Nearly six years after the financial crisis and its massive bailout, it looks like business as usual by the bankers in RBS and in the City of London and Wall Street ... The smart money is either continuing to accumulate physical or transporting already purchased bullion from storage in the U.S., Canada, Europe and other western countries to storage in Asia.
The Financial Times no less, warns its readers that they should act like the mighty German Bundesbank and "demand physical gold." The FT also added that gold price manipulation could end in tears.
Throughout history, gold has flowed to where it is most favourably treated ... Singapore is now one of the safest places in the world to store gold. See the Essential Guide To Storing Gold In Singapore
Often “a picture paints a thousand words” and the seven key gold charts below should make gold bears nervous. As the charts show, such sentiment, price action and oversold conditions tend to coincide with major lows in gold and silver prices and multi month price gains.
The Supply demand fundamentals of the gold market remain sound with the flow of gold from West to East. COMEX gold stocks have fallen to new record lows (see chart) showing demand for physical bullion remains very robust. Indeed, the scale of the fall in COMEX gold stocks since 2007 and which accelerated in early April 2013 is important to note.
The Baltic Dry Index, a measure of commodity-shipping rates, has collapsed 39% in just the nine trading days of 2014. It has fallen from 2277 at the end of December 2013 to 1370 today (see chart). This key indicator of global economic health is a warning signal for the global economy in 2014.
Increasing demand for U.S silver coins is set to send silver premiums higher. The premium charged by wholesale dealers for American Eagle coins from the U.S Mint may rise from 14%. The mint has said that weekly allocations will be reduced despite very strong demand so far this month and record sales in 2013.
The Perth Mint's Bron Suchecki has written an interesting blog post regarding the real risk of gold coin shortages and rationing happening again. This is another reason why if you are considering buying coins or bars for delivery or bullion storage in Zurich or Singapore, it is best not to wait. "Don't wait to buy gold and silver. Buy gold and silver and wait".
Simplistic, subjective and unbalanced anti-gold opinions tend to get media coverage. However, it is important to always focus on the empirical evidence as seen in the academic research, price performance over the long term and the historical record.
Gold is slightly higher today but lower this week. Investor sentiment remains extremely bearish but physical buyers continue to accumulate at these low prices. The UK Royal Mint has run out of 2014 British gold sovereigns due to unprecedented demand.
There are a number of reasons that silver should revert to the long term historical mean but the two primary ones are the fact that geologically in the earths crust there are fifteen parts of silver to every one part of gold. The other reason is that silver is used in many industrial, technological and medical devices and applications today and since the Industrial Revolution a huge amount of silver has been used up. Silver is like oil in that respect, and unlike gold, a lot of silver has been consumed and is gone forever.
The flash crash had the hallmarks of price manipulation. In order to protect investors and the integrity of markets, regulators internationally should again investigate the gold futures market where such manipulation appears to be taking place nearly on a weekly basis now.
Unstable eurozone states are particularly vulnerable to default because they no longer have their own sovereign currencies, putting them in a similar position as emerging countries that borrowed in U.S. dollars in the 1980s and 1990s.
2013 Was A Year Of Calm In The World Of Finance ... 2014 May Not Be So Calm ... Highlights Of Year - German Gold Repatriation, Record Highs In Yen, Huge Chinese Demand - Lowlights Of Year - Massive Paper Sell Offs in April/June and First Deposit Confiscation and Capital Controls ...
