Gold and What Moves it.

China posted a new record for quarterly investment in gold bars and coins as positive seasonal factors worked in tandem with gold's enduring investment appeal.

 

LONDON(BullionStreet): India remained world's largest gold consumer but China topped in demand for gold bars,coins and jewellery during the first quarter this year.

 

However, As against a decline of 13% in global demand for gold, India reported a 27% increase in Q1 2013, surpassing China's demand growth of 20%, WGC said.

 

China's gold demand jumped to a record high in the first quarter despite a global drop of 13 percent.

 

Gold jewelry demand in China surged to a record quarterly value of $9.8 billion to 194.1 tons while India's demand hit 159.5 tons during the same period. ...

South Africa's total exports to India were valued at about $9 billion during the last financial year, about 56 percent of it comprised gold.

 

NEW DELHI(BullionStreet): India's anti gold measures were hitting South Africa, a major gold exporter, according to a top SA official.

 

Stefanus Botes, minister counsellor (Economic) in High Commission of South Africa in India, said his country could suffer from India's gold imports cuts as SA were one of the major suppliers of gold to India.

 

He said South Africa is aware of the steps that have been taken by the Indian government to slow down the imports of gold.

 

He added that since South Africa is a major supplier of gold into global markets and particularly to India, it will have an impact on it's economy, but have to comply with the rules and regulations of the importing country. ...

I thought I would show once again the long-term monthly chart of gold to demonstrate that despite the recent drop the long-term uptrend for gold remains intact. The current drop could either be a test of those lows or even a sudden thrust to new lows. There remains potential objectives down to $1,150 zone based on the long pattern that played out between September 2011 and April 2013. There is no law, however, that says those objectives must be achieved. A test of the lows or slight new lows is also within the realm of possibilities. Currently, as this is being written, silver and the gold stocks have reversed from down to up on the day after new lows for the current move down. This could be potentially bullish.

 

So what has been wrong with gold? It is not as if the fundamentals have changed dramatically. The trend since 2001 has been up because the USA and the western economies have been printing excessive fiat currencies since the world was taken off the gold standard in August 1971. It should be noted that neither the private banking system nor central banks were fans of the gold standard. Gold is limited in supply and as such was a constraint to private banking system desire to grow and a constraint to the central banks in managing the monetary system.

 

Fiat currencies are, however, just a promise to pay from the government. In other words, fiat currencies are just another form of debt. They have no intrinsic value. Gold on the other hand has historically been a store of value. The use of gold (and silver and bronze) has been in use for over 3,000 years as money. Monetary and economic collapse of earlier societies were often tied to abuse of the currency. While the Romans couldn't print money as is currently the case they were able to devalue their currencies by cutting the amount of silver in their coins. Cheaper and more plentiful metals allowed them to effectively flood the financial system with coins that eventually became effectively worthless. ...

Dan Norcini told King Worold News:

 

... we have recently seen continued pressure in both the paper gold and silver space.  The COMEX market is being sold off in spite of the massive physical demand for gold and silver because Western hedge fund managers and institutional managers aren’t going to buy gold.  In fact, some of them have even  been shorting paper gold. 

The Fed and the Bank of Japan have given the illusion that it is a no-risk bet to be long common stocks.  Nobody is asking about valuations, overbought conditions, excessive leverage or margin debt.  They don’t care.   All they know is they can’t get yield anywhere else and so they are going to chase common stocks higher. 

So the money has been flowing out of the paper gold and silver markets.  It could be that at some point we start to see the inflationary fallout from this excessive money creation.  But when sentiment changes it will change quite rapidly.  When the concern shifts to inflation, this is when gold and silver will have forged a bottom and begun to make their next move higher. ...

According to a notification issued by Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the tariff value of gold has been raised to $466 per 10 grams and $761 per kg, respectively.

 

NEW DELHI(BullionStreet): India on Thursday changed the tariff value of gold and silver.

 

According to a notification issued by Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the tariff value of gold has been raised to $466 per 10 grams and $761 per kg, respectively.

 

Tariff value is the base price on which the customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing.

 

During the first fortnight of April 2013, the tariff value of gold stood at $521 per ten grams and silver at $920 per kg. ...

Rick Rule tells King World News:  “Investors have the choice right now between an asset which is nobody else's liability, which is gold, and the anti-gold, which is the US 10-Year or 30-Year Treasury.  I personally am going to gold with my own money.  That’s what I am doing.  

I obviously feel very different than the market. ...

US is working to block sales of gold to Iranians in order to undermine their currency, the rial, and to step up pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

 

WASHINGTON(BullionStreet): Sanctions hit Iran remain largely unaffected due to it's gold trade with neighboring country's, warned a top US official.

 

According to David Cohen, treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, From July 1, the US will ban sales of gold by anyone to either the Iranian government or to Iranian citizens.

 

He added that the US is working to block sales of gold to Iranians in order to undermine their currency, the rial, and to step up pressure on Tehran over its nuclear program.

 

US has warned Iran's neighbours Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, key regional centres of the gold trade, to stop gold sales to Iran. ...

The gold price in US Dollars extended Wednesday's drop to fall briefly beneath a one-month low of $1370 per ounce - a level first hit in October 2010.

 

by Adrian Ash:

London Gold market report

Global gold prices fell further at the start of London trade on Thursday, hitting new 1-month lows beneath $1370 per ounce but leaving gold bars traded in East Asia at record-high premiums.

"[Western] investors appear to be tired of gold as a safe haven," says Mitsubishi analyst Jonathan Butler, quoted by Reuters, because "they anticipate the end of loose monetary policies, possibly by the end of this year or maybe early next year."

With US consumer price inflation data due just before today's Wall Street opening, five members of the US Federal Reserve were scheduled to make separate speeches at various events later on Thursday. ...

Author of THE DEBT GENERATION

 

The price of gold is going down. That is what the charts, newspapers and pundits are all saying. What I think they are deliberately not saying is that the value and desirability, as opposed to the price of gold, is going up and will go up further.

 

Make no sense?  Well I think it does if you remember there are two types of ‘gold’ for sale. One is metal, the other is paper. It is paper gold that is being dumped not the metal. The metal is being bought at a fair old rate. But because there is so much paper gold around and the major sellers and market makers in paper gold prefer metal and paper to be confused, even thought to be identical (their trade depends on this confusion), no one seems to be pointing out the very different dynamic happening in paper and  metal gold.

 

Paper gold is being sold. And those selling it are the likes of Soros Fund Management LLC and BlackRock Inc. As Bloomberg reports today,

Filings showed Soros Fund Management LLC and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) were among funds that cut stakes in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest gold ETP, in the first quarter.

Does that say Soros and BlackRock no longer want gold? No it does not. It says they don’t want paper gold. They don’t want paper claims of gold. For those that don’t know ...

Commodities / Gold and Silver 2013
May 16, 2013 - 05:27 PM GMT
By: Steve_St_Angelo

 

The tactic by the Fed and Central Banks is to inflate the stock markets while manipulating the price of gold and silver lower. This achieves two goals, 1) it reassures the public’s faith by pumping up stock prices while the economic indicators continue to deteriorate and 2) it elevates the dollar while it destroys market sentiment in the precious metals.

 

So far, the strategy has worked. Some of the toughest gold and silver bugs are becoming extremely ...

Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $1378.42 an ounce at 12.00 noon Singapore time while US gold for June was seen at $1377.34 an ounce on the comex division of nymex.

 

SINGAPORE(BullionStreet): Gold is on track for it’s worst weekly decline in a month as the dollar gained further.

 

Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $1378.42 an ounce at 12.00 noon Singapore time while US gold for June was seen at $1377.34 an ounce on the comex division of nymex.

 

Analysts said the precious yellow metal is also hit by a decline in ...

Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted: Wednesday , 15 May 2013 

NEW YORK (MINEWEB) - 

 

If the audience demographic at the Metals & Minerals Investment Conference in New York was that of the U.S. as a whole, former U.S. senator Ron Paul would be U.S. President today!  He was given a standing ovation by much of the audience at the beginning and end of his presentation and his speech was peppered with applause from the floor as he made point after point of strong appeal to those listening.

 

Paul is not one of the world’s great orators, but he is an adequate one and his maverick libertarian views obviously find considerable support among the sector of mostly elderly relatively right wing people who invest in hard assets - and in gold and silver in particular.  In Ron Paul they find someone they may not always agree with on all matters but who appears sincere in his beliefs and is of course almost unique among U.S. politicians as a believer in the place of gold in the modern day economy.

 

Paul says he is pessimistic about what is going on in Washington, but does feel that as the general public becomes more and more aware of the political machinations of both major parties there will be change.  ...

Recently, we published a true all-in costs article that gave investors insight into the true all-in costs that miners are spending to produce each ounce of gold.

 

... The supply picture for gold is only getting worse and many companies are close to their all-in gold costs at current prices. This offers an opportunity for savvy investors to accumulate an asset that has a constrained future supply picture and is already close or below its all-in costs of production. Investors can buy the ETFs (GLD, PHYS, and IAU) to invest in gold, but we also highly recommend that investors also purchase physical bars and coins because they offer investors much more protection than the ETFs if the global financial system starts to experience more trouble. ...

According to WGC, jewellery demand alone in the quarter was a record 185t, up 19% on last year, while bar and coin investment was 110t, rising by 22% from last year.

 

LONDON(BullionStreet): China's gold demand totaled 294t in the first quarter, a rise of 20% on the same quarter last year, as the economy continued to pick up from the downturn experienced in the second half of 2012.

 

According to WGC, jewellery demand alone in the quarter was a record 185t, up 19% on last year, while bar and coin investment was 110t, rising by 22% from last year.

 

Demand for gold in China and India was also driven by an increase in bar and coin sales - up 22% year-on-year in China and 52% in India. ...

Silver dropped to the lowest since 2010 while gold dropped to its weakest level since the gold plunge in mid April on Thursday.

 

NEW DELHI(BullionStreet): Hints of another plunge in gold and silver prices could create another scramble for them, analysts said.

 

Silver dropped to the lowest since 2010 while gold dropped to its weakest level since the gold plunge in mid April on Thursday.

 

Silver dropped to $22.21 an ounce at 10.00 a.m GMT on Thursday while spot gold price plunged to $1,374.27 per troy ounce as weak inflation data took its toll on precious metals.

 

Gold dipped more than 2 per cent in a five-day losing streak that saw it hit two-year lows. ...

Investors have beaten down precious metals prices even as economic signals suggest they should be moving up soon. Is this a rare buying opportunity?

 

Something curious is happening in the precious metals market.

Fundamentally, there couldn't be a better time to own gold and silver. But technically, the shiny stuff has just been hammered, inexplicably suffering a 1987-style plunge last month. Did a hedge fund blow up? Are policymakers pushing on prices to keep inflation expectations down? Are computer trading algorithms causing problems? We just don't know.

Now the question for investors is: Has the best buying opportunity we've seen in decades arrived even as most of the market focuses solely on stocks, or is gold a lost cause?

In fact, if the crash continues, gold's role as an important market signal points to two economic possibilities that would take many people by surprise.

Here's where I see gold headed and why.

The basics favor gold

The core bullish argument in favor of nibbling on gold and silver at today's low prices lies in their value as an alternative store of purchasing power, given that currencies are being diluted at an unprecedented rate, financial markets are frothy and real-estate and farmland prices aren't exactly at rock-bottom levels. ...

Today a legend in the business told King World News there is a continued massive run on physical gold and silver as premiums in Shanghai have now soared to a stunning level (see below) for physical gold.  Keith Barron, who consults with major companies around the world and is responsible for one of the largest gold discoveries in the last quarter century, also spoke about extraordinary situations unfolding at gold, silver, and art auctions in New York and Zurich, and what this means for investors.  Below is what Barron had to say in this remarkable interview.

  

Barron:  “I’m at an auction today in Zurich (Switzerland) of ancient Greek and Roman coins.  The most expensive item so far has gone for 800,000 Swiss francs.  The auction is shattering all of the previous records.  I think this is very significant.

Also, today in New York Christie's had a contemporary art auction and they sold $495 million of art.  That’s the highest total in auction history.  They established 16 new world auction records.  Nine works sold for more than $10 million, and twenty-three for more than $5 million. ...

The 30 million whose labor funds the parasitic status quo don't have to rebel; they simply have to stop going to work, stop starting enterprises, stop being productive.

Parasites must balance their drive to maximize what they extract from their host with the risk of losing everything by killing their host. This is the dilemma of the parasitic partnership of the central state and financial Elites everywhere: to extract the maximum possible in debt payments and taxes without sparking rebellion and revolution. I have often commented on the current class structure, which paradoxically unites the interests of the top 1/5% of 1% and their political-class toadies and the bottom 50% who are drawing transfer payments/benefits from the state: both support the status quo because both receive direct benefits from it. The 20% who pay most of the tax and service much of the debt are in the middle, a political minority of debt/tax serfs who finance the status quo, i.e. cartel-crony capitalism owned and operated by the financial and political Elites: ...

John Embry told King World News: “The violent takedown in gold and silver in April is still reverberating around the markets.  Underneath today’s smash in the metals, physical demand is asserting itself and I think we have a limited shelf life for the paper control of this market.

 

I firmly believe that in the end the paper gold market will be seen as one of the greatest Ponzi schemes of any era, and it will end very badly for anyone on the wrong side of the trade.  But I’m more focused on the fact that downside in gold and silver is extremely limited and the upside is staggering....