Gold: A nice comeback staged by the bulls

The UK economy came under close scrutiny this week. We had the inflation numbers, the government borrowing figures, the budget and the consumer confidence numbers. And on every metric the news was pretty grim especially for savers and those on fixed income.

Whilst the usual cheerleading met the news that CPI inflation had fallen to 3.4% (still miles above the government mandated target let's not forget), the 27th month in a row the BoE has failed miserably to do its job. But what most in the MSM seemed to miss was the massive month-on-month jump in inflation. That rose at an eye watering 7.2% annualised rate.

Then there was news that government borrowing in February reached an all time record for that month - the market was expecting a borrowing number nearer £8bn when in actually fact the government borrowed more than £15bn - the reason was a 12% collapse in income tax receipts. And there was us thinking that the Chancellor was trying to reduce deficit spending not take it new all time records highs!

Then there was the budget where the spending and debt increases carry on their insane path. The reason that the numbers weren't as bad as they should've been was the rather predictable news that the UK government is now raiding people's pensions - stealing some £24bn from the Royal Mail pension pot. Something all governments do as a last desperate attempt to fudge the numbers.

Gold was looking like having its 4th down week in a row this morning. But this afternoon there has been a nice comeback staged by the bulls and it looks like gold will now close out the week around the $1665/£1048 level - essentially flat on the week.

Yesterday gold got as low as $1627/£1030 so this afternoon's comeback is even more impressive and should calm some goldbug fears going into next week.

Silver was similarly looking like having another bad week this morning but has followed gold up and is looking to close the week around £32.1 level - a smidgen down on the week.

All-in-all until this afternoon the grind lower over past few weeks in the precious metals looked set to continue into next week. But the nice pop this afternoon in fairly quick fashion will give some momentum for the bulls going into next week the last trading week for the month of March - maybe even gold's sell-off has bottomed here?
Article from: www.goldmadesimplenews.com