Leslie Burton
Leslie Burton is a Senior Market Strategist for Daniels Trading. A commodity broker for 25 years. Contributed commentary to the publication "Consensus." Guest speaker for Market Commentary on Tiger Financial News Network Radio between 2001 and 2006. Has conducted educational workshops and webinars for FX Street, Fox Investments, Man Financial and New World Trading. Contributor to Market Technicians Association. Author of "The Weekly Gold Digger" published each week to recap the weekly events affecting the Gold Market and forecast the potential future moves of the Gold Market.
Metals – Gold, Silver, and Copper! Bargain hunters, do not despair! - Read More
The global economic ties can create a synchronized expansion to elevate the entire worldwide marketplace or it can act as a set of dominoes, each falling to take down the next until all have fallen! This is the world we live. - Read More
Metals – Gold, Silver and Copper! They may wear different hats in 2012? Gold has been the safe-haven vehicle used over centuries to barter and as the most sought after currency! Silver has been called “the poor man’s gold.” Copper has been the industrial metal used for cable, pipes, roofing and industrial machinery over the [...] - Read More
The US Dollar and some of the financial markets have been range bound without direction as traders attempt to read into some of the financial reports to gain insight into the potential Fed action! The Fed's monetary policy is intent on providing stabilization with income, employment, prices and balance of payments consistent with the growth rate. - Read More
Gold has been the safe-haven vehicle used over centuries to barter and as the most sought after currency! Silver has been called “the poor man’s gold." Copper has been the industrial metal used for cable, pipes, roofing and industrial machinery over the ages. - Read More
The US Dollar has been range bound since December as remains a safe-haven in a vulnerable economic passage! The range has been about $78.00 - $82.00 allowing traders the opportunity to take advantage of the swings. - Read More
Gold has been the safe-haven vehicle used over centuries to barter and as the most sought after currency! Silver has been called "the poor man's gold." Copper has been the industrial metal used for cable, pipes, roofing and industrial machinery over the ages. - Read More
The US Dollar has been in an uptrend since August 29th when it hit $73.90. Just yesterday, we had reached a high of $79.40 attributed to the US sluggish growth, the potential Euro Zone default fears and this week’s Fed’s announcement. The US T-Bonds have also benefited by the global uncertainty reaching a high today of $147^00. This clearly confirms that the US Dollar still is the choice currency after the downgrade by Standard & Poor’s from AAA to AA+ and the debt ceiling raise. After all, this is a global economic crisis at this point.
The safe-haven products are typically the Treasuries, US Dollar and the precious metals. In this case, traders had perhaps sold off the precious metals either for fear of market risk or to meet the margin calls for the stock portfolios. Even the stronger economies such as China and Germany have experienced slack growth. It is a matter of a global chain with now many weakened links. - Read More
Twenty-five years ago, Silver had led the Gold Market as far as popularity and demand! To go back further, the Hunt Brothers had given the Silver Market a story line and drama to boost the metal. Today, the Gold is clearly leading the Silver! They are both currency and industrial, but the Silver had been regarded as the poor man’s gold. The metals clearly are tied to the emotion of the market. The uncertainty and anxiety causes the precious metals to advance and the confidence in the global economy leads the investors back into the stocks and stock indices.
The allocations shift according to market sentiment. As of late, we are showing no increase in jobs creation. There are more individuals applying for unemployment insurance and the manufacturing sector had been slack. Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke has stated in his speech that the Federal Reserve will do what it can to boost growth and the employment. Without describing a plan to map out the tools that may be used to pump up a sluggish economy, it left investors disappointed. - Read More
Silver has moved sideways this week forming a pennant! While we see that the market could still potentially move lower, it is not likely for it to dip past the $30.00 range. It has separated from the Gold Market as a safe-haven product. The safe-haven products typically are the Treasuries, US Dollar and the Precious Metals during times of uncertainty when investors do not like entertaining the high risk products. In this case, we have the Silver viewed as more of an industrial product! Industrial products will move in sync typically with the global growth. Copper is a market directly tied to industrial growth. Typically, when viewing growth prospects, we view China and the potential building projects within the Asian nation. Reports of factory growth have succumbed to the derailed shipments from Japan with both auto and tech parts. As of late, China has warned its banking and brokerage advisors to caution their clients of the volatility and risk involved with trading Silver. The exchanges that trade Silver have increased the margins to make it difficult for the average investor/trader to include Silver in their portfolios.
Chinese and Indian inflation have also pressured the metal. The stronger US Dollar makes it difficult to purchase the metal. While the Silver has been moving sideways with very little progress, it has also found support at these levels and it has been my experience that a market that one simply cannot bear to watch any longer will suddenly take off. In the case of the Silver Market, we have a potential default in Greece where a bailout resolution cannot be decided upon even with an emergency meeting from the Euro Zone officials. Germany had suggested a potential extension to September in discussing the stabilization. Contagion fears had extended into the banking sector and Portugal/ Ireland/Spain are not far behind. The US has potential concerns regarding their credit ratings dropping from the AAA status. - Read More
