Jobless Claims Fall; China Detains Four Rio Tinto Employees for Alleged Espionage; Retail Roughed Up in June; China Auto Sales Skyrocket; Broadcom Drops Acquisition Attempt; Mortgage Rates Fall; Madoff Won’t Appeal Sentence

The silver market is showing signs of bullish strain and an incredible opportunity is being presented to you. I’m a staunch silver advocate and it’s time for an update right now. Silver stands to outperform gold as the long term precious metal bull market continues to unfold.The price of silver, along with gold, is kept under wraps by officials of the New York COMEX market, aka CRIMEX. The old boy network which runs CRIMEX have whipsawed the market in their desired direction for decades and profited accordingly. These actions are government sanctioned because precious metals are competition to un-backed fiat money. State mandated fiat is so weak and poorly designed that it cannot stand competitors.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Buy tax-free bonds – now.

Consumer Prices Increase Less Than Expected; Ten Banks Repay TARP Debt; Bankrupt Eddie Bauer Attempts Sale; Berkshire Hathaway Options Begin Trading; FedEx Losses Mount; Saab Cuts Debt; Gas Prices Keep Going, Going, Up; Boeing Gets First Air Show Order; China Will Invest Sovereign Wealth in Hedge Funds; Analyst: S&P 500 Will Hit New Highs By 2012; Bond Yields Drop; Mortgage Apps Plunge

Two days of talks between U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Chinese officials culminated yesterday (Tuesday) with both parties reaffirming their confidence in the value of the dollar, and the viability of U.S. debt.

While the entire U.S. housing market was on the verge of collapse and corporate America was being systemically undermined, regulators purposely looked the other way.  Why would they do this?

This is the first major report coming out this week, and could have a real impact on the markets. Expectations are for a decline in sales since last month, albeit at a slower rate than previous months.

Both gold and silver were comatose all night long in the Far East…and all through European trading once again. However, the moment that the London p.m. fix was in, both metals’ prices went vertical. Silver got capped before it hit $13…but gold managed to close above $900, and is now above $910 as I write this. As I said yesterday…Friday is options expiry…so be ready for anything. But even I wasn’t expecting that. Today’s New York price action should be enlightening.

Starting around 2:00 p.m. in Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon [1:00 a.m. Eastern Time], and following the sun as the London and New York bullion markets opened and closed, gold managed to add about $11 by 11:00 a.m. in Hong Kong…about 20 hours later on Thursday morning. Silver, following much the same pattern as gold, added 47 cents during the same period of time.

MF Cuts Global Outlook; Brazil Hedge Fund Sells Banks, Homebuilders; February Home Prices Up 0.7%; Home Prices in Dubai Could Fall 70%; Apple Tops Forecasts; Feds Search Siemens’ Offices; Freddie Mac CFO Found Dead; E-Bay Beats Street