Rich Bleyle, a retired teacher, bought $16,000 of Apple stock in 1997. Today, those shares are worth $2 million.

Did you see the move in silver today? Take a look at through the lens of the iShares Silver Trust (SLV: 34.37 -0.03 -0.09%), which holds physical silver and tracks it closely enough …

You can see that the the SLV gapped above overhead resistance and remained strong, closing above the 200-day moving average. Volume on the breakout was strong.  Momentum, as measured by MACD at the bottom of the chart, is about to turn bullish.

Why is silver higher? You could say there are less worries about Europe, but there are certainly more worries about Iran.  I’d say weakness in the U.S. dollar is major factor – the greenback closed near its lows for the day. Gold had some of its gains trimmed this afternoon on worries that we will soon see gold margins raised, but we haven’t seen those worries about silver – yet.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Enjoy the ride, if you’re long.

The move upward in gold today was strong. Let’s see where this left the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD: 172.231 -0.789 -0.46%) …

The points I think are important on this daily chart.

• GLD broke out to the upside on rising volume.
• Momentum indicator MACD gave a bullish cross-over and is gaining strength.
• The bottom indicator is the price of the Gold Miners ETF (GDX: 56.46 -0.80 -1.40%) divided by the GLD.  For nearly a week, the miners have outperformed the metal.

If you’re doing this on your own, be careful out there. Do your own due diligence, and remember that the market is a fickle mistress.

I get letters about stocks. Some are of no interest to me (sorry). Others I find interesting enough to look at.  A couple examples …

Momentum is improving for Canadian oil & gas producer Enerplus, and yesterday it popped above its 50-day moving average.  It did that back in November and December and failed both times, so we need some confirmation here. However, I like the fundamental story for Enerplus here, and if I held it, I would hang on to it – the 8.87% dividend yield it is sporting is a nice plus. Do whatever you like and do your own due diligence.

And then there’s Goldgroup. The company trades under the symbol GGA on the TSX and GGAZF.PK on the pink sheets.  This is a recommendation in Red-Hot Global Resources, which means that I own it in my own portfolio.  Still, readers wonder where it is going next.  The past few days have been interesting …

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Goldgroup has been on a tear recently – check out the volume on Friday. That said, it closed lower than it opened both Friday and Tuesday. It is coming into heavy selling at overhead resistance. I own it, and I’m happy to own it. If you don’t own it yet, you might want to wait and see if it can push through overhead resistance.

And as always, do your own due diligence before buying this or anything.

A chart of the sugar ETF (SGG: 91.76 +1.17 +1.29%) got really interesting yesterday …

• You can see that SGG is breaking out through overhead resistance. This gives us a price target of 104.
• The move was driven by heavy short-covering as well as broad-based buying throughout the commodity complex as the macro sentiment turned positive.  As the market’s mood has sweetened on Europe, traders are ready to buy sugar.
• Sugar crops in the Brazil’s Center South-region, which produces nearly 90% of the nation’s sugar and ethanol, were damaged by freezing weather last year and by drought in previous harvests.  Demand for sugar in China is soaring.  The fundamentals look supportive of this bullish trend.

If this kind of trade interests you, you can buy at the market with a target of 104 and a protective stop of 83.  Do your own due diligence, and remember that you’re in charge of your own investing destiny. I have no position in sugar or SGG at this time.

When I was recently at the World Money Show in Orlando, three people asked me to look at different charts.  Here they are.

One guy asked me to look at Tullow Oil.  I prefer weekly charts …

It lists in London, so Tullow isn’t tradeable for everybody.  It looks quite good. It’s trading at 1600 (pence) and the weekly breakout gives us a target of 1900.   There is good news for Tullow on its African oil exploration.

the second chart is Lone Star Gold (LSTG: 0.00 N/A N/A).  I have to do a daily chart on this one because it hasn’t been trading long enough for a weekly chart.

While you can trade Lone Star Gold on the Nasdaq, why would you want to?  MAYBE it’s making a turn here — notice MACD has turned higher — but the overall trend is lower.

Now for the third chart, Gold Rush Resources …

Gold Rush Resources is an African gold explorer that I profiled in an Uncommon Wisdom Daily video some time back. The stock consolidated throughout 2o11, but now seems to be making a breakout to the upside.  Maybe it has something to do with the company’s constant stream of good drilling results. I think it’s attractive here.  Remember, always do your own due diligence before you invest a single penny in anything.

Happy Friday before President’s Day. Today is options expiry for gold, so the bear raid in gold we’re seeing today shouldn’t be too surprising.  Next Friday is silver options expiry, so we can expect silver to feel the pain on into next week.

In honor of President’s Day, I present this snapshot of President Lincoln …

I’m sure it’s historically accurate.

Here are some stories you may find worth reading this weekend …

1. The Gulf of Mexico swallows the equivalent of a football field of Louisiana land every hour — about 1,900 square miles since the 1930s.  With levees pushing sediment flow past the river’s mouth, Louisiana can’t fortify itself against the sea by creating new land. Read more.

2. America’s aging water infrastructure is leaking, and the plumber just came in with an estimate: $1 trillion, payable over the next 25 years. Right now America’s leaky pipes and broken taps waste about 6 billion gallons a day, or 14 percent of America’s treated water. Read more.

3. We are now burning 10 times as much energy as a century ago to provide the goods and services we consume.  Human energy consumption has passed the 500 exajoule threshold. 

4.  Much to the disappointment of the world’s supervillains, global markets are surging.  Read more.

5. Visualizing Obama’s 2013 Budget Proposal (many charts).

read more.

See also, a “Choose Your Own Adventure” version of “So, What Would Your Plan for Greece Be?” Read more.

7. There are 3.88 official unemployed per job opening.  You have to think that counting the unofficial unemployed, it’s much higher. The good news is the trend is improving.  Read more.

8. Bank of America is a criminal enterprise.  Read more.

9. Gold and Silver Eagle Bullion Sales Slower After Brisk January.  For the month of February 2012 to date, the US Mint has recorded sales of 835,000 of the one ounce American Silver Eagle bullion coins. The sales total compares to 6,107,000 ounces worth of Silver Eagles sold during January 2012. In the year ago period of February 2011, the US Mint had recorded sales of 3,240,000 ounces. Read more.

10.  You know, this Mexican-Iranian silver conspiracy is enough to make Rick Santorum shit the bed. Read more.  Yes, that was sarcasm, folks. But with Mr. Santorum, it’s hard to tell sometimes.

11. China’s latest power-grab is in the resource-rich Arctic. Read more.

12. Citigroup says Peak Oil is dead.  Well, I guess that settles it then. I mean, being such an unimpeachable, non-conflicted source and all. Read more.

Western countries aren’t willing to invest in China like they used to. Foreign direct investment in China fell 0.3% in January from a year earlier to $9.997 billion. That’s a huge turnaround from the flood of foreign money that used to pour into China.

By now, we’re used to bond managers telling the rest of us that we’re all going to hell on the debt express.  Jeff Gundlach, the bond fund manager of DoubleLine Capital, puts his thoughts into the following presentation.  While I don’t agree with all of his conclusions, some of his slides are quite good, including slide #7, “Years of Soaring National Debt,” and slide #8, “U.S. Military Expenditures Versus Other Countries.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/doubleline-jeff-gundlach-us-decline-fall-roman-empire-2012-2?op=1

Take a look at this political advertisement from Citizens Against Government Waste. In this 1 minute ad,  students in a 2030 Chinese classroom in study the fall of the United States. “Of course, we owned most of their debt. … so now they work for us.”

Indonesian aircraft carrier Lion Air is buying 230 Boeing jets worth $22.4 billion. That is the single biggest order Boeing has ever received both in terms of dollars and number of planes.

What does that tell you about the future of the travel industry in Asia?

Some parts of China are still growing like a weed.

Is China’s domestic consumption on the decline? Imports sank 15.3% in January versus January 2011.

It was also interesting that exports to Europe shrunk by 3.2% in January.