Weekly Markets
Precious Metals - CNN on the new Gold Rush
Oil - The Oil/Gold Ratio
Other Commodities
Currencies - Bonds
Stocks - Property

Weekly Commentary
Alan Greenspan on Gold

Global Finance Conference features
Gold Investments

Opinions
Warren Buffet, Stephen Roach, Joe Brennan,
Martin Wolf, David McWilliams

(complete newsletter here)

Performance ( % Change)

Weekly Markets

Stock markets were down for the week.
Bond markets were up with a consequent drop in yields.
Gold continued it's rally in all currencies. Oil and the majority of commodities were up.

Precious Metals

Gold was up $2.30 or more than 0.5% for the week. From $437.70 to $441 per ounce.

Silver was down from $7.31 to $7.25 per ounce or some 0.8% for the week.

Platinum (July) was up 0.56%; from $891 to $896 per ounce

Gold for August delivery reached as high as over $443.00 per ounce.
Gold denominated in Euros continues to rally and was up more from EUR361.80 to EUR364.52 or some 0.75%.

CNN Money reported that Gold Rush may mean Inflation Bust and that "The metal's recent jump worldwide and high oil prices signal serious inflation pressures ahead."

Gold rising along with the dollar -- and with oil jumping to record highs near $60 a barrel -- may signal serious inflation woes ahead.

It's enough to give a gold bull deja vu.

A handful of precious metals insiders at the recent New York Institutional Gold Conference predicted that the price of spot gold will hit $850 an ounce in the next few years from its current level near $440.

The last time it got anywhere near that high was in the late 1970s when out-of-control inflation, unrest in the Middle East and an oil crisis pushed the precious metal from $150 to $810 a troy ounce.

Gold is currently trading 30 percent above its 10-year moving average on the New York Commodities Exchange, and gained five percent this month to stand less than $10 away from March's peak at $446.70, even while the greenback gained against the euro. This, some economists contend, points to a troubling inflation problem, greater than currently perceived.

"Despite all the rate hikes, the (Federal Reserve's) overnight lending rate is still less than inflation," said James Turk, co-author of the book The Coming Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit From It.

Black gold

It is oil prices that are really making the gold market look like 1970s redux, with crude prices hovering near $60 a barrel.

While economists debate whether high oil prices will spark inflation or will slow economic growth by acting as a tax on consumers and businesses, the gold and bond markets have come down on the side of inflation.

"The recent run in gold has moved in conjunction with rising crude prices," David Meger, senior metals analyst at Alaron Trading, said in a recent note.

Gold prices began to jump higher in the third quarter of last year, concurrent with the latest oil price surge.

"Middle East nations are getting more petrol dollars as (oil) prices rise, and they're not putting it back into paper assets," said Charles de Vaulx, manager of the First Eagle Gold Fund. "They're trying to protect the value of their profits -- just like in the 1970s -- so they're buying gold," he said.

Gold & Silver Investments Limited will be attending the Global Finance Conference. One of our directors Stephen Flood will give a presentation at a Panel Session on 'Gold as a Global Investment' which will also feature Cetin Ciner of the University of North Carolina. It begins at 2pm on Tuesday the 28th of June.

The Institute for International Integration Studies are hosting the 12th Annual Global Finance Conference, 27-29 June 2005, on the beautiful and historic campus of Trinity College Dublin. Their premier sponsor is the Irish Bankers Federation -- the leading representative body for the banking and financial services sector in Ireland. The theme for the Conference is "Globalisation of Finance and Europe". This year's Conference promises opportunities for stimulating discussion and debate around the many areas of global finance. There were 500 papers submitted in response to the Call for Papers, and after the review process there are now over 350 papers that will be presented by both academics and business practitioners during eight Parallel Sessions - making this Conference one of the largest finance conferences to be held in the world. The two keynote speakers, Prof Campbell Harvey and Prof Robert Shiller, are at the forefront of research in modern finance.

In order to read the complete newsletter please click here or on Gold Investments Weekly Newsletter - Alan Greenspan on Gold.