GOLD & INFLATION

May 29 -- Gold has certainly hit the 960 mark I mentioned on May 4th and may be heading to that 1000 mark again. As of today, gold is at 980! From a trading standpoint, once a stock or commodity begins to hit the goals I set for it, I'd start taking some profits. That being said, I'd also keep some skin in the game for more increases and use some stop-loss orders to protect your gains and minimize any snapbacks that occur if gold drops back to 960 or 965.

May 15 -- I'll post inflation data and numbers here since Gold is a direct play on inflation. CPI inflation numbers came out flat today with no change really. So that’s good for inflation worries, mostly. Year over year CPI is at 2.4%. CPI = Consumer Price Index and the price increases consumers pay for goods. PPI = Producers Price Index and the price produces pay to make those goods. Manufacturing reports showed that manufacturing improved but was still in negative/contractionary territory (March reading of approx. -14 to April reading of approx. -4). So we’re back the question: does “less bad” equal “good news?”

May 14 -- PPI came out showing a 0.3% increase. This was within the consensus range expected by economists of between -0.4% and 0.4%, but higher is always worse and this is on the high end, as well as exceeding the consensus expectation of 0.1%. What may be more important is the year-over-year comparison, which core PPI increased 3.4% year over year.


May 13 -- Gold broke out of the 920 resistence barrier earlier this week and (consistent with earlier stated views) I believe is poised for 960.

May 4 -- It's an inflationary play and its a smart play on debt-laden countries. I'm waiting to see if gold can pop above 920. If so, I think it has a move up to 960 or even 1000 in it. It's been between 902 and 914 for the past week or so.