Platinum Price Reservations

Our reservations concerning the Platinum price became firmer as last week progressed. Given that US investors in general have had the opportunity to play the platinum market in earnest for the first time, it is not surprising that since the launch of the platinum ETF (PPLT-NYSE) the week before last met with such enthusiastic buying. Read more

How To Invest In Rhodium

At the end of last week Rhodium for 30 day delivery was trading around $1500 an ounce, more expensive than platinum and palladium with which it shares its primary use in auto catalyst applications to control exhaust emissions.

We assume that our readers are conversant  with its properties and range of uses. Now lets see how to invest in Rhodium and if it is worthwhile.

As it is such a rare metal there is no primary miner, that is, it is a by- product of other mining activities. Read more

Will Shorting Platinum Be Profitable?

Strikes continue to hit Impala Holdings for the third day running at their Rustenberg mine, the worlds largest Platinum mine as the company announces an annual net income drop of 65% for the year ending in June. Impala Holdings is the second largest platinum producer in the world. Read more

Gold, Silver and Platinum All Fall

Gold, Silver and Platinum all fall to two month lows before gold crawls back from below $906 an ounce to $914 an ounce in Thursday’s NY morning trading.

That gold has lost its lustre in the last few weeks is as much due to its midsummer annual doldrums as any other single factor. Read more

Gold And Silver Soar Leaving Platinum Dropping

Platinum languishes as gold and silver reach new multi month highs. Investors keen to participate in the commodity markets as prices rise in the face of the declining dollar look to gain from silver and gold.

Platinum prices have dropped by around forty percent from their peak as the metal’s major industrial users, auto manufacturers, show no signs of recovering from their current slump in sales. Read more

Caution Advised as Gold Leaps

Visitors to this site will recall that on Tuesday this week we suggested that gold was a good buy when it dipped below $900 an ounce.

We amended the old market saying ‘buy the dips, sell the peaks’ to ‘buy the dips and hold your nerve’.

Well we hope that you all filled your boots but now we must advise caution as the price of gold has leapt faster and higher than we anticipated. Read more

New Research Threatens Platinum

Platinum’s woes continue as new research threatens to undermine its pre-eminence as a catalyst in fuel cells.

A potential breakthrough in the use of carbon nanotubes laced with nitrogen to replace the costly metal with this much cheaper technology will, if successful, lead to further downside pressure on demand.

Already suffering from a sharp drop in demand as the global auto industry continues to contract, platinum and its producers are not looking a promising investment at this time. Read more

Why Have PGMs Fallen Off a Cliff?

For the last three weeks our attention has been claimed by the extraordinary and ongoing events affecting financials in particular and the knock on consequences to markets in general.

To very briefly sum up, the irrational euphoria that greeted the Paulson/ Bernanke news last Friday was quickly replaced as worldwide markets opened deeply in the red on the realisation of the consequences of their bail out proposals.

The sector that was a significant exception was our very own favourites, gold and silver. The $900 an ounce level was breached before falling back to the mid eighties and as we write (06.30 ET) is again knocking on the door at $895 an ounce.

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