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- Incredible Minutes from a 1974 Henry Kissinger Staff Meeting on Gold
- Black Friday Extended Through The Weekend
- Is Gold Hated Enough For New Money Investment?
- State Department Minutes Confirm That Whoever Has the Most Gold Makes the Rules
- Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Dust to Dust...a man-made Malthusian crisis
- Three King World News Blogs
- Bitcoin Is A Few Bucks Away From Gold
- Venezuela denies but doesn't rule out gold transaction with Wall Street
- Iran says gold trade with Turkey to resume
- Smuggled gold has its own price in India
- India's Short Gold Supply Forces Families to Melt Down Heirlooms to Recycle for Weddings
- Sri Lanka axes 100 percent surcharge that has halted all gold imports
- State Department minutes confirm that whoever has the most gold makes the rules
- Weekly COMEX Gold Inventories: Slow Week For Activity But December Deliveries Approach
- Iran Agrees to Deal With Powers to Curb Nuclear Work
- Dollar And Yen Downside Risks Persist, While Aussie Is Poised For Bounce
- Gold Investors Weekly Review – November 29th
- Carmike Cinemas: Worth The Price Of Admission
- Gold Outlook – Love Trade And Fear Trade Likely To Return
- Gold And Silver – Reverse Bubble. Huge Rally When Broken. Note Bitcoin Results.
- Metals & Markets: E-Gold- The Next Alternative Currency?
- Fashion Catches Up to Investment Demand for Gold Jewelry
- Gold Stocks Video Update
- Jim Willie: Gold Trade Standard to Rise From the Ashes of Wrecked T-Bond Bubble!
- nov 29/A massive 31.6 tonnes of gold is standing at the comex/a rather large 16.95 million oz of silver standing/no change in GLD inventory/no change in gold inventory/gold and silver advance
- Chinese Central Bank’s Fingerprints Are All Over the Gold Manipulation!
- Williams marvels at stock market herd mentality, rising claims on missing gold
- 32 Privacy Destroying Technologies That Are Systematically Transforming America Into A Giant Prison
- Black Friday: A Shameful Orgy Of Materialism For A Morally Bankrupt Nation
- Automated Trading System Crushes SPX By 14.35% in Nov!
| Incredible Minutes from a 1974 Henry Kissinger Staff Meeting on Gold Posted: 30 Nov 2013 09:40 AM PST Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg. The following excerpts are from a transcript of a 1974 meeting held by the then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and his staff. This particular meeting was held on April 25, and focused on an European Commission Proposal to revalue their gold assets. What follows is an incredible insight into the minds of powerful American leaders scheming to maintain power and show other nations their place. What is most significant is how clearly they understood that demonetizing gold was a critical strategy to maintaining a dominant power position in the world. So to those who continue to say that "gold doesn't matter" because it hasn't been used as an official asset in the monetary system for decades, I say give me a break. In fact, the reality of gold having been largely demonetized makes it an even greater threat going forward if the U.S. does not have all the gold it claims to, and other nations have more than they admit to… Read the rest here. | |
| Black Friday Extended Through The Weekend Posted: 30 Nov 2013 08:36 AM PST
 On Cyber Monday 2013, SDBullion.com will have a blowout sale offering some of the lowest margin sale products of the year. Unlike Black Friday, the product on sale will change each hour! The details of the sale will be displayed at the top of any SDBullion.com’s page in a green tool bar. Check back every [...] The post Black Friday Extended Through The Weekend appeared first on Silver Doctors. | |
| Is Gold Hated Enough For New Money Investment? Posted: 30 Nov 2013 06:33 AM PST Introduction Is gold washed out? Early on in this QE3/QE4EVA period, I thought it's likely that gold and silver would rise in price, but I was aware that they had outperformed so much the prior decade that they simply might not join in the inflationary party. When they acted badly, I avoided them. Now that they have collapsed-- and I include silver implicitly in general in discussing gold-- here's why I have begun to watch them closely again. Technicals There is one technical factor that I look at several times a week. That is the positioning of futures traders in the gold market. We have now seen the same pattern that was seen at the bottom of the gold bear market in 2008 following the Lehman collapse. However, it is even more exaggerated now. This makes sense, because in the fall of 2008, conditions were obviously right for gold. The | |
| State Department Minutes Confirm That Whoever Has the Most Gold Makes the Rules Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST "All we can do is sit here and watch this world-wide insanity unfold. " ¤ Yesterday In Gold & SilverThere wasn't much going on price wise in gold on Thursday because of the American Thanksgiving holiday. That lackluster performance lasted until about 30 minutes before the London open on Friday morning, but the rally that developed at that point had its wings clipped very shortly thereafter, as did every other rally attempt in all four precious metals during the Friday trading session on Planet Earth. Trading was pretty much done for the day by the 1:30 p.m. Comex close in New York. The CME recorded the high and lows ticks over that past two day trading period as $1,254.50 and $1,234.10 in the new front month, which is February. Gold closed on Friday at $1,252.00 spot, up $7.00 from Thursday's close, and an even $14 from Wednesday's close. Total net volume over those two days was only 119,000 contracts. The silver price action was similar in many respects to the gold price action, with every rally being cut short in Friday trading, and the price was obviously capped at $20.10 in New York before the getting sold down a bit as the trading day wound down. The low and high ticks were recorded by the CME as $19.645 and $20.10 in the new front month for silver which is March. Silver closed at $20.025 spot, up 27 cents from Thursday, and up 36 cents from Wednesday's close. Net volume for Thursday and Friday combined was around 31,500 contracts. Platinum and palladium also had very decent rallies, but ran into sellers of last resort in the New York trading session as well. Both finished up on the day, but only just, as "day boyz" were obviously out in force in all four precious metals. Here are the charts. The dollar index closed on Wednesday afternoon in New York at 80.73 and then chopped lower until 2 p.m. Hong Kong time on their Friday afternoon, where it hit 80.50. It rallied a bit from there, but put in a double bottom at 11 a.m. in New York, which was time that London closed for the weekend. Then it rallied sharply, and by 1 p.m. EST had topped out at 80.68, and traded sideways into the close, finishing the day at 80.64, which was down 9 basis points from Wednesday. Nothing to see here. With New York closed on Thursday, there was no trading in gold equities. But on Friday morning they gapped up about 2% at the open, and then tacked on a bit more before trading sideways into the 1 p.m. EST close. The HUI finished up 2.24%. The silver stocks did even better on Friday, they gapped up and then rallied even further. Nick Laird's Intraday Silver Sentiment Index closed up 4.04%. The CME's Daily Delivery Report for Day 2 of the December delivery month was another surprise, at least in gold. It showed that only 12 contracts were posted for delivery on Tuesday. However, JPMorgan was the long/stopper on all 12 of them. Why so few deliveries in gold in the first two days of the biggest delivery month of the year sure has me scratching my head, and I'll be more than curious to know what Ted Butler thinks of this state of affairs in his weekend review to his paying subscribers later today. The silver deliveries looked more normal as there 552 silver contracts posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday. The two big short/issuers were Credit Suisse with 309 and, like on Wednesday, BNP Prime Brokerage issued another 105 contracts. It was the "usual suspects" as long/stoppers, the two biggest silver short holders, JPMorgan Chase with 350 in its in-house [proprietary] trading account, along with 68 in its client account. In distant second was Canada's Bank of Nova Scotia with 74 contracts stopped. Yesterday's Issuer's and Stoppers Report is certainly worth a quick peek, and the link is here. There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday, and obviously none on Thursday either. And as of 9:40 p.m. yesterday evening, there were no reported changes in SLV. The good folks over at the shortsqueeze.com Internet site updated the short interest in both GLD and SLV on Thursday as well. I was somewhat surprised to see an increase in the short position in SLV, especially when there as decent decrease in the short position in GLD. However, the numbers are what they are. The short position in SLV rose by 8.83% during the first half of November. The new short position is 18,717,700 shares/troy ounces, up about 1.52 million ounces from the previous report. Said another way, SLV is owed 542 tonnes of silver. One can only fantasize what the silver price might be if this amount was purchased and delivered to SLV. The other problem is that this amount of physical silver is just not available anywhere. It could become available, I suppose, but not at the current market price. The short position in GLD declined by 8.56% during the first half of November. The new short position, in troy ounces, is 2.24 million; which is a bit over 69 tonnes of the stuff. That's a little over half of what China imported through Hong Kong in October. While on the subject of SLV, Joshua Gibbons, the "Guru of the SLV Bar List", updated his website with SLV's in/out activity for the current reporting week, and here is what he had to say: "Analysis of the 27 November 2013 bar list, and comparison to the previous week's list: 3,370,836.0 troy ounces were removed (all from Brinks London), 385,030.8 troy ounces were added (all to JPM London V), and no bars had a serial number change. The bars removed were from: Russian State Refineries (0.7M oz), Degussa (0.6M oz), Kazakhmys (0.6M oz), and 23 others. The bars added were from: Russian State Refineries (0.3M oz) and 3 others. As of the time that the bar list was produced, it was overallocated 129.6 troy ounces. There was a withdrawal of 674,098.6 troy ounces on Monday that has not yet been reflected on the bar list, that should appear on the next bar list (as it normally takes a day or two for the bar list to get updated). The link to Joshua's website is here. The U.S. Mint had a sales report on Friday, for the last day of the month. They didn't sell any gold, but they did sell another 362,000 silver eagles. Unless there's a final update from the mint on Monday, the November sales month finished as follows: 48,000 troy ounces of gold eagles; 14,000 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes; and 2,300,000 silver eagles. Based on these sales, the silver gold ratio was 37 to 1. Canada's Royal Canadian Mint posted its third quarter/YTD financial statements on its website on Thursday, and I stole the precious metal data below from Page 7 of that report the same night, but it had to wait for today's column. The volume of Gold Maple Leaf (GML) sales increased 17.5% to 195,000 ounces compared to 166,000 ounces in the same period in 2012. Sales of Silver Maple Leaf (SML) coins increased to 6.7 million troy ounces from 4.8 million troy ounces in the same period last year, a 37.1% increase over Q3 of 2012. The continued growth in demand for GMLs that began in November 2011 continued through July 2013 as the gold price rebounded from a low of US$1,192. In August and September market conditions were not optimal for the sale of new gold bullion coins, although a modest, short-term recovery in demand was sparked by negotiations around the U.S. debt ceiling. Silver Maple Leaf coin demand continues to be very strong in key markets such as Canada, the U.S. and Europe; the price rose from a low of US$18.61 per ounce in the second quarter to a high of $24.74 during the third quarter. Our silver bullion coins remain very popular among global physical investors, which could result in record sales of SMLs in 2013. The Mint is also experiencing continued growth in demand for bullion bars, particularly gold kilo bars and silver 100-ounce bars, as well as demand for the storage of physical precious metal for individual and institutional investors. During the 39 weeks [The first three quarters of 2013. - Ed] ended September 28, 2013, sales of GML coins increased 82.5% to 876,000 troy ounces from 480,000 troy ounces in 2012; while sales of SML coins increased 61.7% to 20.7 million ounces from 12.8 million ounces in the previous year. Well, dear reader, these are really big numbers, so it's obvious that demand is very robust, but I don't think it's even close to being all retail demand. The reason I know this for sure is that I work in the retail bullion business in my day job, and I talk to our wholesalers all the time, so I know precisely what's going on in that area. It's my opinion that someone with very deep pockets is buying every silver eagle and silver maple leaf that the U.S. and Canadian mints are able to produce. And if they're buying the stuff hand over fist, so should you, as I suspect that these "strong hands" know that the day is fast approaching when a two digit silver price will be a thing of the past. Over at the Comex-approved warehouses on Wednesday there 1,768 troy ounces of gold reported received, and 16,1032 troy ounces were shipped out. The link to that activity is here. But there was more big movement in silver, as 596,643 ounces were received, and 980,804 ounces were shipped out the door for parts unknown. The link to that action is here. Before getting into today's list of stories, here's Nick Laird's "Global Indices" chart showing the world-wide melt-up in the stock markets. This, will, of course, end badly. But when, is the question. With two days worth of news items, plus what I've been saving for today's column on top of that, I have a very large number of stories for you today. I hope you can find the time over what's left of your weekend to read the ones that float your boat. ¤ Critical Reads Marc Faber: No Value in StocksThis 3:02 minute CNBC video interview with the good doctor was posted on their Internet site early yesterday morning EST...and I thank reader Ken Hurt for today's first news item.  Former Fed Chief Greenspan Sees No Bubble in Dow 16,000Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. economy probably will grow more slowly next year than some forecasters predict and indicated that a record U.S. stock market isn’t in a bubble. “This does not have the characteristics, as far as I’m concerned, of a stock market bubble,” Greenspan said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend. “It could come out that way but I don’t see it at this stage.” Greenspan said that even with the rise in equities, the U.S. economy is restrained by a “degree of uncertainty” that is reducing investment. Economists who forecast 2.5 percent to 3 percent growth next year may be too optimistic, he said. It's depressing to see a man of his age lie through his teeth like that, but that's why he makes the big bucks. This Bloomberg news item was posted on their Internet site late on Wednesday evening MST...and it's the first offering of the day from Roy Stephens.  What Happens When This Chart Hits Zero?Dinosaurs, Dodos, and soon "Bears"...What happens when they there's no one left to sell to? You just read the entire one-sentence article...but it's the graph that makes the commentary worthwhile, and it's a must to view! I thank Ulrike Marx for her first offering in today's column...and for sending this Zero Hedge piece our way. Albert Edwards: 'Investors Demand A Sign Of When To Get Out And That Trigger May Have Just Arrived" With every other bear throwing in the towel left and right these days, we fully expected that the latest letter by SocGen's Albert Edwards would have something about "how much he hates looking at himself in the mirror, but..." and then we would be served with some garbage like the following margin expectations chart.  HuffPo's Auerbach: Fed Has Created an Inflation 'Time Bomb' As the Fed embarked on its stimulus endeavor, excess reserves banks hold at the Fed exploded from $1.9 billion in August 2009 to over $2.2 trillion as of September 2013, making up almost 84 percent of the monetary base, points out, writes Robert Auerbach in an article for the Huffington Post.  Jim Rickards and Mike Maloney: Central banks can step on the throttle without limitThis 4:00 minute exchange between Jim and Mike was posted on the youtube.com Internet site on Monday...and it definitely worth watching. I thank reader Brad Robertson for sending it our way yesterday. Mortgage-related Cases May Cost U.S. Banks up to $105 Billion More: S&PEight of the top U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp., may have an additional exposure of between $56.5 billion and $104 billion in potential mortgage-related payouts, an S&P report said. Banks have faced a new wave of lawsuits as the government investigates their role in the packaging and sale of mortgage-backed securities comprising of bad loans in the run up to the financial crisis. "Notably, mortgage-related litigation has recently gotten a second wind and has expanded beyond investor claims," S&P credit analysts led by Stuart Plesser wrote in the report. The government has been seeking to hold firms liable under the Financial Institutions, Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), which it uses to recover civil penalties for losses to federally insured financial institutions. This moneynews.com story was posted on their website early on Wednesday morning EST...and I thank Elliot Simon for his second contribution of the day.  Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Dust to Dust...a man-made Malthusian crisisAmerican scientists have made an unsettling d | |
| Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Dust to Dust...a man-made Malthusian crisis Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Dust to Dust...a man-made Malthusian crisis American scientists have made an unsettling discovery. Crop farming across the prairies since the late 19th Century has caused a collapse of the soil microbia that holds the ecosystem together. They do not know exactly what role is played by the bacteria. It is a new research field. Nor do they know where the tipping point lies, or how easily this can be reversed. Nobody yet knows whether this is happening in other parts of the world. A team at the University of Colorado under Noah Fierer used DNA gene technology to test the 'verrucomicrobia' in Prairie soil, contrasting tilled land with the rare pockets of ancient tall grass found in cemeteries and reservations. The paper published in the US journal Science found that crop agriculture has "drastically altered" the biology of the land. "The soils currently found throughout the region bear little resemblance to their pre-agricultural state," it concluded. You might say we already knew this. In fact we did not. I was raised on a farm in my youth back in the 1950s...and as they say, you can take the boy out of the country, but you can never take the country out of the boy. This longish but very interesting essay from Ambrose was posted on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site very late on Wednesday evening...and is the sort of story that would show up in my Saturday column anyway. It's another contribution from Roy Stephens. | |
| Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST  Three King World News Blogs 1. Grant Williams: "Shocking Chart Shows Gold Will See Astronomical Levels". 2. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: "Former U.S. Treasury Official - China To Dominate U.S." 3. Egon von Greyerz: "Gold, Money, China and Frightening Worldwide Destruction". [Please direct any questions or comments about what is said in these interviews by either Eric King or his guests, to them, and not to me. Thank you. - Ed] | |
| Bitcoin Is A Few Bucks Away From Gold Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST  Bitcoin Is A Few Bucks Away From Gold The price of Bitcoin is now within a stone's throw of the price of gold. The digital currency already set a record earlier today on the Mt. Gox exchange, touching $1,242 (it's since come back down to $1,162). Meanwhile, gold is at $1,250 an ounce. At this point, the unending surge in Bitcoin prices appears to be riding a wave of speculative momentum. The price of a March Bitcoin future on Swedish-based ICBIT.se (though on admittedly thin volume) is more than $1,700. The Dutch had tulip bulbs in the 18th century. The 21st century will be remembered for Bitcoin. You couldn't make this stuff up. This story, if you wish to dignify it with that name, was posted on the businessinsider.com Internet site yesterday morning EST...and I thank Scott Pluschau for sending it our way. | |
| Venezuela denies but doesn't rule out gold transaction with Wall Street Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST  Venezuela denies but doesn't rule out gold transaction with Wall Street Venezuela's central bank president denied on Thursday that the institution is carrying out any transactions with Wall Street banks, a day after a senior government source said it was evaluating a swap agreement involving its gold reserves. Opposition leaders and local media have reported that Venezuela is seeking to boost availability of hard currency through transactions with Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. "With respect to the institutions you've mentioned, the central bank ... is not carrying out any operations with these institutions," Central Bank President Eudomar Tovar said at a press conference in response to a question about the reports. This Reuters news item, filed from Caracas, was posted on their website early Thursday afternoon EST...and I found it embedded in a GATA release. | |
| Iran says gold trade with Turkey to resume Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST Iran says gold trade with Turkey to resume Gold trade between Turkey and Iran will resume, albeit at lower levels than last year, once sanctions on Iran are eased, Iran's ambassador to Turkey said on Friday. Turkey's gold trade with Iran boomed in 2012 when Ankara was paying for its natural gas and oil imports with Turkish lira and Iranians were using those deposits held in Turkey's Halkbank to buy gold. "Certainly the gold trade between Iran and Turkey will resume," the ambassador, Ali Reza Bigdeli, told reporters in the Turkish capital on Friday. "Due to the problems in money transfers in 2012, the gold trade rose. I don't think that we are still in the same situation that would require us to trade in gold in those amounts," he said. This Reuters story, filed from Ankara, was posted on their website very early yesterday morning EST...and I found it embedded in a GATA release as well. | |
| Smuggled gold has its own price in India Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST  Smuggled gold has its own price in India Gold merchants in the state of Kerala in India could be setting a trend of sorts with their dual pricing system. Two organisations in the Southern state are bringing out separate rates for daily sale at retail points. Market traders say the move is an upshot of the spurt in smuggling which has spawned a grey market for retail gold. The difference in rates also indicates the yawning demand supply gap and bristling competition among traders of the precious metal, and goes beyond being just a tool to attract customers. The South Western state of Kerala boasts of a large number of reputed brands, with the state accounting for a sizeable chunk of the country’s gold market. This very interesting story, filed from Mumbai, was posted on the mineweb.com Internet site yesterday...and I thank Ulrike Marx for bringing it to my attention, and now to yours. | |
| India's Short Gold Supply Forces Families to Melt Down Heirlooms to Recycle for Weddings Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST  India's Short Gold Supply Forces Families to Melt Down Heirlooms to Recycle for Weddings A short-supply of gold in India, the world's largest consumer of the precious metal, is forcing Indians to recycle family heirlooms, melted down to be reused as gifts during the ongoing wedding season. Some one million couples are expected to get married in the ongoing wedding season that runs through May, as the season has 71 auspicious wedding days. About 33,000 couples were married on 19 November alone, the highest on any day so far this year, reported Reuters. Gold demand typically surges during the wedding season, which follows the festival season, as gold jewellery is gifted to the bride and the bridegroom. A ring, a pendant or earrings typically weigh 5-10 grams while a necklace or a pair of bangles could weigh upwards of 50 grams. However, government restrictions on surging gold imports, blamed for amplifying the country's trade deficit, and three upward revisions to the import taxes on gold, have made it hard for jewelers to source the raw material. This story was posted on the International Business Times website yesterday morning GMT...and it's another article from Ulrike Marx, for which I thank her. | |
| Sri Lanka axes 100 percent surcharge that has halted all gold imports Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST Sri Lanka axes 100 percent surcharge that has halted all gold imports Sri Lanka scrapped a 100 percent surcharge on gold imports and cut import duty with immediate effect, officials said on Friday, after measures imposed in mid-2013 to curb purchases of the metal from abroad halted them completely in the third quarter. Apart from removing the customs surcharge, the government cut import duty to 7.5 percent from 10 percent, partly to help the island's struggling jewellery industry, officials said. Sri Lanka placed a 10 percent duty on gold imports in June to discourage traders who were buying it abroad then smuggling it from Sri Lanka to top gold consumer India, where prices for the metal were higher. It later followed up with the 100 percent surcharge. This Reuters news item, filed from Colombo, was posted on their website late yesterday morning EST...and I thank Ulrike Marx for her final offering in today's column. | |
| State Department minutes confirm that whoever has the most gold makes the rules Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:53 AM PST  State Department minutes confirm that whoever has the most gold makes the rules Gold researcher Koos Jansen calls attention to the minutes of a U.S. State Department meeting in April 1974 summoned by Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to consider the danger that the price of gold might get beyond the U.S. government's control. The objective of U.S. policy about gold during this time has not been secret; GATA has cited government records demonstrating it. But the minutes published by Jansen tonight are especially remarkable for making explicit the U.S. government's recognition of what some gold advocates call "the golden rule" -- that is, whoever has the most gold makes the rules. This commentary easily falls into the absolute must read category...and it's worth reading twice in my opinion. It was posted on the gata.org Internet site in the wee hours of Friday morning EST. | |
| Weekly COMEX Gold Inventories: Slow Week For Activity But December Deliveries Approach Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:52 AM PST Last week we covered the fact that registered COMEX gold inventories remained near all-time lows as December approached - traditionally the most active delivery month for the COMEX. Additionally, last week we also saw a new high in owners-per-registered-ounce, a measurement used to show how COMEX open interest relates to gold stocks available for delivery. This week was a relatively slow week in terms of COMEX warehouse activity, and given the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, this was not much of a surprise. We saw a slight increase in both registered and eligible COMEX gold inventories, and it should be very interesting what happens in December as gold needs to be delivered to meet contract deliveries. Keeping track of COMEX inventories is something that is recommended for all serious investors who own physical gold and the gold ETFs (GLD, PHYS, and CEF) because any abnormal inventory declines may | |
| Iran Agrees to Deal With Powers to Curb Nuclear Work Posted: 30 Nov 2013 05:35 AM PST By agreeing to curtail its nuclear activities, Iran won an easing of certain sanctions on oil, auto parts, gold and precious metals for six months. The deal, which is reversible, was announced early yesterday after five days of talks in Geneva. Without removing sanctions on oil exports, it releases some of Iran's oil assets and allows it to keep exporting crude at current levels... Read | |
| Dollar And Yen Downside Risks Persist, While Aussie Is Poised For Bounce Posted: 30 Nov 2013 04:51 AM PST The British pound was the only major currency to have gained against the US dollar over the past month. Its 2% gain helped it finish November at its highest level since August 2011. The dollar rose against the other majors, with its 4.1% rise against the Japanese yen being the largest. The dollar-bloc currencies, alongside the Norwegian krone were also laggards, losing between 1.2% (Canadian and New Zealand dollars) and 3.6% (Norwegian krona and Australian dollar). The Swedish krona fell 2.5%. Most emerging market currencies also fell against the dollar over the past month. This is not the price action one would expect if the yen's carry trade status has been rekindled, as many observers have claimed in recent weeks as the yen as fallen. The US dollar's weakness seen over the past week is very narrowly based, largely concentrated against the euro (and its two shadow currencies Swiss franc | |
| Gold Investors Weekly Review – November 29th Posted: 30 Nov 2013 02:58 AM PST In his weekly market review, Frank Holmes of the USFunds.com nicely summarizes for gold investors this week's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the gold market. The price of the yellow metal went lower after two consecutive weeks of gains. Gold closed the week at $1,251.39 which is $7.76 per ounce lower (0.62%). The NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index fell 0.31% on the week. This was the gold investors review of past week. Gold Market StrengthsChina's net imports of gold from Hong Kong climbed to the second-highest level on record in October as jewelers and retailers bought the metal to build up inventories ahead of a peak-demand season at the end of the year. A total net purchase of 131 tonnes in the month, nearly 20 percent above the 111 tonnes in September, is only slightly lower than the record of 136 tonnes of net imports registered in March 2013. The appetite for gold from China has proved to be both remarkable and persistent. The much touted ETF liquidations that helped bring gold prices down to the $1,200 level have been absorbed entirely by China. Gold refineries in Switzerland have been busy converting the 400-ounce bullion bars, typically owned by ETFs, into one kilogram bars preferred by Chinese jewelry makers and gold investors. The world's largest listed jewelry chain, which is Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group Ltd., forecasted steady growth for the rest of the fiscal year after first-half profits almost doubled on a surge in Chinese demand for gold. Net income rose to HK$3.5 billion and was above the average estimate of HK$2.98 billion from five analysts compiled by Bloomberg. Not surprisingly, Tiffany & Co., the world's second-largest jewelry retailer, delivered blowout earnings this week, mostly due to international growth, where the Asia Pacific region had sales growth of 27 percent. Investors should remember that roughly 50 percent of the global demand for gold is fueled by the "Love Trade," and evidenced by the success of these two retailers. Gold Market WeaknessesGross speculative short positions on the COMEX have doubled in the past three weeks to 82,842 contracts. According to David Rosenberg of Gluskin Sheff, this is only the fifth time that this has happened in the past decade, which as a strong contrarian indicator sets up the gold market for a nice countertrend rally. The biggest factor weighing on the market is a resumption of selling by ETFs. ETF holdings stabilized during the summer, but have since resumed, with investors having liquidated 1 million ounces over the past month, with 600,000 ounces of that coming over the past week. The renewed decline in ETF holdings suggests that weak hands haven't completely exited the market. Gold Market OpportunitiesAccording to Dr. Martin Murenbeeld, Dundee's Chief Economist, if we were to summarize gold market developments for 2013 to date the first concept that would come to mind would be that of a great rotation out of debt and into equity. What has actually happened is a great rotation out of gold and into equity instead. The chart below compares the gold price and the S&P500, showing that the correlation between the two is about as negative as it has ever been. The most curious part is that gold has declined in the face of exponential growth of global liquidity. The negative correlation of gold is much higher with the S&P 500, than with the U.S. dollar for example, which suggests the S&P 500 is driving the gold complex. The chart shows that gold is now -2.4 standard deviations below the S&P 500, an oversold level that on purely statistical terms, has to trigger a correction in the near to medium term.
Throughout this year, the Indian government increased import duties on gold and silver three times in a bid to protect the currency from a widening current account deficit. The All India Gems and Jewellery Federation has finally stepped up and appealed to the government to roll back the import duty from 15 percent to 5 percent. The abrupt and arbitrary rulings are threatening jewelers by making it very difficult to access the much needed gold and silver. The import curbs force jewelers to pay a record $200 per ounce premium over the London price from next month to obtain supplies, according to the All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation. The premium is currently at near record $120-$130 an ounce. As a result, Mumbai-based Tara Jewels said that it will close some of its less profitable gold-led stores to adapt to the current regulatory environment. Gold Market ThreatsThe daily gold fix in London, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to trade the yellow metal, is being scrutinized amid speculation there could be superior knowledge by those involved in the fixing. Tradition calls for five banks to meet, from a few minutes to an hour, to set the price of gold twice a day. However, unnamed traders who have been involved in the process, as well as other dealers and economists argue that knowledge gleaned from the calls could potentially give traders an unfair advantage in the market. Although there is no concrete evidence of wrongdoing, both academics and economists concur in that the system is outdated and vulnerable to abuse, especially considering gold trading is a $20 trillion market. Goldman Sachs is set to swap $1.68 billion in cash with the Venezuelan central bank, to be backed by $1.85 billion of the nation's gold reserves. The terms of the loan dictate the South American government will pay 7.5 percent plus three month LIBOR over seven years, with Goldman Sachs holding the gold in a margin account. Speculation has been rampant after some details of the story were leaked to the press, with some analysts calling the transaction a classic, non-transparent emerging market transaction where deduction is necessary to guesstimate where the story is going. In our view, the gold provided by Venezuela to Goldman Sachs will create another source upon which the bank can write and sell massive paper gold bets on, increasing the already speculative paper gold market, and continuing to disturb the well-earned reputation of physical gold. | |
| Carmike Cinemas: Worth The Price Of Admission Posted: 30 Nov 2013 02:49 AM PST So, do you still like to go to the movies? You know; put your coat on, get in the car, fight traffic, find a place to park, stagger back a step or two when you see the price of a ticket, shake your head and mutter under your breath when you buy an outrageously overpriced box of popcorn and then finally collapse in a seat only to have a person with the world's biggest head sit in front of you. If you're a person who will endure all this and more to see a movie, then perhaps you might be interested in a company called Carmike Cinemas (CKEC). ("Here's looking at you, kid.") Carmike operates the 4th largest movie theater circuit in the U.S. We're talking about over 2400 screens in nearly 245 theaters across 35 states. 2,373 of those screens use digital technology and 940 are 3-D equipped. | |
| Gold Outlook – Love Trade And Fear Trade Likely To Return Posted: 30 Nov 2013 02:42 AM PST This is a guest post from Frank Holmes from USFunds.com. I recently returned from India, a nation where an incredible 600 million people are under the age of 25. That's nearly double the entire population of the U.S.! What's amazing about that figure is that, unlike the 1970s when India had no global footprint, today's generation is increasingly gaining access to the Internet. Social networking platforms are seeing an incredible growth trajectory in India, as one of the fastest growing markets. In fact, by 2016, the country is set to be Facebook's largest population in the world, according to the BBC. While Forbes India reports that there are only 137 million users in India, with the growing population and rising wealth, we expect this number to grow substantially. I believe this connectivity changes the growth pattern for commodities. Like I told Kitco's Daniela Cambone at the Metals & Minerals Investment Conference in San Francisco, this population carries on its love of gold. Mineweb reports that about 1 million couples will marry this wedding season, with around 33,000 weddings taking place on November 19 alone. Gold traditionally accompanies these events, and a typical gift is "a pendant, earrings or a ring, weighing 5-10 grams depending on financial circumstances. Parents of the bride generally give heavier items like a necklace or bangles weighing 50 grams or more," according to Mineweb. Still, to help manage expectations, investors should anticipate a short-term headwind for the precious metal as India's GDP per capita has stalled. The World Bank estimated India to grow 6.1 percent this year, but lowered its forecast to 4.7 percent due to a slowdown in manufacturing and investment. The long-term picture looks positive though. While India grew at 4.8 percent in the third quarter, the finance ministry is confident the country can return to its "high-growth plan." It projects the economy to pick up, accelerating to around 6 percent in the next fiscal year and about 8 percent in another two years, says TheWall Street Journal.
As we explain in our Special Gold Report on the Fear Trade, one of its strongest drivers is real interest rates, which is when the inflationary rate of return is greater than the current interest rate. Our model tells us that a real interest rate of more than 2 percent is typically bearish for gold. Still, the real rate is not very close to the 2-percent tipping point. As of the end of November, the 5-year Treasury yield is 1.31 percent while inflation is at 1 percent. Investors end up with a slightly positive return of 0.31 percent.
With onerous regulations continuing to slow down the flow of money, I believe the government will need to keep its printing presses warm, eventually reigniting the Fear Trade. Keep in mind that real rates are not positive in every country. As I will be showing in my presentation at the Mines and Money conference in London, U.K. investors are still losing money after inflation. The 5-year gilt yield is at 1.51 percent, but inflation is at 2.2 percent, resulting in a negative real rate of return.
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| Gold And Silver – Reverse Bubble. Huge Rally When Broken. Note Bitcoin Results. Posted: 30 Nov 2013 12:24 AM PST Gold and silver are in reverse bubbles, if you will, where price has been both severely distorted and suppressed by central banks, the visible tools of the otherwise hidden moneychangers, those on the top of the population pyramid who want to control and enslave the entire world in a totalitarian state of existence. Ironically, the best and only hope for the [not so] free world comes from China and Russia. It is a twisted world in which we live.
There is no evidence that it will be any different, this time around. In fact, given the gross manipulation of both gold and silver, once this artificial reverse bubble bursts, the results will be equally distorted to the upside. Where not too long ago, one often heard $5,000 to $10,000 the ounce for gold, the numbers have accelerated to as high as $50,000 and $500 the ounce for gold and silver, respectively. If anyone wants a glimpse into what the future holds for gold and silver, just look at how Bitcoin has rallied to $1,200+!!! Not even two weeks ago, it traded at $460, and now, it is almost worth the same as an ounce of gold. Without any warrants as to the reliability or sustainability of this recent phenomenon, it clearly shows the appetite for an uncontrolled [by central banks/governments] alternative to any fiat currency. The world is finally waking up to the central banker's huge fiat Ponzi scheme. Bitcoin is a digital currency, aka a crypto-currency, that has no intrinsic value. For now, it is an anonymous e-currency taking the world by storm. What seems to be the strongest point for acquiring Bitcoin is that it is continually going up in value, and it is momentum, not fundamentals, that keeps carrying the day. It runs the risk of becoming a Tulipcoin. Putting aside whether the novelty of Bitcoin can survive any number of stress tests, which it has not yet had to do, any way possible for operating outside of the existing central banking cartel's fiat scheme has enormous appeal. We do not see Bitcoin going up in value so much as the fiats are eroding in confidence. Where it used to take $400 in fiat Federal Reserve Notes, [FRN] to buy a Bitcoin, it now takes over $1,200 FRNs to buy the same coin. This exposes the downside to fiats.
As to why the Western central bankers continue to successfully manipulate/suppress gold and silver is open to debate. In large, central bankers set and control currencies world-wide, and most people are oblivious to the insidious nature of fractional reserve banking and the corrupt criminal enterprises that run them. They do it because they operate with impunity and get away with it.
There is a book entitled "The Ugly American," from 1958 and a film in 1963 that was popular for some time. Its focus was on America's inability, even unwillingness to understand foreign cultures, and particularly true of the American government. To that can now be added another adjective, "The Ugly and Ignorant American." The country is filled with a population that remains clueless about its de facto and bankrupt corporate federal government, and especially its own fiat currency. China will become the wake-up that will show the world how America is, and has been for a few decades, a Third World country living off the fumes of a once thriving nation. We hope to address China as the likely replacement for both national and monetary superiority, next week. A look at the charts. There has not been any notable change in the charts since last week. The dramatic rise in Bitcoin is the best reminder for all those buying and holding physical gold and silver, for whatever length of time and at whatever price, better days are assured. It is just a matter of time. It could be said that the nine week rally from the June low is being corrected by a 13 week decline, which is relatively more labored. While a positive, it does nothing to suggest a turnaround, at this point.
The noted clustering of closes can take price in either direction. One of the advantages of reading developing market activity is that it is followed, not led or anticipated in advance. This means we do not have to know in advance which direction price will head, in the week or more, ahead. Instead, we wait for a concrete signal, and then go with prevailing market strength. It is the best way to avoid being on the wrong side of any market.
Silver's strong August swing high rally has been negated by the much slower decline that is now trading under the strong rally bar, 3rd from the August swing high. Until the small range of last week, the preceding decline, none of the 4 bars overlapped by much, indicative of a liquidating market. Whether the small weekly range becomes significant, as a potential form of stopping action, remains to be seen.
Price could still go marginally lower and not break the previous zone of support. In any down trend, sellers have proven themselves. The onus is on buyers to demonstrate the ability to effect change. For now, there is no evidence that buyers are stepping in and taking over. The ongoing "fate" of precious metals remains in the central bankers pockets.
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| Metals & Markets: E-Gold- The Next Alternative Currency? Posted: 29 Nov 2013 11:08 PM PST
 In this week’s SD Weekly Metals & Markets The Doc & Eric Dubin discuss: Bitcoin surges past the price of gold- does the mania have room to run as Bitcoin gains traction globally as an alternative currency, or is an epic collapse imminent? Gold & silver close above support at $1250 and $20- is the [...] The post Metals & Markets: E-Gold- The Next Alternative Currency? appeared first on Silver Doctors. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | |
| Fashion Catches Up to Investment Demand for Gold Jewelry Posted: 29 Nov 2013 10:46 PM PST Gold jewelry is not generally considered an appropriate investment mainstay, due to the fact that the buyer typically pays a high premium over the price of the gold for the workmanship that goes into transforming gold into jewelry, and because the quality of the gold in jewelry varies widely from piece to piece. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule: if one were able to purchase gold jewelry at near the spot of the gold it contained, and if the quality of the gold it contained were guaranteed, then the value of gold jewelry as an investment would be sound. Fortunately, that type of gold jewelry investment product is now available. Even more serendipitously, the fashion world has recently embraced the chunky gold chain as the "now" jewelry statement. | |
| Posted: 29 Nov 2013 10:25 PM PST A quick video and quick look at the gold stocks. Where do they stand and what is the outlook going forward? It’s discussed in the video….
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| Jim Willie: Gold Trade Standard to Rise From the Ashes of Wrecked T-Bond Bubble! Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:30 PM PST
 The Taper Talk delivered the final blow to the big US banks, insolvent at the time. Now they are struggling with liquidity problems as a result of massive derivative losses that sap and drain their precious capital. The rise in bond yields caused tremendous damage. The Financial Regulatory Bill (aka Dodd-Frank Bill) will be suspended, [...] The post Jim Willie: Gold Trade Standard to Rise From the Ashes of Wrecked T-Bond Bubble! appeared first on Silver Doctors. | |
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| Chinese Central Bank’s Fingerprints Are All Over the Gold Manipulation! Posted: 29 Nov 2013 03:00 PM PST
 A SilverDoctors Exclusive By SD Contributor AGXIIK: The Dollar’s fate lies in China’s Hand. Gold is the key to this fate. The Chinese Central bank’s fingerprints are all over the gold manipulation story. The Chinese play the gold players like fiddles, rigging the price of gold lower to take in as much as they can. [...] The post Chinese Central Bank’s Fingerprints Are All Over the Gold Manipulation! appeared first on Silver Doctors. | |
| Williams marvels at stock market herd mentality, rising claims on missing gold Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:33 PM PST GATA | |
| 32 Privacy Destroying Technologies That Are Systematically Transforming America Into A Giant Prison Posted: 29 Nov 2013 02:00 PM PST
 If you live in the United States, you live in a high tech surveillance grid that is becoming more oppressive with each passing day. We live in a society where liberty and freedom are literally being strangled to death, but most Americans don't seem to care. Do you know who else gets watched, tracked and [...] The post 32 Privacy Destroying Technologies That Are Systematically Transforming America Into A Giant Prison appeared first on Silver Doctors. | |
| Black Friday: A Shameful Orgy Of Materialism For A Morally Bankrupt Nation Posted: 29 Nov 2013 01:20 PM PST
The amount of merchandise that is purchased on Black Friday is absolutely staggering. For example, just consider how much stuff is sold at Wal-Mart alone...
But each and every year, Black Friday also seems to bring out the worst in many people, and this year was certainly no exception. The following are just a few of the national headlines about the rioting and the violence that we witnessed... -"Holiday shopping season kicks off with fights, arrests" -"Violence flares as shoppers slug it out for best Black Friday deals" -"Watch Screaming Mobs Fight Over Televisions At Wal-Mart" -"Two Arrested After Stabbing Over Parking Space At Wal-Mart" -"Rialto Walmart Thanksgiving brawl sends one police officer to hospital" -"Walmart Ejects Customer For Filming Violent 'Black Thursday' Mobs" -"Cops: Shoplifting suspect shot after dragging officer" And sometimes the violence extends out into the parking lots and into the surrounding neighborhoods. In Las Vegas, a man that was carrying a big-screen television home from Target was shot in the leg...
Every year I go over to YouTube to check out the madness that breaks out on Black Friday night all over the nation. Posted below is the best compilation video from Black Friday that I could find. In particular, I love how this video compares American shoppers to zombies... And there is one more video that I wanted to share with you. In this video, activist Mark Dice dresses up like Santa Claus and mocks Black Friday shoppers for being "parasites" and for ruining Thanksgiving... Meanwhile, as retail stores all over America actively encourage this zombie-like behavior, police are actually cracking down on other groups of Americans that are actively trying to make this country a better place. For example, a Christian group in Lake Worth, Florida was kicked out of a public park for trying to feed the homeless on Thanksgiving. Of course this kind of thing happens all the time. In fact, dozens of major cities all over the country have now passed laws that make it illegal to feed the homeless. For much more on this, please see my previous article entitled "One Lawmaker Is Literally Smashing The Belongings Of The Homeless With A Sledgehammer". At the beginning of this article, I stated that those who go shopping on Black Friday "are actively participating in the destruction of the economic infrastructure of the United States". How could that possibly be? Aren't they helping the economy by spending their money? Actually, it isn't that simple. Just think about it for a moment. Where are most of the "advertised specials" that people go crazy over on Black Friday actually made? If you guessed "China", you would be correct. In fact, it is very difficult to find any "Black Friday specials" that are actually made in the United States. When you buy stuff made in China, you support workers and businesses in China. As I mentioned in a recent article, the U.S. economy loses approximately 9,000 jobs for every 1 billion dollars of goods that are imported from overseas. Overall, the U.S. has run a total trade deficit with the rest of the world of more than 8 trillion dollars since 1975. So when you look around and see lots of unemployed people, it should not be a surprise to you. Right now, the labor force participation rate is at a 35-year-low and more than 102 million working age Americans do not have a job. That number has increased by 27 million just since the year 2000. Because the American people are not supporting American businesses, our formerly great manufacturing cities are being transformed into rotting, festering hellholes. Just take a look at Detroit. At one time Detroit had the highest per capita income in the entire nation, but now it is a dying, bankrupt ghost town. And of course this is happening to manufacturing cities all over the nation. Since 2001, more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities in the U.S. have permanently shut down and we have lost millions upon millions of good paying manufacturing jobs. Back in the 1980s, more than 20 percent of the jobs in the United States were manufacturing jobs. Today, only about 9 percent of the jobs in the United States are manufacturing jobs. Good job America. And the following are some more facts from one of my previous articles about how our massively bloated trade deficit is absolutely killing our economy... -There are less Americans working in manufacturing today than there was in 1950 even though the population of the country has more than doubled since then. -Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs. Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs. -When NAFTA was pushed through Congress in 1993, the United States had a trade surplus with Mexico of 1.6 billion dollars. By 2010, we had a trade deficit with Mexico of 61.6 billion dollars. -Back in 1985, our trade deficit with China was approximately 6 million dollars (million with a little "m") for the entire year. In 2012, our trade deficit with China was 315 billion dollars. That was the largest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world. -According to the Economic Policy Institute, America is losing half a million jobs to China every single year. -According to Professor Alan Blinder of Princeton University, 40 million more U.S. jobs could be sent offshore over the next two decades if current trends continue. Unfortunately, most Americans never stop to think about what happens when we buy stuff from China. When we buy stuff from them, our money goes over there. At this point, they are sitting on trillions of our dollars and they have purchased more than a trillion dollars of our debt. Up until now, Chinese demand for our dollars has helped keep the value of the U.S. dollar artificially high. This is one of the reasons why Wal-Mart can sell you those Chinese imports so inexpensively. And up until now, Chinese demand for our debt has helped keep long-term interest rates artificially low. So the U.S. government has been able to borrow money at ridiculously low interest rates and U.S. home buyers have been able to get mortgage rates that are well below the real rate of inflation. But no irrational state of affairs ever lasts indefinitely, and the Chinese recently announced that they are going to quit stockpiling U.S. dollars. Many analysts believe that this means that the Chinese will soon stop stockpiling U.S. debt as well. So enjoy those super cheap "Black Friday specials" while they last. That era is rapidly coming to an end. Now that the Chinese have stolen tens of thousands of our businesses, millions of our jobs and trillions of our dollars, perhaps they feel that there is not much more looting to be done. Our economic infrastructure has been essentially gutted at this point. Moving forward, China can afford to let the value of the U.S. dollar fall and the value of their own currency rise because even Barack Obama admits that "those jobs are never coming back". And every single American that went shopping on Black Friday and bought Chinese-made goods actively participated in the ongoing destruction of the U.S. economy. Good job America. You are a nation that is utterly consumed by materialism and greed, and you don't even realize that you are destroying yourself with your own foolishness. | |
| Automated Trading System Crushes SPX By 14.35% in Nov! Posted: 29 Nov 2013 12:28 PM PST
The post Automated Trading System Crushes SPX By 14.35% in Nov! appeared first on ETF Trading Gold Newsletter. |
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