How about trillion-dollar platinum?

All some of the more colourful (or scandalous some might say) provisions of last week’s fiscal cliff deal, courtesy of the The Washington Post.

After enjoying a solid start to the new year thanks to the fiscal cliff deal and better-than-expected US economic data, industrial commodities and general equities have lost some ground this morning, with the Dollar Index rising above 80.00 – a magnet for this particular index going back over a year now.

Likewise, gold continues to be pulled back towards $1,650/oz. Falls below this level always result in value investors – many wealthy Asians especially – stepping into the physical market, while rallies above this price are met with sales at the futures market in New York. The same is true for the $30 mark in relation to silver.

Broadly speaking, silver’s range is $29.50 to $35.50. It’s hard to get excited about any moves up in silver until it clears the latter price in convincing fashion. Gold’s is $1,600 to $1,800. Once we’re back over $1,800 then we could see a resumption of the powerful gains we saw from 2009 to September 2011. “Wake me up when we’re over $2,000” is probably the best attitude.

In other news, it seems farcical that people are seriously considering “the trillion-dollar platinum coin” idea, but then I guess we live in strange times. Jesse has a great take on this, as does one of the commentators at Robert Wenzel’s blog, who notes:

“You know they're desperate when they suggest a method that was funny when it was in a Simpsons episode:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_with_Trillions”