Our favorite precious metal made headlines today…gold has risen to a nine-month high of $688.64 in February.

We've often pointed out that investors hold gold as a hedge against a weakening dollar…and wouldn't you know it, the dollar is close to a two-year low against the euro.

"The U.S. dollar continues to weaken and we are now looking for gold to break through $700 an ounce this year," said John Meyer, an analyst at Numis Securities Ltd. in London.

The yellow metal could go even higher than $700…

There's another metal on our radar that's been seeing surging prices lately: Uranium. Because of the possible global warming/fossil fuel connection, not to mention an increasing effort to find a viable alternative for oil and natural gas, the focus has naturally moved to this fuel used in nuclear power plants.

The team over at Casey Research sends us this note:

"Back in 1998, uranium was off most investor's radar screens, and trading in the single digits. Now look at it. Today, uranium prices have exploded up to $113/lb, and appear that they will go even higher as growing global demand for nuclear power taxes an already tight supply of yellowcake. Almost ten years ago there were less than 10 publicly traded companies exploring for uranium. Today - by many estimates - there are hundreds.

"Yet, while the future for uranium metal looks bright, the outlook for many of the stocks is less certain. To be blunt, most of today's uranium issues are overhyped and overpriced, exposing investors to the ever-growing risk of a pullback in share prices."

*** Surprise, surprise… "Mortgage Delinquencies Hit Record High in First Quarter" reads a headline on CNBC.com.

CNBC's Steve Liesman (there's a name you can trust) reports, "Delinquency rates are up in 44 of the 50 states."

An analyst for Moody's Economy.com thinks that we are nowhere near the bottom of this housing free-fall - especially as the subprime and Alt-A loans reset at higher rates this year and next year.

"I think credit conditions are going to weaken considerably more," he said. "The good news, economy-wide, is that the job market is strong. As long as the job market hangs tough, I think we'll be okay outside of housing."

*** A 'strong' job market, eh? Well, it would certainly seem that way, according to the report the Bureau of Labor and Statistics released on Friday. Apparently, the United States created 180K jobs in March - and the jobless rate fell 0.17%.

Chuck Butler, who monitors these reports (which he refers to as the 'Jobs Jamboree') very closely, generally views the BLS data as a load of…well…BS, had this to say:

"While the 180K jobs created looks good on the outside, you know that I would look further into the numbers to see the devil in the details, right? Of course! First of all, the manufacturing sector took another hit and lost 16K jobs in March. So, where did the 196K jobs come from?

"A simple check of the BLS website tells us that of the 180K so-called jobs created, 128K were added via the birth/death model…what I call 'ghost jobs.'

"My trusty calculator tells me that 128K is 71% of the total. No wonder the media keeps asking the question, 'Why isn't the economy growing when the jobs market seems so tight?' BECAUSE IT ISN'T! I truly wish someone in the media would get their head out of the 'feel-good sand' and talk about this discrepancy!"

Of course, this will never be reported on in the press because these government agencies will never fess up to these discrepancies. It's for this reason that one gentleman that Chris Mayer and Addison recently met has made it his life's work to show the truth behind the government's falsified statistics.

Bill Bonner is the President of Agora Publishing. For more on Bill Bonner, visit The Daily Reckoning.