Gold World News Flash |
- Silver About to Turn More Volatile
- Financial System Cracks, Gold Somehow Falls, No One in Authority will Ask Why
- The Gold Price Rose $5.60 Ending at $1,178.50
- NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds
- GUEST POST: “Greek Fire” Contagion Spreads Through Europe
- WARNING — Contagion, Financial Meltdown, Global Economic Collapse Now
- India Hoards Silver; Massive Disconnect In Stocks & Bonds
- OCC derivatives report suggests U.S. govt. has seized all commodity markets
- The REAL Crisis Has Just Begun
- OCC derivatives report suggests U.S. govt. has seized all commodity markets
- Beggar Thy Neighbor? Greece's Battered Banks Beget Balkan Jitters
- JPMorgan Just Cornered The Commodity Derivative Market, And This Time There Is Proof
- Infographic - The Best Reasons To Own Gold
- There Will (Still) Be No “Grexit”
- Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Capped - The Fog of Currency War
- S. Africa's gold mines offer wage increases of up to 13%
- Gold price suggests investors not betting on Grexit
- Koos Jansen: New Chinese fund cites gold's 'superiority'
- Jim’s Mailbox
- Alasdair Macleod: The euro crisis
- Dave Kranzler: Market intervention creep
- Grexit?, BIS Warning, Chinese Market Crash & Systemic Risk Shake the Global Economy
- Financial system cracks, gold somehow falls, no one in authority will ask why
- A Very Busy Week Ahead
- Gold and Silver Greece and Short Positions
- China Resets The Currency Markets
- Joe Rogan & NASA Physicist: We're Living in the Matrix
- Greece BANKRUPT! Financial and Economic Collapse to Follow IMF Debt Default
- Jeb Handwerger: Fed Interest Rate Increase Could Be Best Thing to Happen to Gold
| Silver About to Turn More Volatile Posted: 29 Jun 2015 11:01 PM PDT Silver has moved sideways for about nine months, after it moved sideways from a slightly higher level for about 14 months. Boring! The big events in the past 5 years have been: August 2010: Silver... {This is a content summary only. Click on the blog title to continue reading this post, share your comments, browse the website, and more!} | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Financial System Cracks, Gold Somehow Falls, No One in Authority will Ask Why Posted: 29 Jun 2015 10:30 PM PDT by Chris Powell, GATA:
No one who has followed GATA for a while could have thought last night, as Greece collapsed financially and the foundations of the European Union and its currency were shaken, that gold would do anything but decline or be held steady under surreptitious central bank intervention in the markets. But at least today’s price action, the most anomalous since the otherwise inexplicable smashes down in April 2013, may awaken a few of the more oblivious analysts who purport to cover the gold market. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Gold Price Rose $5.60 Ending at $1,178.50 Posted: 29 Jun 2015 10:17 PM PDT
Aurum et argentum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought. - Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger The-MoneyChanger.com © 2015, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission. To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold or 18 ounces of silver. or 18 ounces of silver. US $ and US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down. WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned: Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures. NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps. NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced. NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt. What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands. One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds Posted: 29 Jun 2015 10:00 PM PDT from Jesse's Café Américain:
William Penn Despite unfolding debt crises in Greece, Ukraine, and Puerto Rico, the flight to safety in precious metals is being well managed in the paper markets. The gold/silver ratio is nose-bleed high. The premium on Sprott Silver is slightly positive, showing a bit of resistance for those holding physical bullion, even if by proxy. The confidence game is long in the tooth, and some are not willing to play this time. Much moreso in the physical bullion markets of Asia. They are playing by stacking. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| GUEST POST: “Greek Fire” Contagion Spreads Through Europe Posted: 29 Jun 2015 09:35 PM PDT from Wealth Watchman:
Syriza Lights the Molotov Cocktail Well, brothers, it has finally begun. The moment that all of us "crazy" stackers have stacking silver for in the first place, has now arrived: the beginning of the end of Bretton Woods II, is upon us. For the Greek referendum(which I predicted over 6 weeks ago) has now been announced, and officially approved. What more is there to say that hasn't already been said? Everything is about to change. So many aspects of life that literally everyone you know(and perhaps even you yourself), takes for granted, are about to shift gears forever. It's not that big of a deal though, right? Everyone's prepared for this titanic collapse already, aren't they?
The truth is that no one's prepared for what's happening! In fact, just last night, my brother had a disturbing conversation with a stranger, who was FREAKING OUT over Greece! This man was literally beside himself with fear. And what was the reason for this man's terror? Ugh, that's the worst part of all… Getting Greece Wrong Apparently this poor sap wouldn't stop freaking out about Greece, because he'd personally just invested $15,000 in Greek equities(that he couldn't afford to lose)! "You've gotta be kidding me, Watchman! Why would any living person with a functioning brainstem actually sink good money into Greece right now?" I know, right? Wait though, this man's reasoning will astound you. For you see, in his mind, Greece was cheap! After all, he thought that things had gotten so bad there over time, that he felt he would "get the most for his dollar" by playing the Greek story! This man thought: That things had been so bad for so long, that it "obviously" couldn't get any worse! That Greece was so low, it had simply reached a price bottom. That the can would be kicked yet again. That central banks would again sprinkle their magic credit dust, causing both confidence and economic activity to fly. Brothers, pay attention to every one of those lines, and then ask yourself: Have you thought any of those things as well during the past few months? Be honest, now! I daresay that many of us have been tempted to think them too. Even though all of us in this space have known how the game would end in Greece, so many still predicted that "the can would be kicked'. After all, it had happened so many times, that even those who knew what was happening, had almost become completely apathetic to Greek events… That's precisely why last weekend's announcement was such a big deal: no one was ready for it. No one thought Syriza meant business. Everyone believed that the action of a referendum or exit would simply be "too painful" to actually go through with. This announcement is now destroying an enormous lie that central planners have been repeating every moment, day after day, for many weeks, in the hopes of forestalling the ultimate panic… Priced In? That main lie, of course, being that Greek actions and scenarios were already "priced in" the broader markets, and that there would be no contagion to speak of. Well, hmm, let's see, does this action appear "priced in" to you? German bonds, the largest, sovereign debt market in Europe, is trading like a "pink-sheets", penny stock!
All the while, Germany equities are cratering!
The bonds of other "PIIGS" nations, such as Spain & Portugal are flatlining, and their yields have now basically tripled in the last 60 days. The Japanese equity market, one of the largest on earth, cratered over 700 points at one moment last night… The Chinese equity market is taking its quickest plunge in nearly 20 years! Now, hot off the presses, we learn this: "Several Italian Banks have Failed to Open"Remember, just yesterday, the Italian banking sector assured Italy's citizens that "exposure was low" to Greece, and that the fears of contagion were utterly overblown. Now, apparently that reality has set in, the depth to which some bank stocks have plunged in such short order, forced some of them to halt or delay even trading on their stock market. The failures on the European scene are now coming hot and heavy…and just think…. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| WARNING — Contagion, Financial Meltdown, Global Economic Collapse Now Posted: 29 Jun 2015 09:33 PM PDT from GregoryMannarino: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| India Hoards Silver; Massive Disconnect In Stocks & Bonds Posted: 29 Jun 2015 09:20 PM PDT by Steve St. Angelo, SRS Rocco Report:
I sat down with Mike Gleason from Money Metals Exchange for a candid interview on the promising developments with states reasserting their rights to make gold and silver legal tender. Here is a brief exchange I had with Mike on this issue: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| OCC derivatives report suggests U.S. govt. has seized all commodity markets Posted: 29 Jun 2015 08:13 PM PDT 10:56p ET Monday, June 25, 2015 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Citing the latest quarterly report of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Zero Hedge concludes tonight that JPMorganChase has "cornered the commodity derivative market," the notional value of the investment bank's commodity derivative position having just exploded from around $200 billion to nearly $4 trillion. The OCC report, Zero Hedge adds, has ceased distinguishing gold derivatives from foreign exchange derivatives, but the combined total of gold and FX derivatives held by investment banks is shown to have exploded as well. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Silver Coins and Rounds with Employee Pricing and Free Shipping Grab your Silver Starter Kit at cost from Money Metals Exchange, the company named "Precious Metals Dealer of the Year" by industry ratings group Bullion Directory. Simply go to MoneyMetals.com and type "GATA" in the radio box at the top of the page. This special silver offer contains 4 ounces of silver coins and rounds in the most popular 1-ounce, half-ounce, and 10th-ounce forms. Claim yours now, because GATA readers get employee pricing and free shipping. So go to -- -- and type "GATA" in the radio box at the top of the page. Zero Hedge's analysis is headlined "JPMorgan Just Cornered the Commodity Derivative Market, and This Time There Is Proof" and it's posted here: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-29/jpm-just-cornered-commodity-der... Your secretary/treasurer is, of course, inclined to construe this astounding anomaly as comprehensive intervention in the markets by the U.S. government using Morgan as its broker, since it's unlikely that a single investment bank would have the wherewithal to establish such fantastic positions on its own. The OCC report may mean that, with the fiat currency system cracking under the weight of years of abuse, the U.S. government has felt compelled to seize emergency control of all markets to bolt the exits from the system, gold being the primary exit, and to forestall hyperinflation. This would signify the government's belief that only totalitarian means -- "financial repression" squared -- can sustain the system now. Venezuela already has shortages and rationing. Today Greece got capital controls, if indeed there is any capital left there. But before Americans snicker too much at those troubled countries, they should ponder the meaning of their country's huge trade deficit, a privilege of issuance of the world reserve currency, a currency that is in effect a great tax on the world, a tax that, if Zero Hedge gets the OCC report right, now encompasses the destruction of all markets worldwide. Immoral as it would be, it's almost certainly all legal under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 as amended in the 1970s -- http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/international/ESF/Pages/esf-inde... -- the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977: It just hasn't been conducted in the open yet. But maybe with the OCC report we're almost there, and pushing this totalitarianism into the open is probably the best we can hope for. Of course the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and the other mainstream financial news organizations will report it only to rationalize it and make excuses for it, whereupon they will sound a bit like the old Daily Worker. Barron's may have a little more trouble with it. But they're all going to look pretty silly -- not that they care. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Join GATA here: New Orleans Investment Conference http://noic2015.eventbrite.com/?aff=gata Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference: https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The REAL Crisis Has Just Begun Posted: 29 Jun 2015 08:00 PM PDT by Graham Summers, Gold Seek:
There is no recovery. There is only the bond bubble. And everything has been done to prop it up because when it bursts (as all bubbles do), entire countries (including the US) will go bust. Greece is just the first domino to fall. Indeed the front pages of the financial media today show an interesting tale: both China and Greece are experiencing debt implosions, the former being a margin debt fueled stock market bubble crashing while the latter is on the verge of defaulting on its sovereign debt. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| OCC derivatives report suggests U.S. govt. has seized all commodity markets Posted: 29 Jun 2015 07:50 PM PDT 10:56p ET Monday, June 25, 2015 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Citing the latest quarterly report of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Zero Hedge concludes tonight that JPMorganChase has "cornered the commodity derivative market," the notional value of the investment bank's commodity derivative position having just exploded from around $200 billion to nearly $4 trillion. The OCC report, Zero Hedge adds, has ceased distinguishing gold derivatives from foreign exchange derivatives, but the combined total of gold and FX derivatives held by investment banks is shown to have exploded as well. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Silver Coins and Rounds with Employee Pricing and Free Shipping Grab your Silver Starter Kit at cost from Money Metals Exchange, the company named "Precious Metals Dealer of the Year" by industry ratings group Bullion Directory. Simply go to MoneyMetals.com and type "GATA" in the radio box at the top of the page. This special silver offer contains 4 ounces of silver coins and rounds in the most popular 1-ounce, half-ounce, and 10th-ounce forms. Claim yours now, because GATA readers get employee pricing and free shipping. So go to -- -- and type "GATA" in the radio box at the top of the page. Zero Hedge's analysis is headlined "JPMorgan Just Cornered the Commodity Derivative Market, and This Time There Is Proof" and it's posted here: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-29/jpm-just-cornered-commodity-der... Your secretary/treasurer is, of course, inclined to construe this astounding anomaly as comprehensive intervention in the markets by the U.S. government using Morgan as its broker, since it's unlikely that a single investment bank would have the wherewithal to establish such fantastic positions on its own. The OCC report may mean that, with the fiat currency system cracking under the weight of years of abuse, the U.S. government has felt compelled to seize emergency control of all markets to bolt the exits from the system, gold being the primary exit, and to forestall hyperinflation. This would signify the government's belief that only totalitarian means -- "financial repression" squared -- can sustain the system now. Venezuela already has shortages and rationing. Today Greece got capital controls, if indeed there is any capital left there. But before Americans snicker too much at those troubled countries, they should ponder the meaning of their country's huge trade deficit, a privilege of issuance of the world reserve currency, a currency that is in effect a great tax on the world, a tax that, if Zero Hedge gets the OCC report right, now encompasses the destruction of all markets worldwide. Immoral as it would be, it's almost certainly all legal under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 as amended in the 1970s -- http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/international/ESF/Pages/esf-inde... -- the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977: It just hasn't been conducted in the open yet. But maybe with the OCC report we're almost there, and pushing this totalitarianism into the open is probably the best we can hope for. Of course the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and the other mainstream financial news organizations will report it only to rationalize it and make excuses for it, whereupon they will sound a bit like the old Daily Worker. Barron's may have a little more trouble with it. But they're all going to look pretty silly -- not that they care. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Join GATA here: New Orleans Investment Conference http://noic2015.eventbrite.com/?aff=gata Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference: https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Beggar Thy Neighbor? Greece's Battered Banks Beget Balkan Jitters Posted: 29 Jun 2015 06:30 PM PDT Back in April, we noted that central banks in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Albania, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had all effectively moved to quarantine Greece, as it became increasingly apparent that negotiations between Athens and the troika were set to deteriorate ahead of a €750 million payment due to the IMF on May 12. As Kathimerini reported at the time, subsidiaries of Greek banks in Eastern Europe were told to cut exposure to "Greek bonds, T-bills, deposits in Greek banks and/or interbank funding," in an effort to assuage concerns that any contagion from a collapse of the Greek banking sector could imperil local lenders. A little over two months later, Greek banks are paralyzed, having lost access to emergency central bank liquidity on the heels of PM Alexis Tsipras' decision to put euro membership to a popular vote. Now, bond yields indicate investors are getting nervous about the possibility that the drama in Greece could spill over into the banking sectors of Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia where Greek banks control a substantial percentage of total banking assets:
Despite what certainly appears to be souring investor sentiment, depositors seem to be safe -- for now. Reuters has more:
However, as Reuters goes on to note, there are reasons to be concerned, because with "Greek banks owning 20 percent of the banking sector in some countries the exposure is real, and the region's economies have historically been fragile, so it would not take a lot to push them into crisis too." Here's what Morgan Stanley had to say last month about possible contagion:
And while it seems, based on what Mr. Petar Bakhchevanov told Reuters (see above), that all is currently quiet on the Eastern front (at least as it relates to Grexit-induced bank runs), nobody is out of the woods yet, as it is still far from clear what happens next, especially now that the ECB is set to review "all legal aspects" of ELA following the Greek default which will occur at midnight on Tuesday. And with that, we'll close with the following quote from Peter Andronov, the chairman of the Association of Bulgarian Banks:
* * * Here's a summary from Reuters regarding each country's proported exposure/contagion risk: BULGARIA * Greek-owned banks make up a fifth of the Bulgarian banking system. These include Bulgaria's fourth largest lender United Bulgarian Bank, owned by National Bank of Greece, and Postbank, Bulgaria's fifth largest lender, controlled by Greek Eurobank. Number 9 bank Piraeus Bank Bulgaria is controlled by Piraeus Bank of Greece and Alpha Bank is a direct bank unit of Greece's Alpha Bank. * Bulgaria's central bank, in a statement issued on Monday, said it had measures in place to insulate Greek-owned banks from contagion. It said they are financially independent from their parents, they hold no Greek government securities, and have a capital adequacy and liquidity level higher than the average for banks in Bulgaria. "Any action by the Greek government and the central bank to impose measures in the Greek financial system have no legal force in Bulgaria and can in no way affect the smooth functioning and stability of the Bulgarian banking system," the central bank said. * A spokeswoman for United Bulgarian Bank said on Monday: "We are doing business as usual ... We reconfirm and fully agree with the central bank statement from this morning." * In a statement, Piraeus Bank Bulgaria said the capital controls in Greece are not affecting its operations, outlining that such restrictions do not have legal force in Bulgaria and pointing out that the bank has no exposure to the Greek banking system or Greek treasuries and bonds. "For us, this Monday is a normal working day," the bank said in the statement. "Piraeus Bank Bulgaria continues with its usual work on extending loans, raising deposits.and other banking activities as it has done since it stepped on the local market," the statement said. ROMANIA * There are four banks with Greek majority capital operating in Romania: Alpha Bank Romania, Piraeus Bank, Bancpost, controlled by Eurobank Ergasias, and Banca Romaneasca, controlled by National Bank of Greece. Together they account for 12 percent of total banking assets in Romania. * The central bank has said the Greek subsidiaries in Romania are well capitalised and latest data showed their average capital ratio is slightly above 17 percent - in excess of the 10 percent capital ratio requirement set by the regulator. They also have amassed robust portfolios of state securities which entitles them to resort to funding from the central bank if needed. * Piraeus Bank Romania said in a statement on Monday: "Piraeus Bank Romania is a local subsidiary, a Romanian bank with Greek capital. All operations are localized and integrated into the Romanian banking market policies, regulated by the Romanian central bank...There are no capital control policies enforced, banks are not closed, nor are operations limited." ALBANIA * There are three Greek-owned banks in Albania: subsidiaries of National Bank of Greece, Piraeus Tirana Bank, and Alpha Bank. Their share of the total assets of the banking sector in Albania is 15.9 percent, down from 20 percent in 2010, Klodi Shehu, director of the financial stability department at the Albanian central bank, told Reuters. * Shehu said the central bank imposed minimum capital adequacy ratios for Greek-owned banks of 14 percent, above the 12 percent required for other banks. The three Greek-owned banks have a capital adequacy ratio of more than 17 percent. * "These banks are well-capitalized, liquid and capable of timely payments irrespective of what happens in Greece," Shehu told Reuters. MACEDONIA * Macedonia has two Greek-owned banks which together hold more than 20 percent of total banking sector assets. They are Alpha Bank AD Skopje, a subsidiary of Alpha Bank, and Stopanska Banka AD Skopje, owned by National Bank of Greece. * On Sunday, the Macedonian central bank ordered its lenders to pull their deposits from Greek banks and it imposed temporary preventive measures to stop an outflow of capital from Macedonian subsidiaries to parent banks in Greece. It said the capital limits apply to future transactions, not to arrangements already in place. * Under Macedonian law, the Greek parents have no way to withdraw their founding capital beyond 10 percent, unless they sell their holding to another investor. * An official at the Macedonian central bank, who declined to be named, told Reuters that several months ago the bank instructed Greek-owned banks to provide daily reports on transactions with their parent banks as a precaution. * In an analysis of the possible worst-case scenario, with Greek-owned banks collapsing under the weight of deposit withdrawals, Standard Bank estimated that the Macedonian government would have to come up with 250 million euros, or around three percent of gross domestic product, to fully recapitalize the banks, "something that the sovereign can live with." SERBIA * In Serbia, four Greek-owned banks hold around $4 billion worth of assets, or 14 percent of total banking assets. They are Alpha Bank, EUROBANK EFG, Piraeus Bank and Vojvodjanska Banka, part of the National Bank of Greece group. * In a written answer to Reuters questions, Serbia's central bank said it had in place "an elevated level of monitoring of businesses of four Greek-owned banks, especially their liquidity, their relations with parents groups and events in international markets related to Greek banks and their subsidiaries." * The bank said that "daily reports" provided by the Greek-owned banks showed no increased outflow of funds to mother banks nor a significant outflow of savings. The bank said Greek subsidiaries are not branch offices but separate legal entities, and that there were strict limits on shareholders repatriating capital assets of the subsidiaries. * "The central bank will continue to monitor banks in Greek ownership and if necessary will undertake other measures under its mandate to prevent a potential negative influence on Serbia's banking sector," the bank said. * "We have to wait and see what will happen in the next seven days. One thing is sure, banks in Greece will be in some kind of hibernation in the next 10 days given that Greece introduced capital controls. Most Greek banks that operate in Serbia are self-funded and well capitalised, so I don't expect to see any problems in the short run," said Branko Srdanovic of the Belgrade-based consultancy Associates Treasury Solutions. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| JPMorgan Just Cornered The Commodity Derivative Market, And This Time There Is Proof Posted: 29 Jun 2015 05:55 PM PDT For years there had been speculation, rumor and hearsay that JPM had cornered the US commodities market. Now, finally, we have documented proof. * * * Traditionally, we look at the OCC's Quarterly Bank Report on derivatives activities to see which was the largest bank in the US in terms of total notional derivative holdings. The reason being that like on frequent occasions in the past, we find some stunning results, such as most recently in January when we wrote that, for the first time, Citigroup had eclipsed JPM as the largest US bank in total derivatives, with just over $70 trillion compared to perennial megabank JPM's $65.3 trillion as of the third quarter of 2014, explaining also why Citigroup had drafted the Swaps push out language in the Omnibus Bill.
And while this time there was little exciting to report at the consolidated level (JPM overtook Citi in Q4 only for Citi to once again become the world's largest bank in total derivatives with $56.6 trillion compared to $56.2 trillion for JPM and $52 trillion for Goldman as Bloomberg reported earlier), and in fact total notional derivatives tumbled from $220.4 trillion in Q4 to $203.1 trillion in Q1 the lowest level since 2008...
... an absolutely shocking blockbuster emerges when looking at the underlying component data. Presenting Exhibit 12: Notional Amounts of Commodity Contracts by Maturity: even a CFTC regulator would be able to spot the outlier charted below.
What the chart above shows is that after fluctuating around the low to mid $200 billion range for the past 5 years, in Q1 the amount of Commodities with a maturity of under 1 year exploded to a record $3.9 trillion! Sadly, the OCC provides no actual explanation for why there was such an epic surge in commodity derivatives within the US banking system in the first quarter, so we decided to explore. What we found is what those who have for years accused JPM of cornering the commodity markets, have known: because it is none other than JPMorgan's Commodity derivative book primarily in the <1 maturity bucket, which exploded from just $131 billion to a gargantuan and never before seen $3.8 trillion! In fact as the chart below shows, while historically JPM has accounted for just over 50% of total commodity holdings among all US commercial banks, in the Q1 this number soared to a stratospheric 96% which by anybody's standards is the very definition of cornering the market!
We don't know what prompted JPM's derivative book to soar to such a never before seen amount, but the number most certainly looks abnormal on both an absolute and a relative basis, especially considering that no other banks boosted their particular derivative book with the same vigor. So what is going on here? We decided to dig down some more when we encountered something even more perplexing. Because whereas in previous quarterly updates, the OCC broke out the FX and Gold categories as separate derivative items as seen in this most recent chart from the Q4 update...
... in Q1, once again quite inexplicably, the OCC decided to lump these two products together, thus making any credible observation about the total notional outstanding of just gold derivatives, impossible! But wait, we thought that according to former Chairman Bernanke, gold anything but currency: is the OCC suddenly disagreeing with that assessment?
Furthermore, while in all previous iterations of the OCC's Table 9, gold derivative notionals by maturity were explicitly broken out as can be seen in this Q4, 2014 table below:
Starting in Q1, 2015 the "gold" section in Table 9 no longer exists (although we can see that while JPM cornered "commodities", it was Citi that had its total derivative notional of "precious metals" undergo a massive jump, also for reasons unknown).
One would almost think the OCC is hiding something as the demand of US commercial banks. So while we no longer know what just total gold derivatives outstanding is, for some unexplained, reason, we do know that the combined total of FX and gold just hit an all time high. * * * And while the OCC did all it could to mask the "gold" line item by lumping it with FX, it still kept "Precious Metals" as is, although we assume that this too will be lumped with FX and gold shortly. It is this chart that shows something is truly odd when it comes to the US commercial bank industry's activity in the precious metals space.
So in summary, this is what we do know:
What we don't know is:
We have sent an email requesting much needed clarification from the Office of the Currency Comptroller, although we are not holding our breath. Source: OCC's Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities First Quarter 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Infographic - The Best Reasons To Own Gold Posted: 29 Jun 2015 05:00 PM PDT Perth Mint Blog. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| There Will (Still) Be No “Grexit” Posted: 29 Jun 2015 01:56 PM PDT This post There Will (Still) Be No “Grexit” appeared first on Daily Reckoning. "There comes a time in crisis negotiations," tweeted Jim Rickards yesterday, "when you think, Oh, well, if it all goes wrong, at least I can sleep in tomorrow. I've been there." The thought had to have crossed Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' mind last night. You can tell Greece is in crisis, said Jim, because officials were "busy, busy, busy on a Sunday." As you're probably sick of hearing by now, Greece owes the International Monetary Fund $1.6 billion tomorrow but may not be able to pay it. To keep kicking the can down the road, Greece requires bailouts from the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank. Those funds come with strings attached that Greek officials haven't yet been able to abide. Still, we double down on a premise Jim Rickards' first outlined in 2010: There will be no "Grexit." "Greece asked for another month to sort things out," recapped our friend Chuck Butler in this morning's Daily Pfennig, "and put out a referendum to the Greek people to vote on the aid package restrictions. Unfortunately, that referendum won’t take place until July 5, and Greece’s loan payments are due to the IMF tomorrow. The IMF said, 'No mas. No more extensions, no more playing around. You have until the end of day on Tuesday to pay us or go into default.'" In response, the Greek government followed the standard crisis handbook: Call a bank holiday. Reports have been made of ATMs running out of cash — each person is limited to only 60 euros per day — and Greeks are hoarding gasoline and groceries.
"Bank holiday": Greek pensioners line up outside national bank in Crete. The news "whipsawed the euro," reports Chuck. "The single unit lost two whole cents right out of the starter blocks in the Asian open last night." At writing, the euro's recouped those losses and is up 2%, at $1.11. Go figure. To boot, Jim Rickards' May 12 forecast that the euro is headed to $1.20 is still a go. Over email last night, he reiterated his position. "It’s true that the euro may back up on the Greek news," wrote Jim, "but that is likely to be temporary. A weak euro means a strong dollar, and that is killing the U.S. economy. So a stronger euro is still expected. "The same news that drove the euro down," he said secondly, "is also driving gold and U.S. Treasury notes up. So the Strategic Intelligence portfolio should be making money on gold streamers and our bond fund." And third, Jim's recommended "cash position (not in the official portfolio, but always something we write about) is doing its job of reducing volatility and letting investors jump in on dips." The operating premise is that Greece defaulting and Greece leaving the euro are not mutually exclusive events. Greece can leave the euro one of two ways: quit or be kicked out. Although you'd be forgiven for not knowing that if you relied only on the mainstream media's account. Case in point, an inference drawn in a New York Times article yesterday: "A 'no' vote almost certainly means that the country will walk away from the euro and create its own currency (which will surely devalue sharply), bringing financial chaos in the near term but creating the possibility of a rebound in the medium term as the country becomes more competitive with its devalued currency." But it ain't necessarily so — or even likely. "I remind people," says Jim, "that Cyprus is still in the euro. Bank failure and debt restructuring is not a Grexit." That said, Greece could be kicked out of the union by political decision. Or at least EU leaders want Greece to think it's a possible outcome. "The European Commission chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, has said he feels 'betrayed'… by Greece in failed debt talks," reported the BBC this morning. His "message was clear — vote 'yes' to our proposals and we’ll support you. Vote 'no' and you’ll probably get kicked out of the euro." Yet again, Rickards adds some clarity. "I think Germany miscalculated," Jim explained on Bloomberg this morning, and now "they'll have to blink and back away. The ECB and Greek plans are not that far apart. I think one side will back down." He offered up at least three ways out… The Greek people could vote "yes" to the bailout terms on the July 5 referendum… The Greek government could simply agree to the bailout terms and call off the referendum… Or the European Central Bank could pay the IMF on Greece's behalf, seeing how it owes Greece billions for profits on its securities markets transactions. Either way, "two weeks from now," Jim concluded on Twitter, "people will think Greece is a musical starring Olivia Newton-John." Regards, Peter Coyne P.S. Our friend David Stockman has analyzed the financial system's fragility thanks to central bank machinations… and the impact that Greece's 11th-hour maneuvers could have on the casino — er, market. Click here to read more. The post There Will (Still) Be No “Grexit” appeared first on Daily Reckoning. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Capped - The Fog of Currency War Posted: 29 Jun 2015 01:16 PM PDT | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| S. Africa's gold mines offer wage increases of up to 13% Posted: 29 Jun 2015 11:34 AM PDT By Kevin Crowley South African gold-mining companies tabled a five-year wage offer to the industry's unions that falls short of demands for increases of more than 80 percent. AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., the world's third-biggest producer of the metal, offered to raise entry-level workers' pay by 13 percent annually starting July 1, while Sibanye Gold Ltd. and Harmony Gold Mining Co. proposed 11 percent and 7.8 percent respectively, they said in a joint statement on a website set up for the wage talks. The National Union of Mineworkers, the industry's biggest labor group, wants basic pay to be raised to at least 10,500 rand ($854) monthly from about 5,700 rand now. The inflation rate was 4.6 percent in May. ... ... For the remainder of the report: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-29/south-africa-s-gold-pr... ADVERTISEMENT Free Storage with BullionStar in Singapore Until 2016 Bullion Star is a Singapore-registered company with a one-stop bullion shop, showroom, and vault at 45 New Bridge Road in Singapore. Bullion Star's solution for storing bullion in Singapore is called My Vault Storage. With My Vault Storage you can store bullion in Bullion Star's bullion vault, which is integrated with Bullion Star's shop and showroom, making it a convenient one-stop-shop for precious metals in Singapore. Customers can buy, store, sell, or request physical withdrawal of their bullion through My Vault Storage® online around the clock. Storage is FREE until 2016 and will have the most competitive rates in the industry thereafter. For more information, please visit Bullion Star here: Join GATA here: New Orleans Investment Conference http://noic2015.eventbrite.com/?aff=gata Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference: https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold price suggests investors not betting on Grexit Posted: 29 Jun 2015 08:55 AM PDT Ultimate safe-haven asset fades after brief rally  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Koos Jansen: New Chinese fund cites gold's 'superiority' Posted: 29 Jun 2015 08:53 AM PDT 11:53a ET Monday, June 29, 2015 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: Gold researcher and GATA consultant Koos Jansen today provides an English translation of a report about China's plan for the Silk Road Gold Fund, whose aim is "bringing gold's superiority into play." Jansen's commentary is headlined "Gold Fund to Serve the New Strategy of the Silk Road, Lead the New Gold Development" and it's posted at Bullion Star here: https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/koos-jansen/gold-fund-to-serve-the-new... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT We Are Amid the Biggest Financial Bubble in History; With GoldCore you can own allocated -- and most importantly -- segregated coins and bars in Switzerland, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Switzerland, Singapore, and Hong Kong remain extremely safe jurisdictions for storing bullion. Avoid exchange-traded funds and digital gold providers where you are a price taker. Ensure that you are outright legal owner of your bullion. If you do not own segregated bullion that you can visit, inspect, and take delivery of, you are exposed. Crucial guides to storage in Singapore and Switzerland can be read here: http://info.goldcore.com/essential-guide-to-storing-gold-in-singapore http://info.goldcore.com/essential-guide-to-storing-gold-in-switzerland GoldCore does not report transactions to any authority. Safety, privacy, and confidentiality are paramount when we are entrusted with storage of our clients' precious metals. Email the GoldCore team at info@goldcore.com or call our trading desk: UK: +44(0)203-086-9200. U.S.: +1-302-635-1160. International: +353(0)1-632-5010. Visit us at: http://www.goldcore.com Join GATA here: New Orleans Investment Conference http://noic2015.eventbrite.com/?aff=gata Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference: https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 29 Jun 2015 08:50 AM PDT Jim, Negative systemic crisis usually blindsides most people. This time is no different. Who could’ve guessed? Dollar hammered on global flight to safety? My oh my. This ought to change the thinking of many. CIGA Wolfgang Rech The post Jim’s Mailbox appeared first on Jim Sinclair's Mineset. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alasdair Macleod: The euro crisis Posted: 29 Jun 2015 08:47 AM PDT 11:47a ET Monday, June 29, 2015 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: GoldMoney head of research Alasdair Macleod writes today that Greece's acknowledgment of bankruptcy puts the solvency of the European Central Bank in doubt as well. He concludes with an observation about gold's prospects against continued central bank intervention. Macleod's commentary is headlined "The Euro Crisis" and it's posted at GoldMoney here: https://www.goldmoney.com/research/analysis/the-euro-crisis?gmrefcode=ga... CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer ADVERTISEMENT Buy metals at GoldMoney and enjoy international storage GoldMoney was established in 2001 by James and Geoff Turk and is safeguarding more than $1.7 billion in metals and currencies. Buy gold, silver, platinum, and palladium from GoldMoney over the Internet and store them in vaults in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, taking advantage of GoldMoney's low storage rates, among the most competitive in the industry. GoldMoney also offers delivery of 100-gram and 1-kilogram gold bars and 1-kilogram silver bars. To learn more, please visit: http://www.goldmoney.com/?gmrefcode=gata Join GATA here: New Orleans Investment Conference http://noic2015.eventbrite.com/?aff=gata Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference: https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dave Kranzler: Market intervention creep Posted: 29 Jun 2015 08:33 AM PDT Don't Panic -- The Fed Is Control of the Markets By Dave Kranzler If today's market action does not convince the last skeptics that the U.S. financial markets are completely rigged, nothing will. The action in the U.S. markets today after the Greece/EU situation hit a wall today demonstrates the degree of control the Fed and the U.S. central planners have over the markets now. ... Ever since 1987, and since President Reagan signed the executive order that authorized the Plunge Protection Team to prop up the stock markets, there's been market intervention "creep" in this country. Robert Rubin's role as secretary of treasury was to transition the Working Group on Financial Markets from its stock market-propping function into a full-fledged, all-encompassing market intervention mechanism. ... ... For the full commentary: http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/dont-panic-the-fed-is-control-of-t... ADVERTISEMENT Buy precious metals free of value-added tax throughout Europe Europe Silver Bullion is a fast-growing dealer sourcing its products from renowned mints, refiners, and distributors. Because of a legal loophole that will close soon, you can acquire the world's most popular bullion coins free of value-added tax throughout the European Union. You can collect your order in person at our headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, or have it delivered in any of the 28 EU countries. Europe Silver Bullion is owned and operated by North American and European experts in selling, storing, and transporting precious metals. We have an extensive product inventory of silver, gold, platinum, and palladium, and our network spans the world. Visit us at www.europesilverbullion.com. Join GATA here: New Orleans Investment Conference http://noic2015.eventbrite.com/?aff=gata Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference: https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Grexit?, BIS Warning, Chinese Market Crash & Systemic Risk Shake the Global Economy Posted: 29 Jun 2015 08:25 AM PDT - Persistent low rates leave central banks with no ammunition to fight next crisis - BIS says short-sighted central banks and governments contributed to current weaknesses - Lack of policy options have forced some central banks to stretch “boundaries of the unthinkable” - Bust in developed economies the main risk facing global economy - Greece prepares to default - China markets routed overnight - Gold will be last man standing when currencies collapse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Financial system cracks, gold somehow falls, no one in authority will ask why Posted: 29 Jun 2015 07:53 AM PDT 10:56a ET Monday, June 29, 2015 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: No one who has followed GATA for a while could have thought last night, as Greece collapsed financially and the foundations of the European Union and its currency were shaken, that gold would do anything but decline or be held steady under surreptitious central bank intervention in the markets. But at least today's price action, the most anomalous since the otherwise inexplicable smashes down in April 2013, may awaken a few of the more oblivious analysts who purport to cover the gold market. ... Dispatch continues below ... ADVERTISEMENT Silver mining stock report comes with 1-ounce silver round Future Money Trends is offering a special 18-page silver mining stock report about how to profit with the monetary and industrial metal, and it comes with a free 1-ounce silver round. Proceeds from the report's sales are shared with the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee to support its efforts to expose manipulation in the monetary metals markets. To learn about this report, please visit: A couple of old observations on this point may be worth revisiting today. At GATA's Gold Rush 21 conference in Dawson City, Yukon Territory, in August 2005, the late South African investment adviser Peter George said: "For the last 10 years the central banks have effectively shown that when there's a real crisis, gold actually goes down, and then it's so blatant, it's a joke." George's comment is preserved on video at the 38-second mark in the top frame here: And as your secretary/treasurer has remarked for years, as he did again two years ago -- -- "War and the threat of war ... actually send the gold price down because they prompt even more intervention by central banks. Indeed, if the Northern Hemisphere was destroyed in a nuclear war, the U.S. Exchange Stabilization Fund would sell enough futures contracts in Johannesburg, Sydney, and Rio de Janeiro to knock the gold price down by 25 percent; CPM Group's Jeff Christian would attribute the crash to new hedging by mining companies expecting further declines in price, though the war had brought mine production to an end in the Northern Hemisphere; and what remained of the mainstream financial news media would quote Christian without putting a critical question to him or to any central bank. (Actual journalism is never attempted in regard to gold.)" Zero Hedge today remarks acidly on this phenomenon in an item headlined "Gold Tumbles Despite UK Mint Seeing Europeans Rush to Buy Bullion": http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-29/gold-tumbles-despite-uk-mint-se... If you know anyone in the monetary metals business or financial news media who doubts this or doesn't understand it, you can send him GATA's summary of the purposes, history, and documentation of the Western central bank gold price suppression scheme: http://www.gata.org/node/14839 And if you're invested in monetary metals mining companies that fail to acknowledge this scheme and agitate against it -- that is, most mining companies -- you might ask yourself why. CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer Join GATA here: New Orleans Investment Conference http://noic2015.eventbrite.com/?aff=gata Support GATA by purchasing recordings of the proceedings of the 2014 New Orleans Investment Conference: https://jeffersoncompanies.com/landing/2014-av-powell Or by purchasing DVDs of GATA's London conference in August 2011 or GATA's Dawson City conference in August 2006: http://www.goldrush21.com/order.html Or by purchasing a colorful GATA T-shirt: Or a colorful poster of GATA's full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal on January 31, 2009: http://gata.org/node/wallstreetjournal Help keep GATA going GATA is a civil rights and educational organization based in the United States and tax-exempt under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code. Its e-mail dispatches are free, and you can subscribe at: To contribute to GATA, please visit: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 29 Jun 2015 06:35 AM PDT This post A Very Busy Week Ahead appeared first on Daily Reckoning. Today's Pfennig for your thoughts… Good day, and a marvelous Monday to you! Well, it was a busy weekend around the world. China, Greece, and U.S. Treasuries all saw activity this past weekend. There’s no sense in beating around the bush with regards to Greece; it’s a real mess this morning, and I’ll attempt to sort it all out for you. Well, we’re getting down to the 11th hour, which is when I said an agreement to give Greece more aid to keep them afloat and kick the can down the road. I was very discouraged to read the stories from Europe this past weekend. Greece asked for another month to sort things out, and put out a referendum to the Greek people to vote on the aid package restrictions. Unfortunately, that referendum won’t take place until July 5, and Greece’s loan payments are due to the IMF tomorrow. The IMF said, no mas. No more extensions, no more playing around, you have until the end of day on Tuesday to pay us, or go into default. Now, don’t feel too bad for Greece here, it’s not like they didn’t know their loan payments were going to be due on 6/30, and they had a month to put out a referendum but waited until it was too late. And on top of that, Greek leaders are telling the Greek voters to vote “no”. Now, let’s see. The latest poll had more than 70% of Greek voters wishing to stay in the euro, so let’s see them put their vote with their wishes are. So, to further the problems, Greek banks shut down for a “bank holiday” on Monday. ATM’s ran out of euros, and depositors tried like the dickens to get their money out of the banks. And then before you could say Tsipras, Capital Controls were implemented in Greece, which means money can’t leave the borders of Greece. But, we all know that those controls hardly ever work. Dozens of countries like Mexico, Iceland and Thailand have imposed Capital Controls since WWI, and the IMF’s studies show that only a few countries with strong, sound economies succeeded, in slowing funds leaving the country. But I guess Greece, which is a cash strapped country, had to do this. Too bad though, for it sure gives a country a black eye. Not that Greece hasn’t been walking around with raw steaks on its eyes for a few years now! The news this weekend whipsawed the euro for sure, as the single unit lost two whole cents right out of the starters blocks in the Asian open last night, only to see it rebound and recover those losses, leaving it about where it was on Friday afternoon. It will be interesting to see where the U.S. traders take the euro today, given the news from the weekend. So, where does this leave Greece? Does a default mean they’ll have to leave the euro? Well, no. But, it doesn’t help them very much. I’m going to stick to my guns here, and still say that this will all get worked out to prevent Greece from defaulting, but all that means is that in a year, or maybe longer, or shorter, we’ll be revisiting this all over again. OK? All sorted out for now? In China over the weekend, the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) threw a cat among the pigeons when they decided to not only cut the benchmark interest rates, but also cut their reserve ratio for banks that deal with farmers, which will probably encompass all of the banks! Talk about a double barrel shot of medicine for the ailing Chinese economy! The PBOC took no chances though, and marked the renminbi/yuan down overnight. I’m sure the PBOC thought that if they allowed the renminbi to appreciate, that currency traders would go hog wild over the forward points, so they tempered the currency traders’ moves. Smart on the PBOC’s part. As long as you have control over the currency in the spot market, you might as well make it work for you as a country. Of course, I would prefer that the renminbi was free floating, and not controlled. But, it is what it is. So, all these goings on in Greece, and China, sure had the flight to safety going on and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) had to intervene in the markets by selling francs to keep the currency from soaring as investors were selling their currencies and buying francs as a safe haven. U.S. Treasuries also saw a ton of buying, on the flight to safety. The 10-year’s yield dropped from 2.40% on Friday to 2.34% this morning. But the one asset that should be considered the safe haven, gold, just can’t find any wind for its sails this morning. At least the shiny metal isn’t down, which would really raise suspicion wouldn’t it, given the flight to safety going on? I just shake my head in disgust at how gold, silver, platinum and palladium get treated every day… We’ll also have a Riksbank meeting in Sweden this week. I told you last week that I didn’t think the Riksbank would change anything at this meeting, but that doesn’t rule out a dovish statement from the Riksbank after the rate announcement. So, it doesn’t look like a good week to be krona. Sweden’s neighbor, Norway, is seeing the krone continue to weaken, after the comments from the Norges Bank last week about how they need a weaker krone. I don’t believe that I’ve seen krone this weak since before the weak dollar trend began in 2002. We’ll see some data prints from Canada this week, but they will take a back seat to everything else that’s going on . The currencies are mixed this morning, but none of the moves are huge, as it appears everyone is on the edge of their seat waiting for Europe to implode, which in my mind isn’t going to happen. So, maybe some reversals as the week goes on should things go as I think they will… The U.S. data cupboard just has Pending Home Sales data for May to print today, but the cupboard will heat up as the week goes on. I’m in no mood to talk about the Jobs Jamboree yet, because I’ll just get myself all in a bad mood about “adjustments” and cooked books. Maybe tomorrow, but definitely by Thursday when the Jobs Jamboree will take place! In the meantime we’ll also see factory orders for May, which will print negative again, I’m sure of that. And the ISM data for June. So, it will be a busy week with data prints folks. And we know that weak data prints has been the dollar’s kryptonite lately. Well, everybody is “confident”, eh? That’s what the media would have you believe, given their reporting of the U. of Michigan Confidence survey that printed Friday, and showed their index increased to 96.1 from 94.6 in the previous print… And like I told you Friday, they don’t come to my house to survey me, or in the office here, or even at my favorite watering hole, the FBG. For if they did, I would be loaded for bear, and they wouldn’t be printing an increase in Consumer Confidence or Sentiment. I stand steadfast in my research, and my thought that the U.S. economy has never truly left the recession of 2008. To me, economic activity since 2009 has been a period of stagnation. But GDP shows there’s been economic growth. Really? How about in Final Sales, you know, the data set that probably does a better job of tracking economic growth in the U.S. Well, I hate to steal my Review & Focus’s thunder, but Final Sales here in the U.S. have averaged 1% growth since 2007. Now that’s what I call stagnation, don’t you? So, I checked with John Williams, over at www.shadowstats.com to see what he had to say, and he said that, “GDP simply remains the most worthless of the popular economic series, in terms of determining what really is happening to the U.S. Business Activity.” Did you know that President Lyndon Johnson used to review the GDP reports before the Commerce Dept. (CD) could release them? He would send them back, like you do an undercooked steak, to the CD and keep doing it until the CD “got it right”. Does that still go on? You have to wonder don’t you? I mean the 2nd QTR’s revision last week went from -0.7% to -0.2%… But never a reason why. Except that word again: “consumption.” So, anyway. I urge you all to make sure you check out the July Review & Focus when it prints, to see the section on the Final Sales data. Last Thursday, my friends, Dave Gonigam, and Addison Wiggin, talked about the Iraqi dinar in the 5 Minute Forecast, and they came to me for a story that I had shared with them. They also went back in time and quoted me regarding the dinar a few years ago, just to show new readers that they’ve been on top of this for some time now. Good for them, I say! But the thing I really wanted to talk about that was in the “5” that day was a discussion about Home Ownership in the U.S. Let’s listen in on the “5” to what they have to say here: The year was 1993. Apartheid was breathing its last in South Africa. The World Trade Center was bombed — the first time. Buffalo lost the Super Bowl — again. Little did anyone expect at the time that legions of Americans would start to become homeowners — a surge that continued for the following decade. Now in 2015, the U.S. homeownership rate is back where it was 22 years ago — below 64%. What’s more, “the trend does not appear to be abating,” says Chris Herbert, managing director of Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Many of the people who’ve fallen out of the homeownership ranks never really “owned” a home in the first place. They had mortgages, often more than one, but no equity. Then came the Panic of 2008. Chuck again. It appears that only the over-65 set has a homeownership rate that’s stayed stable the last decade. And the thing I don’t understand here is that rental costs grew 3.2% last year. That’s double the inflation rate! But, I guess the researchers at Harvard know the answer. They say that nearly half of all U.S. renters are “cost burdened” which means they shell out at least 30% of their income to their landlords, and in the end, have nothing to show for it. When I was a kid, people would say when greeting someone, “What’s up?” and the answer would be “nothing but the rent”. I guess they should bring that back, eh? This came to me from one of our dealer banks that we trade with, RBC, so I can’t send you to a link, but I’ll give you as much of their thoughts on this subject as I can. That subject is, that FX (currencies) is no longer, for the most part, trading as a part of the Risk On, Risk Off trading pattern. What, what? Do they mean, we’re getting back to fundamentals? YAHOO! Let’s see what they have to say here: FX is trading as an independent asset class to a degree that has not been seen since the pre-crisis era. Of 45 G10 GX pairs, only four now trade as general risk proxies. The few remaining FX risk proxies are all CHF (franc) crosses. With the dust settled on the SNB’s policy shift, CHF has reestablished itself as the markets’ choice save haven. More surprisingly, all of the JPY (yen) crosses now trade independently of general risk appetite. Yen’s loss of safe haven status is a huge change in market behavior and may not be sustainable. But for now, it removes one of the main obstacles to holding short yen positions. Chuck again. I think that when you read between the lines here, you get the sense that RBC believes that the Risk On, Risk Off crap that we’ve had to deal with in the currencies for 8 years now, is over. I welcome that with open arms. Fundamentals are what I understand, not sentiment. So, now maybe we can get back to making calls that makes sense on currencies because of their fundamentals! That’s it for today. I hope you have a marvelous Monday!
Chuck Butler P.S. The Daily Pfennig is first published everyday, right here. Editor's Note: Be sure to sign up for The Daily Reckoning — a free and entertaining look at the world of finance and politics. The articles you find here on our website are only a snippet of what you receive in The Daily Reckoning email edition. Click here now to sign up for FREE to see what you're missing. The post A Very Busy Week Ahead appeared first on Daily Reckoning. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gold and Silver Greece and Short Positions Posted: 29 Jun 2015 05:20 AM PDT Hedge funds and high-frequency traders have finally forced gold into a US dollar loss this year as shown in our introductory chart, but silver is still in positive territory. This week gold declined $29 with a break from the $1200 level to $1171, and silver fell 40 cents to $15.70 early this morning in European trade. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| China Resets The Currency Markets Posted: 29 Jun 2015 05:10 AM PDT The Chinese central bank is backing its Yuan with GOLD. This may set the Yuan as a “New Reserve Currency.” If this happens, a new order in global currencies will appear. This would attract new foreign capital. The rest of the world will view the Yuan as a real currency rather than a fiat currency. Creating the Yuan with a gold standard will surely make China more powerful and become a more influential world power. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Joe Rogan & NASA Physicist: We're Living in the Matrix Posted: 29 Jun 2015 03:00 AM PDT Joe Rogan, simulation theory, computer code, quantum physics, Duncan Trussell, Tom Campbell, Thomas Campbell, matrix, James Gates Jr., Neil DeGrasse Tyson, digital universe, multiverse, information, holographic universe, Chris Delamo The Financial Armageddon Economic Collapse Blog tracks... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit http://www.newsbooze.com or http://www.figanews.com for full links, other content, and more! ]]  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Greece BANKRUPT! Financial and Economic Collapse to Follow IMF Debt Default Posted: 29 Jun 2015 02:51 AM PDT Syriza government betrays Europe and the Greek people says angry EU President Juncker, by Syriza lying to its people on the truth of Greece's proposed bailout conditions and that he has no trust left in Tsipras. Juncker in blunt language made it clear that a NO vote on the 5th July referendum would mean that Greece will be kicked out of the euro-zone. “’No’ would mean, regardless of the final question, that Greece is saying no to Europe,” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jeb Handwerger: Fed Interest Rate Increase Could Be Best Thing to Happen to Gold Posted: 29 Jun 2015 01:00 AM PDT A true contrarian knows that when everyone says an interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve would kill stocks, that is the best time to double down on junior mining names. In this interview with The Gold Report, Gold Stock Trades author Jeb Handwerger shares the names of the companies he thinks could do well through the drill bit or by acquisition regardless of when the inevitable turnaround comes. |
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
“Force may make hypocrites, but it can never make converts.”
Not only did Governor Abbott of Texas announce they're going to build a new depository, he made sure in his press release, he said a gold and silver depository. That's important because silver is mentioned there, not just as an industrial metal, but it's in the same vein as a monetary metal. Texas has always been a little bit different, but I think different in a good way, because they believe in rights. Not only do they want their gold, they want their gold back on their own ground and they also stated that they're going to put some kind of bill where it cannot be confiscated from the federal government.
As we have been noting throughout 2015 thus far:
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