Have Gold And Silver Bottomed Yet?

Gold last traded at $1,742 an ounce. Silver at $26.21 an ounce.

NEWS SUMMARY: Precious metal prices steadied Friday on bargain-hunting despite a firmer dollar. U.S. stocks fell as Fedspeak, which signaled an end of capital breaks for banks, stoked a rise in bond yields and a sell-off in financials.

Seeking Alpha--"It makes no sense that shortages of physical have developed while the prices of gold and silver have been declining the past few months. But the aggressive price take-down that occurs in the paper markets is an effort by the banks to discourage buyers from investing in physical gold and silver in an effort to help alleviate the growing shortage of physical metal in NYC and London.

This bullion bank fire drill has occurred intermittently over the 20 years of my involvement in the sector. And yet, gold has been the best-performing asset from 2001 to present.

The fundamental factors that drive gold and silver keep getting stronger by the day. I don't know how much lower the sector will go from here - part of that will depend on whether or not a stock market accident occurs, something which I believe has a high probability. But at some point, the Fed is going to have to unleash another massive round of money printing to finance the coming flood of Treasury issuance or risk losing control of the long end of the yield curve, which in turn would devastate the financial markets."