Gold Silver - Good Projections for 2010

It'll be tough for metals to outdo the spectacular annual gains they saw in 2009, but a few have a shot and most are likely to continue to see prices climb this year.

That's not a bad assessment for a market that's already posted yearly price gains of around 24% in gold, 49% in silver, 117% in palladium and nearly 140% in copper.

This year, "all metals should fair reasonably well in 2010 as investors move to hedge themselves against inflation and U.S. devaluation, which will be major issues," said Sam Kirtley, chief executive officer of SK Options Trading.

And "by far, the metal we are most bullish on this year is gold, as we see continuing weakness in the U.S. dollar driving the yellow metal to new all-time highs, probably in the first quarter of this year," said Kirtley.



It's no surprise that gold, along with silver, appear to be ahead of the competition in the run for the title of "metal most likely to surpass the gains of last year."

The precious metals group, overall, has the best chance at winning, according to many analysts.

By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch