Hurricane Sandy and buying gold in Canada
Over the last several days, trading ranges and volume for the precious metals markets, along with many others, have been understandably subdued. Trading volume for gold futures yesterday was less than half of its typical level. The storm being called “Frankenstorm” (aka Hurricane Sandy) has wreaked havoc on the East coast of the United States. It has shut down cities, frozen mass transit, caused extensive evacuations, and has left over 7 million homes without power. Even though electronic trading for the precious metals has been available during this time period, the CME closed the Nymex and Comex floor exchanges yesterday as they forced a mandatory evacuation of their building in lower Manhattan. The CME floor will be closed again today as well.
In overnight news unrelated to Hurricane Sandy, we saw the following:
▪ German Unemployment came in at +20,000 which was worse than the expected +10,000.
▪ The Bank of Japan expanded its asset purchase program as anticipated.
▪ Spain’s Q3 GDP contracted slightly by -.30% q/q.
The precious metals will most likely remain in tight ranges for the rest of the week as East coast market participants slowly return to work. Gold will continue to gravitate towards $1,700 while silver is presently fixated around $32.
We hope all of our friends to the South are safe and well.
