This week, investors and savers alike have realized that they don’t own their money in the bank. Gold is driven by a struggle between the EU, Russia, and a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. Inside you’ll discover:

• Gold is close to February high -- will it move higher
• How Gold asymmetrically responds to signals from the USD Index
• Action-packed picture of Gold prices from Euro, British Pound, Australian Dollar and Japanese Yen perspectives
• Will the S&P 500 stay bullish
• Why the situation in Platinum remains above ordinary investor’s head
• Silver deja vu

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Here's a part of today's Market Alert:

Having (at least initially) declined the EU help connected with seizure of 6.75%-9.9% deposits, Cypriots turned to the East, asking the Russians to help them. And Russians have their own demands - securing access to the local resources. Of course the EU is not happy about increased Russian influence and power on Cyprus that would result if the deal between Cyprus and Russia went through.

We now have a particularly interesting situation in which Cyprus will accept help from the lowest bidder. The problem is that the "bids" include multiple areas and the choice will be made between greater international stability (taking EU's help) and perhaps domestic stability (not taking EU's help and avoiding the partial seizure of deposits). Assuming that the deposits in Cyprus belong in large part to the Russian mafia (which is the case, in our opinion), the problem has an additional dimension - you don't expect to rob the mafia without any consequences, especially if the mafia-government link is quite strong. On the other hand, rejecting the EU and taking help from Russia might mean that the Cyprus is forced to leave the EU and join the Russian-Kazakh-Belarusian economic union in the making (which in fact is open to other countries according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov). Maybe they will also put on the table a small naval base on Cyprus offsetting the heightened US presence in the region (see today's President Obama visit to Israel) and at the same time becoming less dependent on the Syrian base of Tartus (first step to give a green light on military intervention?)

Our - rather optimistic - "bet" goes to the solution in which (...)

The precious metals moved higher today and most of the move happened in a sharp manner. (...)

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Here's a part of today's Market Alert:

Gold moved higher yesterday, silver and miners didn't do anything and platinum declined. It's only one day of data and it's a small indication that it was the flight-to-safety factor linked to the Cyprus events that caused it. We were asked if this is a warning that gold could soon head lower. In our view, (...)

The situation does look concerning for the platinum market as the platinum:gold ratio moves closely in tune with the general stock market - and positive outlook on the stock market was one of the factors that made us suggest moving from gold to platinum in the previous months. However, (...)

In short, the Cypriot officials have turned down EU's offer. In our view, that's the only thing that they could do initially that would be appropriate from the political point of view. They will agree only after they really hit the deadline. With each passing day when bank accounts are frozen, people might become more and more convinced that they prefer to get their 90%+ of cash than nothing. They will still be outraged, but they will see that it's the best option that they've got. Quoting from the articles: "However, the EU has a tradition of pressing smaller countries to vote again until they achieve the desired outcome." While they are pressing and discussing how they can just force a country do what they want, people will continue to consider investing in gold that is well below its 2011 high. The rest of the precious metals sector (...)

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In today's Alert we provide a follow-up to yesterday's Cyprus-deposits-gold link and comment on the unusual performance of the general stock market. There's something not right about the recent Dow Theory buy signal and in today's Alert we explain what it is and what to do about it.

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Here's a part of today's (March 18) Market Alert:

The big news this week - and the one that is probably behind today's strength in gold - is the Cyprus bailout deal. This video does a good job in explaining what's going on, so please take a look.

In short, the EU officials said that in order to get the bailout money, Cyprus banks have to "tax" the deposits. In other words, bank clients' will be - pardon the expression - ripped off by 6.75% - 9.9% of the money they had in banks. Just like that.

That's not some dictator taking money away from their citizens. As bad as it is, it happens quite regularly and the world got used to that. But if it is the official "order" from the EU, then it means something to investors all around the world. It means that bank deposits are NOT safe. They took almost 10% just like that. Couldn't they take 20% next time? Or 100%? If this order came from the EU officials for one country, couldn't it happen just anywhere? Is anyone's deposit in a bank safe? (...)

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