Reuters - Stocks edged lower on Monday as investors found little reason to extend a five-week rally on lingering uncertainty over whether Greece would accept the terms of a bailout.

Reuters - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Greece on Monday to make up its mind fast on accepting the painful terms for a new EU/IMF bailout, but the country's political leaders responded by delaying their decision for yet another day.

AP - It was a blue Christmas for Hasbro. The No. 2 toy maker said Monday that its fourth-quarter profit slipped 1 percent, pinched by softer-than-expected demand in the U.S. and Canada and slow sales of games and puzzles during the key holiday season.

AP - Greece's coalition government on Monday caved in to demands to cut civil service jobs, announcing 15,000 positions would go this year, amid mounting international pressure to agree on austerity measures needed to secure major new debt agreements.

With the fast-rising prices for silver and gold that have set new all-time highs this past week of April 2011, many investors must be wondering, what does one do to take advantage of this situation?

It does seem to the author that there is a distinct lack of media attention covering the precious metal rise. As always, there seems to be an equal number of bears calling the rise in prices a bubble and signalling danger versus an equal number of bulls calling for a further rise to $50 USD and beyond, based upon currency debasement. For myself, I see further gains based upon supply and demand factors of the emerging markets growth, and I will watch with interest.

As for a prediction for the silver price, based upon a quick look at the charts and the application of some Elliott Wave's principles, I call for silver to rise to

First and foremost, and as reported by Reuters last night, “Gaddafi ‘accepts peace roadmap’: South Africa's Zuma,” and I hope this is the real deal. But the writing has been plastered on the wall. Instability has a way to propel oil and precious metals higher, and the current geopolitical landscape is fertile ground for conspiracy theories, apocalyptic dreams, and allodoxaphobia when views are a bit off the beaten track.

As a side note, the various spellings of the name Gaddafi is due to a lack of a "universally accepted authority for transliterating Arabic names," according to the The Christian Science Monitor.

We find ourselves in the midst of uncommon times, and currency games keep most of us off balance, with the European Central Bank and Federal Reserve playing ping-pong with each other, while the rest of the World simply observes and acquires uncomfortable neck pain. Portugal’s expected bailout didn’t affect

Silver has had a phenomenal run over the last year more than doubling in price. However, I think that it is overextended and is likely to suffer a correction of at around 20%

By Matt Carr

"I bought it very early, I sold it very early. Other than that, it was perfect."

That was Warren Buffett in 2006, admitting to a gaffe on his part. In 1997, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)(BRK.B) purchased 129,710,000 ounces of silver for delivery in early 1998 at roughly $680 million.

Silver was cheap. But the price rose quickly – from $4.00 to $7.81 – before falling back down just as quickly.

The "Oracle of Omaha" made a costly mistake though. He liquidated his position shortly after buying in. If Buffett had held on to that massive silver position, it’d be worth close to $5 billion today. (Ouch.)

Well, at least Buffett can still say he was right. He correctly predicted that silver was going higher. And those silver prices of the late 1990s have since been blown away. Silver screamed past $10 and $20 per ounce in the

By Brad Zigler

Years ago, when I was a young pup on the trading floor, a battle-scarred old-school trader told me, "Spreads are for ...." Well, I can't tell you exactly what he said. Let's just say he thought spread trading was wimpish.

We've often illustrated spread trades as a way to achieve nuance in the binary world of trading. Buying or selling futures outright casts you as either a bull or bear, concerned only about a rise or fall in the absolute price of a commodity. Trading spreads means you care more about the relationship between the position's contracts. (Gee, put that way, it's surprising "Dear Abby" doesn't opine on spreads.)

Take gold and silver as an example. You could have bought December gold or silver futures at the beginning of February and watched the metals' prices rise 10 percent and 42 percent, respectively. With present margin rates —

At thesilvershortage.com we have been riding the bull market in silver and silver mining stocks for almost four months now. During that time it has become more difficult to find value in the sector

Vanadium, a gray metal mainly used as an additive to steel, could see a jump in demand as new technologies emerge in energy storage. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Jonathan Lee, a battery materials and technology analyst with Toronto-based Byron Capital Markets, talks about which vanadium producers are ready to grapple with the prospect of increasing demand from the adaption of "green" uses.

The Gold Report: What are some development stories in the vanadium space that you're covering?

Jonathan Lee: Largo Resources Ltd. (LGORF.PK) is one of the most advanced of all the juniors. At a 1.34% grade, Largo has the highest grade deposit of vanadium that is known right now. We currently have a Strong Buy on Largo Resources.

TGR: And that's the Maracas project in Brazil?

JL: It is in Brazil. That deposit is one of the highest grade deposits in the world at about

U.S. gold rose to a record high for a fourth straight session on Friday, its longest string of record highs since January 7. The metal’s rise was impressive. Gold rose $16.60, or 1.14%, to close at $1474.50 an ounce. Gold prices hit an intraday low of $1456.30 and a high of $1474.90 an ounce. Silver futures prices for June delivery, now the most active contrast, rose $1.31, or 3.31%, to close at $40.91 an ounce on the Comex in New York. Silver prices hit an intraday low of $39.49 and a high of $40.91. Both gold and silver made record highs and 31 year highs in Friday’s session.

The U.S. dollar was steeply lower on Friday. The U.S. dollar index was down 0.72, or 0.96%, to close at 74.86. The U.S. dollar index hit an intraday low of 74.84 and a high of 75.61. The U.S. dollar index is still

For over a year now, I’ve casually mentioned that the leadership in the West, including the United States and Europe, is not just unwilling to take the steps needed to nurse the economy back to health, but that they’re increasingly incapable of understanding what needs to be done.

But as I’ve noted, the amounts of money being quibbled over are pretty insignificant. You can do the math for yourself. The total outstanding federal deficit is now over $14 trillion. Divide $33 billion or $40 billion by $14 trillion and you get 0.0023 or 0.0028. Multiply those decimals by 100 to get the percentage. So $33 billion and $40 billion amounts to 0.23% and 0.28% of the total federal deficit. Even with these cuts, the deficit will grow because they’re not even close to the amount of spending reduction we need to actually put the Fed back in the black.

These

Purchasing commodity producing equities has been extremely profitable for most investors over the past year as a weak dollar and supply issues have driven up everything from soft commodities to industrial and precious metals. The sharp gains have also carried over to the dynamic rare earth metal market where fears over Chinese export limits as well as the metals’ critical nature to a variety of 21^st century technologies dominate the price movements of this group of elements.

In fact, according to Metal-Pages, from October 2009 through December 2010, prices for rare earths have risen by approximately 780% on average. Meanwhile, in the same period, prices for some of the most common rare earths (cerium oxide, lanthanum oxide, neodymium oxide, and rare earth carbonate) have risen by more than 1,000% on average.

Thanks to this surge, interest in this much talked about but little understood corner of the market has gained

In this week's Barron's, Anna Raff writes the courageously bearish piece, "Why Silver Will Tarnish." What makes it courageous? Raff predicts that silver's historic rally is about to end. Among other things, Raff builds her case around the following points:

• Gold and silver are both "safe haven" assets, but silver has greatly outperformed gold recently.

Silver prices have doubled since August, while gold is up 20% in the same span. Over just the past three months, silver has shot up 50% compared with 11% for gold.

• Raff doesn't trust the investment demand driving silver prices.

Unlike institutional investors, the little guy is less likely to hold silver over the long run. Analysts say individuals may well trade out of precious metals and into higher-yielding assets once interest rates start to rise, as the tightening of monetary policy gains traction around the world.

• Silver is much more sensitive to economic demand.

A lot of people are buying the stocks of rare earth companies today — most because they have read that this is a “hot” industry and because most trade as penny stocks and are therefore highly “toutable” by the kind of newsletters that use copy like:

We expect a minimum return of 10,486% on this Secret Stock we are willing to divulge to you alone!!

(And, of course, anyone else who ponies up $395 to discover the name of the stock that is already well-known to those who’ve actually done their due diligence. PS – I understand the hype of 10,000%. But I wonder how they come up with such certitude that it will be 10,486%?)

So herewith, a quick primer and my answer to the question “Is it too late?”

First, rare earths are anything but rare. What is rare, however, is finding them in commercially viable quantities. Even

“Silver feels a little toppy to me at these levels.” That seems to be the refrain of technical analysts and stock traders who are bearish on silver. Or some might say, “silver has had a huge run up and now it looks like it’s ready for a pullback.” Or, “I liked silver at $15 or $24 (sure they did), but now it’s expensive.”

Some silver bears point to the fact that silver is at a 31 year high as “evidence” that it’s getting pricey. Are we overbought at these levels? Could be. Are we in for a repeat of the boom and bust of 1980? The chart from back then looks awfully scary. Let’s take a look at a few stats from then and now to see if that’s a fair comparison.

Money Supply: In 1980 the monetary base was $200 billion. Today, it’s around $2400 billion, or twelve times

It's hard to say exactly what is required for a gold bug to become a gold bug. For me it was the simple understanding that the United States no longer produces anything but debt. Why would anyone prefer to own a currency that ultimately represents a service economy led by cowboy central bankers when they can own one that is also a hard asset with great historical value?

With gold and silver appreciating rapidly of late, many argue precious metals have gone too far. Two such arguments particularly don't carry much weight so I'd like take a moment to dispel them.

Seeking Alpha contributor John Tobey performs a historical analysis of the purchasing power of gold in the United States. He uses a constant basket of goods that make up the consumer price index and plots their price in gold in the U.S.A. since the Declaration of Independence. Since today

Here is an interesting inflation hedge for income investors. Newmont Mining Corporation (NEM) is planning its dividend payments based on the average sales price for gold. The expected payment date based on this formula is June 29, 2011. According to the company:

The annual payout will increase at a rate of $0.20 per share for each $100 per ounce rise in the average realized gold price. At the current gold price of approximately $1,450 per ounce (i.e. between $1,400 - $1,499 per ounce), Newmont's annual dividend would be $1.00 per share. Subject to Board approval, the first quarterly dividend under this policy is expected to be payable on June 29, 2011 to shareholders of record on June 16, 2011.

The company believes that by 2017, it can produce 7 million ounces of attributable annual gold production, and that based on today's prices of precious metals, it can achieve internal rates

By Brad Zigler

Gold made a clean sweep against the world's reserve currencies this week, particularly the yen, which posted a record-setting 4.8 percent loss. Bullion notched a new record against the greenback as well, while it rose 2.1 percent vs. the Swiss franc and 1 percent in euro. Sterling yielded 0.5 percent to gold.

In dollar-denominated assets:

• London gold was fixed at $1,457 Thursday morning, 1.8 percent higher on the week, after averaging $1,443; COMEX spot last settled at $1,459 for a 1.4 percent gain; spot metal averaged $1,446 this week in New York; average daily COMEX volume toppled 47 percent to 140,399 contracts, but open interest surged by 31,919 contracts to 519,059.

• COMEX gold inventories fell 22,176 ounces (0.7 tonnes) to 11.011 million; 21.2 percent of open interest is now covered by warehouse stocks; 2.349 million ounces are deliverable, while immediate demand for COMEX bullion amounts to no

Why the fascination with a gold bubble? I still don't know. Perhaps there are financial incentives for some authors and media talk show hosts. After all, a lot of these people don't actually trade or invest their own money into the markets. They are paid to express an opinion and the public takes their word as good as "gold." Now the contrarian in me causes me to question whether gold has indeed run its course, inflation adjusted or not. The market does not have to bow down and agree with our reasoning. Therefore it is wiser to view what the market is actually doing and structure a process that puts you in the place with the greatest potential while managing your risk well. Right now the market believes that hard assets are the key to securing wealth or generating a return on investment, regardless of whether or not gold is

You might have wondered, “What will happen to the price of my gold holdings if (when) there’s a real crisis in the United States?”

On April 4, just two weeks after the worst of the Japanese earthquake and ensuing tsunami, gold priced in Japanese yen sells for 9% more, and it’s in a sustained uptrend. Meanwhile, gold priced in dollars only sells for about 1.5% more over the same period.

[Click to enlarge]

Silver has been on a great uptrend, and as inflation fears continue to loom, the dollar remains relatively volatile and political unrest prevails around the world, the precious metal will likely continue to witness price appreciation.

As a whole, both macroeconomic and microeconomic forces are favorable for silver