1 oz. Palladium Canadian Maple Leafs and 1 oz. .999 Fine Pamp Suisse Palladium Bars.

Featured Bullion Product:
Each week, APMEX will feature a different bullion product for the benefit of our readers. This week’s featured product is the United States silver dollar.

The U.S. Mint produced these coins from 1794 until 1935. APMEX carries a wide selection of Early, Trade, Morgan and Peace Dollars in many different die and mint varieties. Each silver dollar contains .77344 ounces of pure silver, making these silver dollars the most popular silver coins ever produced by the U.S. Mint. The Morgan Dollar, which was minted between 1878 and 1921, is considered by many to be the most widely collected silver coin in U.S. history.

Silver dollars are a favorite among collectors because of their size, beauty and availability, and APMEX is proud to offer a vast selection of silver dollars in all conditions, in both certified and uncertified states.

Weekly Market Recap 11/20/09

The precious metals market saw tremendous gains early in the week as the U.S. Dollar continues to suffer under mounting international pressure. Gold reached a new all time high of $1,153.40 per troy ounce on Wednesday and Silver made steady increases as well.

The U.S. Dollar retreated further as the United States and China failed to reach an agreement over currencies at the summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore. Thomas Hoenig, the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President, said Monday that "the U.S. economy still faced significant weakness." Additionally, Bank of New York Mellon analysts wrote in a note to clients "until such time as the U.S. and Chinese authorities signal meaningful changes to their respective economic and currency policies, we suspect that there will be little basis for any lasting recovery for the U.S. Dollar."

In a speech at the Economic Club of New York, Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernake said, "Economic recovery would not be as robust as previously hoped, and rising unemployment and tight bank lending were significant headwinds." Housing starts declined by 10.6% in October which represented the biggest percentage drop since January. Economists had expected a rise in home starts, but starts are down 30.7%.

This weekend, APMEX is slashing prices even further for our Numismatic Closeout Event. As you may or may not know, APMEX will no longer be selling certain types of coins, currency, collectibles and supplies. This decision has been made to accommodate the growing requests from our customers for more precious metal and bullion-related items. If you are a collector, you should take advantage of this great opportunity to save even more money on your favorite numismatic items. A significant portion of our vast numismatic inventory has already been sold and at these prices these remaining products are not going to last long. Visit www.APMEX.com to see all of the price-reduced products included in the APMEX Numismatic Closeout Event!

Gold:
Spot Gold prices opened this week at $1,119.60. The high during the week was on Wednesday, November 18th, at $1,153.40, while the low for the week was on Monday, November 16th at $1,119.50. Gold ended the week with a gain of $27.20 at $1,146.80. This week, 2009 1/10 oz. Gold American Eagles, 2009 1 oz. BU Gold American Eagles, 1 oz. .9999+ Fine Pamp Suisse Bars and 2009 1 oz. Gold Canadian Maple Leafs lead the Gold rush!

Silver:
Spot Silver prices opened this week at $17.49. Silver reached a high of $18.85, on Wednesday, November 18th. The low for Silver occurred on Monday, November 16th at $17.47. Silver ended the week up $0.98 at $18.47. This week, 2009 1 oz. Silver American Eagles, 2010 1 oz. Canadian Silver Maple Leafs, Sunshine Mint 1 oz. .999 Fine Silver Rounds and 1 oz. .999 Fine Silver Buffalo Rounds held steady as the most popular Silver products with investors at APMEX.

Platinum:
Spot Platinum prices opened this week at $1,393.80 and ended the week up $50.10, at $1,443.90. 1 oz. Pamp Suisse Platinum Bars, 1 oz. Credit Suisse Platinum Bars, 10 oz. Pamp Suisse Platinum Bars and 2009 1 oz. Platinum Canadian Maple Leafs continue to capture the attention of profit seeking investors.

Palladium:
Spot Palladium prices opened this week at $356.00 and ended the week up $10.40 at $366.40. Popular Palladium products this week included 2009 1 oz. Palladium Maple Leafs, 1 oz. Pamp Suisse Palladium Bars and 10 oz. Pamp Suisse Palladium Bars.

Numismatics:
It is almost impossible to ignore what the spot price of Gold has been doing lately. This week Gold broke yet another all-time high record as it climbed slightly past $1,150 per ounce. Because our customers have asked for them, APMEX has a wide variety of Gold products to choose from that are competitively priced and ready to ship, including 2009 Gold Buffalos, 2009 Gold American Eagles and the 2009 Gold Fractional Eagles set to be released by the U.S. Mint in early December. APMEX has also recently expanded its inventory of Pre-1933 Gold to accommodate the growing demand by investors and collectors nationwide.

While Gold has had the attention of the major financial media, the quiet giant, Silver, has made steady gains. APMEX has seen a spike in popularity for its numismatic Silver coins, including Cull Silver Dollars, Morgan Silver Dollars grading Very Good to Very Fine and Peace Silver Dollars grading Very Good to Very Fine. Keep in mind that these are bulk items and that individual Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars have seen an influx of interest, as these are some of the most popular U.S. coins to collect.

Over the past few months, APMEX has been highlighting a particular Silver Dollar to give both the collector and the investor a little better insight into why this series has, and perhaps always will be, so popular. This week we are highlighting the 1893-O. “O” is the mintmark that was used by the New Orleans Mint, which began striking Morgan Silver Dollars in 1879 and finished in 1904. The 1893-O is by far the lowest-minted New Orleans Silver Dollar. There were only 300,000 minted, all of which were struck in January of that year. Ten obverse dies were sent to the minting facility in New Orleans, but no new reverse dies were included as they had enough from the previous year. Because of this, there are really no major varieties to be found for this particular coin.

1893-O’s are generally not well struck and many have a lackluster surface. In addition to the poor eye appeal of this coin, most are speckled with a tremendous amount of bagmarks, which are tiny marks that occurred when the coins were stored in canvas bags inside the Mint facility. Even with these issues, these coins remain very popular and are considered a semi-key date for the Morgan Silver Dollar set. Coins grading MS-64 and above are extremely scarce, especially if you can locate one without many contact marks. Likewise, coins grading Fair-2 or Almost Good-3 are also extremely scarce, as they were not widely circulated. Coins in these grades should command a hefty premium due to such a low mintage. The top grading service in the nation, PCGS, has never graded an 1893-O as Poor-1 while they have only graded six in MS-65 and one in MS-66! Regardless of the coin or grade you choose to purchase, this particular date and mintmark could increase in value.

Silver And Gold Investors Speak Out

Our recent survey yielded something that we found pretty incredible – in fact, it was downright awesome!

Our customers gave us a 98% customer satisfaction rate across the board!


No boast, there – though we are pretty proud of the accomplishment. Obviously, we strive to make everybody happy all the time. But we are also realists; we recognize that we can’t be perfect for everyone, so we are very happy with the great feedback.

Perfect or not, 98% is fantastic news for any silver or gold dealer – online or local. One of our primary goals is to maintain an outstanding relationship with our customers, who value our expertise in the precious metals industry. Our services and products are all offered specifically with the customer in mind, ensuring that they receive the highest level of reliability and excellence when purchasing or selling precious metals like silver bullion, US gold coins or Mexican gold coins. The satisfaction wasn’t limited to our bullion departments; it carried over to our collections of numismatics and rare coins.

We constantly aim to be the trusted advisor and qualified source for precious metals investing, and it is wonderful that our customers see our efforts and respond to us in like manner. The only opinion that matters is YOURS – our happy customers! Thank you for thinking so highly of us – we will continue to do all we can to keep it up.

Let us know how we are doing on this blog. If there is something that you would like to see discussed here, covered in depth or if you just have something you need to get off your chest – post a comment for us.