Palladium: Urban Life Magazine Exclusive

Novell on LuxuryPalladium.com

The Novell company issued a press release this week about their Palladium wedding rings featured on the official website of Palladium Alliance International.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Read the full release here.

PAI Site Launch on NJN & JCK

The story about PAI's trade site re-launch was picked up by National Jeweler and JCK online!

Stillwater Mining in the News

A Seeking Alpha article mentioning Stillwater Mining Company (SWC), the main sponsor of Palladium Alliance International.

Read "Seven Montana Stocks"

Comment: New trade website

"Wow! What a difference it makes to have a clean, easy to navigate website. I love what has been done to make the site user-friendly. Looking forward to getting comments, suggestions on what others would like to see."
- Dawn McCurtain, PAI Director of Marketing

Palladium Alliance Launches New Trade Site

Palladium Alliance International (PAI) announces the launch of its redesigned trade website, www.luxurypalladium.com. The site provides visitors with fresh content such as downloadable bench manuals and videos for those working in Palladium – The Now Metal™.

The new web portal, whose re-launch kicks off an education-focused phase of PAI’s marketing program, raises the bar for online jewelry marketing with the kind of high-end design and interactivity today’s savvy internet users demand.

The new website includes text-search capabilities, intuitive navigation, multimedia content, new product galleries, community forums, compatibility with various browsers and mobile devices, and a host of new Web 2.0 technologies. PAI’s new blog located at luxurypalladium.blogspot.com and Facebook fan page – called Palladium is Now! – are further connecting a whole new generation of fine jewelry lovers with the metal of choice for the 21st Century.

Users who sign up online for their free membership receive PAI’s White Light newsletter, promotional offers, automatic enrollment in exclusive contests, new retail training modules by Performance Concepts, and interest-focused PAI announcements. From trade events to technical updates, stay connected to Palladium on your own terms with PAI’s new personalized communications platform.

Log on today and learn why Palladium is the metal of choice for fine jewelry and watches. Whether you’re building in Palladium or offering it to your customers, PAI has the world’s best educational and promotional materials for this white, light, natural precious metal.

National Jeweler Retailer Hall of Fame 2008

The book is out - NJ's annual roundup of top retailers. Click here to view the online eBook of winners, with photos of top designs.

Seeking Alpha: Of Wars & Strategic Metals

An excerpt from a new article by Mark Anthony on Seeking Alpha. Anthony is a big proponent of Palladium and Stillwater Mining Co. Read the full article here.

OF WARS AND STRATEGIC METALS
by Mark Anthony

...Platinum is way better than gold, while palladium is better than platinum due to current price disparity. Unfortunately, physical palladium coins and bars are now extremely hard to find. If you like the PGM metals, consider buying the stocks of Stillwater Mining (SWC) and North American Palladium (PAL). They are the ONLY primary PGM metals mining companies outside South Africa and Russia. Russia, being the dominant palladium producer, can cut back export and boost the palladium price at any time, in their own interests. South Africa continues to struggle with a national electricity crisis which greatly impacts the output of its PGM mining industry...

JCK Jewelers Choice Awards

The 2009 JCK Jewelers Choice Awards are fast approaching. September 19 is the submission deadline, and this year the contest features a Palladium Jewelry category. Anyone designing in Palladium who wants exposure at one of the world's foremost trade summits should get involved. Click here to download the PDF entry form.

Platinum, Palladium Rise Alongside Oil Prices

(From Forbes.com via AP)

NEW YORK - Platinum and palladium prices rose on Wednesday as gains in the energy markets lured investors back into commodities. The rise in energy prices occurred as traders placed bets that Hurricane Gustav would disrupt oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. Platinum futures for October delivery rose $19.60 to settle at $1,440.70 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Palladium futures for December delivery rose $1.30 to settle at $289.60 an ounce. The dollar's mixed performance against other major currencies provided little direction for the precious metals market. Precious metals are often used as a hedge against a weakening dollar.

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Palladium on CNBC

The anchorwoman's inability to pronounce "Palladium" aside, Platinum Group Metals received a nod on the national news network. Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors, explains:

Unknown Metals Video on MSN Money
(Windows compatible; MacOSX-Firefox compatible only)

Treat Yourself Tuesday! What's $1 million Get You? Hint: Not the Car

So TYM! was delayed by one day, sorry about that - it's worth the wait, though. This spectacularly outrageous piece could only come from Italian carmaker Bugatti. It really bends the mind to consider that the Veyron - Bugatti's crowning supercar achievement - rings up at $1.5 million, making it the most expensive CAR in the world. How on earth their Palladium pen can fetch $1 million is anyone's guess. Writing instument ethusiasts, the floor is yours.

Random Monday: Microsoft Palladium?

I'll keep digging around for a Treat Yourself Monday! bauble or bangle, but in the meantime, some interesting news from a branding perspective: Microsoft is trying to gain support for a next-generation security idea codenamed Palladium. As of today they've ceased using the project code name - it's been outed after all - and now simply call it the much less intriguing Next-Generation Secure Computing Base for Windows.

As a matter of branding, Platinum has a long history of being associated with high-end things: record sales, credit cards, etc. Palladium doesn't have this ground-level brand recognition yet, so it's interesting to see the ideas and situations companies consider the word "Palladium" representative of. For Microsoft, apparently, Palladium spells security.