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Currency Wars Intensify As Russia Buys 18.6 Tonnes Of Gold In June
Today’s AM fix was USD 1,307.50, EUR 972.84 and GBP 770.39 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,305.00, EUR 971.20 and GBP 768.55 per ounce.
Gold climbed $2.30 or 0.18% yesterday to $1,305.10/oz and silver rose $0.12 or 0.58% to $20.62/oz.
Gold rose 0.4% in London this morning after gold in Singapore traded sideways overnight. Futures trading volume continues to increase and was almost double the average for the past 100 days for this time of day, Bloomberg data shows.
Gold in U.S. Dollars - 50, 100, 200 Simple Moving Averages (Thomson Reuters)
Silver for immediate delivery rose 0.8% to $20.73 an ounce in London. Platinum was 0.1% lower at $1,486.82 an ounce. Palladium gained 0.3% to $883.63/oz and remains close to a 13 year nominal high of $889.75.
Geopolitical tension in Europe and in the Middle East is supporting gold. Israel's military pounded targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country should prepare for a long conflict in the Palestinian enclave, squashing any hopes of a swift end to 22 days of fighting.
Gaza residents reported heavy Israeli bombing in Gaza City. Israeli aircraft fired a missile at the house of a Hamas Gaza leader and flattened it before dawn. An Israeli military spokeswoman said 70 targets were struck in Gaza through the night. At least 30 people were killed in the assaults from air, land and sea, residents said, after a night of the most widespread attacks so far in the tiny enclave.
The new sanctions are set to inflame relations further. They are on “key sectors” of Russia’s economy, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said yesterday. Russia also signaled possible retaliation, announcing yesterday that it may ban imports of chicken from the U.S. and fruit from Europe because of concern about contamination.
Futures options expiration is over but we are not out of the woods yet and gold and silver could see more volatility this week ahead of key reports on gross domestic product on Wednesday and employment data on Friday. The Federal Reserve's chief policy making committee meets today and tomorrow and this could have another short term impact on prices.
Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Buy Gold - Bye Bye Petrodollar
Russia continues to aggressively accumulate gold reserves. Its gold holdings increased again in June as the crisis in the Ukraine and relations with the West deteriorated.
The Russian central bank officially increased its gold holdings by 16.8 tonnes to 1,094.8 tonnes in June, the IMF's International Financial Statistics report showed. In ounce terms, Russia increased its gold holdings by some 500,000 ounces, to 35.197 million ounces in June from 34.656 million ounces in May.
Russia recently became the world's fifth largest bullion holder after the United States, Germany, Italy and France.
Importantly, China’s gold holdings, the world’s biggest store of wealth buyer of gold, haven’t been updated since March, 2009 and remain at just 33.89 million ounces or 1,054.1 tonnes and just 1% of their huge foreign exchange reserves. More than five years later, it is likely that China’s reserves have doubled or trebled as they quietly corner the global physical gold market.
It is important to note that there remain doubts as to the integrity of the gold holdings of the U.S. and concerns that other countries national gold reserves could be encumbered, loaned or sold in the market. Indeed, the Bundesbank is having grave difficulty in having its gold reserves returned from the Federal Reserve in New York.
So far in 2014, Russia has now bought substantially more than their entire annual gold production of nearly 1,500,000 ounces.
Russia was not the only central bank to diversify foreign exchange reserves, primarily held in dollars, into gold. Allies of Russia also bought gold in June. The central banks of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, all Russian economic and military allies all accumulated gold in June.
Currency wars are set to intensify and the buying by the former Soviet states is another manifestation of this.
Russia’s foreign reserves fell $39 billion to $472 billion in June, data from the Russian central bank shows. Gold now accounts for 9.3% of the country’s reserves, according to the World Gold Council substantially less than the percentage of gold in fx reserves of the other leading gold owners.
Greece, Serbia, Mexico and Equador also diversifed and increased their gold reserves in June.
Turkey increased its holdings to 16.491 million ounces from 16.172 million ounces in May. It accepts gold in its reserve requirements from commercial banks and as payment from other sovereign nations such as Iran.
Germany, the second-biggest gold holder, lowered its holdings by a tiny 1,000 ounces to 108.805 million ounces from 108.806 million ounces.
Gold advanced the most in four months in June as fighting in Ukraine to Iraq and Israel boosted demand for a haven. Hedge funds and banks almost doubled net-long position in gold during June, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data show.
Gold’s safe-haven appeal is being driven by heightened tensions between Russia and the West over Ukraine and increasing concerns of financial and economic war and indeed of actual war.
Geopolitical risk in June likely prompted some central banks to further diversify their foreign exchange holdings and buy gold which is used to hedge against geopolitical, currency and credit risks.
Reserve Currencies In History - Dollar's Demise Cometh
Central banks continue to be buyers of gold at these attractive price levels. As sanctions, economic war and currency wars intensify we expect Russian and Russian ally buying of gold reserves and selling of dollars to intensify. Aggressive buying of gold and particularly silver by Russia will likely lead to defaults on the COMEX gold and silver futures exchanges and potentially an international monetary crisis.
See important guide to Currency Wars here Currency Wars: Bye, Bye Petrodollar - Buy, Buy Gold
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The American Gold Eagle has a total gold weight of 1oz, so that makes no difference if is 91%.. Its the exact same gold amount as any other coin, 1oz..
The Eagle is supposed to be alloyed with copper, but what is someone... oh I don't know... say any knock off shop in China you could shake a stick at... were to alloy it with much denser Tungsten. Same dimensions, same weight, but much less gold.
Purity maters, especially for import duties. If it's not 3 9's or better then you're holding the wrong metal <full stop>
Everyone who was going to buy, has bought their weapons. Only another false flag like SH and gov wrath over the false flag will bring on another small wave of buying. Lots of new pistols have come on the market to water down Rugers sales. I don't think the military's change to a new weapon will do anything as government insiders will know before it is announced and buy up the stock of the winner beforehand.
Even Sig Sauer is starting layoff's due to the market slowing down. Only blip was sanctions against Russian Arms and their was a rise in AK and Semi Auto shotguns that we will never see again in our lifetime. Ammo, one can never say they have enough.
The fat lady is still in the middle of her third aria.
russia's and china's gold holdings are massively greater than what you report. the usa has 0 gold unless you count gold plated tungsten as gold holdings. germany's gold is gone, gone, gone, and i wouldn't count on the italians to have any....this farticle is a total joke.
Bet the Vatican, Jesuits, and Knights of Malta have a lot of Gold. How else would KoM get a seat at the UN?
Like the Fort Knox situation for the states, there is the temple in India that is _supposed_ to hold north of $20B in precious assets and up to $1T in _possible_ assets, but they can't get past the superstition to open the main vault B.... Wonder if this "superstition" has something to do with finding a gold-plating machine in the hands of the previous custodian.... just like Knox, that gold is gonzo~
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padmanabhaswamy_Temple
Russia recently became the world's fifth largest bullion holder after the United States, Germany, Italy and France.
Agreed, I read that and had a good laugh. The U.S. is the largest holder of gold but it will take 7 years to give germany it's gold back?
Executive order 6102 version 2014 should help increase America's gold reserves.
beeeeeeeeeeecause most Americans have gold... like they did in 1930?
Let me see if I can find 5 Americans I work with who own gold...
P.S. don't hold your breath
Germany lowering it's holdings is one thing, but when Raphael Correa of Ecuador strikes a temporary swap for cash deal with Goldman I'm afraid the fix is so far in you can no longer see the head of the plunger. (Maybe it was for a get-out-of -jail-free pass for Julian Assange....worth a Billion in fiat). It's "play $ money ball or die." They are not empty threats but I definitely don't take kindly to them. I took my ball and left town. Wilson and I will live to play another day.
The games central bankers are playing in supporting their and other currencies has reached a dangerous level, we may be in the "red zone". Currencies are important chips in the commerce of government and the business of running a country.
History has shown that in the past both leaders and governments have fallen with the demise of their coin. If people lose faith in the system it could just come crashing down around our ears. At a time when billions of dollars can be traded in just the blink of an eye imagine how fast things could go to hell. More on this subject in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/01/currencies-games-in-danger-zone.h...
and tell us how your brother's sister's cousin makes 9000$ a week flogging porn videos on the internet
All are quiet with comments about this. The picture painted presents some fundamentals with strong market activity suggesting rising gold value; strangely those values are not readily apparent priced in dollars, wassup?
Thats a thousand tons more than the US has.
Ask youself:
Who would you rather have a beer with?
Putin or Obama?
I'm a US veteran, libertarian and prefer Vlad.
As our COBJ (Current Official Boogeyman du Jour) he's the best! Finally a snappy dresser!
Yeah and that jive stride to the teleprompter is cool too.
I'm talking about Putin I hope you know, not the Manchurian Lord and Savior.
The grass is always greener on the other side.
They can both go blow each other.
I am Chumbawamba.
I agree. Neither one is worth a shit.
At least Putin doesn't need two teleprompters.
He keeps the paper industry busy with those 5 x 8 cards. No way spyware will snoop on his thoughts before he announces them.
+1, I thank you for your service, regardless with the fact I don't agree with some of what our armed forces do, but still respect the men and women who give of thier time.
Vlad any day of the week, and Barry? Not if he and I were the last two people on earth.
How about if you, Barry and Reg were the last 3 people on earth?
I prefer to beeeeee by myselffffffffff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpzqQst-Sg8
Rational people, of course, despise the mindless thugs who carry out the regimes war crimes.
Piss off you barking mad fuck-wit.
Bitcoin , BTChez .......
So the first four holder of gold hold nothing, anybody know where the Dago's store their alleged stash?
Demand has not affected the prices for the last 3 years.
Until the black swan hits and the financial system blows up, the prices will continue to be "fixed".
What if... you setup a structure which dumped paper in the form of naked shorts in equal or greater amounts of actual physical purchased? What if you backed these naked shorts with securities that are worthless anyways, but the banks have to pretend are not as revaluing them would jeopardize their own similar holdings? Then what if, just what if, instead of actually paying out for those shorts, the securities were simply surrendered instead based on book value. If such a system were in place, it would allow for dumping of toxic assets in exchange for gold without impacting the price of gold until the securities were all dumped onto the bag holders, who in turn, pretend it's all worth something until they can't and the fed has to bail them out.
Why would they restrict themselves to equal amounts of Paper shorts VS real gold? Why not have 50-100 times more paper shorts? IE Fractional Reserve Paper Gold.
I believe that is what they are doing. It solves the fictional beef against not having enough gold to run an economy and keeps the price of gold down to remove competition for their own debt paper FRN.
I've been doing something very similar for years. I have been buying bullion for US dollars.
This spring and early summer and maybe even the winter - gas prices at the pump had been almost fixed. It seems liek only a couple of months ago, they were changing again. Did anyone notice that?
Stack accordingly.
Don't think of Russia going out and buying gold. Think of Russia as selling oil for gold.
Russia is such a huge land mass they can be doing what China does. Buy all the gold from national mines and issue roubles at some rate below spot. They have more resources they haven't even discovered.
You must have read Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book “The Grand Chessboard”. When he wrote the book he viewed Eurasia (Russia, China and the other countries of central Asia south of Russia and China) with its massive oil and natural gas supplies. as crucial to the Western economies. Further, in addition to its oil and natural gas, Russia has vast quantities of untapped minerals and other natural resources. Brzezinski stated that the U.S. has been the dominating force in central Asia, then added, “Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia—and America's global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained.” He meant China, but a revitalized Russia must be added to the equation. In a “nutshell”, Brzezinski’s view is: “For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia.” - more specifically, to “gain control of Central Asia, with its vast petroleum reserves”
However, Brzezinski recognized that the U.S. cannot rule the world forever. “America is too distant to be dominant in this part of Eurasia [the 'Eurasian Balkans'] but too powerful not to be engaged. All the states in the area view American engagement as necessary to their survival. Russia is too weak [not so true in 2014] to regain imperial domination over the region or to exclude others from it, but it is also too close and too strong to be excluded. Turkey and Iran are strong enough to be influential, but their own vulnerabilities could make the area unable to cope with both the challenge from the north and the region's internal conflicts. China is too powerful not to be feared by Russia and the Central Asian states, yet its very presence and economic dynamism facilitates Central Asia's quest for wider global outreach”. He continues, “It follows that America's primary interest is to help ensure that no single power comes to control this geopolitical space and that the global community has unhindered financial and economic access to it.”
Here Brzezinski was NOT suggesting that America can “gain control” of the region (as he said, it’s “too distant to be dominant”), but rather that the U.S should work to ensure that no one other power controls central Asia, either. In the years since the book was written, Russia and China have greatly increased their influence over central Asia and even over Europe through trade and Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas and oil. And more recently, Russia and China, with their ever-increasing holdings of physical gold (along with the other BRICS nations) now pose a threat to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money and credit creation and to the U.S. dollar as the world’s “reserve currency”.
Is it a surprise to anyone that the Western banks and the U.S. government (aided my the American media) are attempting to justify a war against Russia?
How about treasuries for gold brokered by BNP Paribas?
How much gold does Germany hold. . .er, "own" again?
Does that stat include all the gold, um, "held" by the NYFed?
I consider these "ownership" numbers complete bullshit until there's a real accounting.
As soon as they can figure out how to make nothing appear to be something, they will publish, err stage, a real accounting. Until then, here is Obama's birth certificate, proof of Russian agression, a lollypop, and something shiny. Please stop being angry all the time, for the children.
Pfeh. Heard it all before, player. A paper exchange can never default as long as there's more paper. And just in case they run out of paper, they invented electrons, and as far as I know you can't run out of those.
Can't you people come up with something original?
I am Chumbawamba.
EMP could make a real mess of digital money.........
Chummy I always wondered if some of the BRICS could buy paper gold right after these dumps occur and one day just walk into the Comex and demand physical (like a humungass amount of physical). Can there be an offset to prevent the crash.Are there limits on Comex demand?
Article takes a simple fact and extends suppositions into the realm of rubbish.
Russia's CB/Treasury has for many years, predictably purchased all of the gold mined in Russia.
Period.
Okay. Now that made sense.
Can't figure out which dumbass would have exported to Russia the 18.6 ton, unless...
The US ships their gold and silver to London what is wrong with that? Oh wait
If the intention were solely to cause problems it would be much easier to buy silver (or stop sales of palladium).
Why, because it is estimated there are only one billion ounces available worldwide, so at "rigged" prices of about $20 per ounce that's only $20bn for the whole world's supply.
Note the main article says "aggressive" russian buying, another subtle repeat of the russian aggressive meeme.
From the chart they've been steadily buying for the last six or seven years.
So has the US been "aggressivly buying" oil, trinkets, bullets... ?
Gotta admit I'm quite ignorant in these matters but something tells me that when the sellers of gold need more physical to sell, they just go and "liberate" some. Has anyone run that scenario?