Gold fell 28% in 2013, while silver recorded a 36% decline. It was gold’s first annual drop since 2000 and gold and silver’s worst performance since 1981 and 1984 respectively.
Gold was trading near four month lows today after its biggest drop in seven weeks yesterday. Another bout of peculiar concentrated selling led to Comex halting trading in December gold futures twice yesterday, the fourth time in less than 3 months.
Ron Paul spoke with Bloomberg television and said that we are in a currency war and we have been for decades. He noted that governments have always competed against each other’s currencies even under Bretton Woods.
Gold is little changed today in pound, euro and dollar terms after the Bank of England and the ECB kept interest rates at record low levels. Ultra loose monetary policies continue.
Gold imports into mainland China from Hong Kong almost doubled to new high in 2012 as Chinese people continue to play catch up in terms of gold ownership. The Chinese were forbidden from owning gold for over 50 years.
In response to a question from Yale University’s Robert Shiller querying the recommendation to hold gold, Faber said: “I’m prepared to make a bet, you keep your U.S. dollars and I’ll keep my gold, we’ll see which one goes to zero first.”
Germany’s central bank will repatriate part of its $200 billion gold reserves stored in vaults in the Federal Reserve in New York and the Banque de France in Paris. It is believed that the Bundesbank may have repatriated the gold in order to be prepared for a systemic crisis and currency crises.
The U.S. Senate voted 94-0 on Nov. 30 to approve new sanctions against Iran, closing gaps from previous measures, including trade in precious metals. Obama, who opposes the move on the grounds it may undercut existing efforts to rein in the nation’s nuclear ambitions, signed an executive order in July restricting gold payments to Iranian state institutions.
Last week Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan has revealed a critical detail about a widely discussed Turkey-Iran gold trade boom, disclosing that the Islamic republic was exporting gas to Turkey in exchange for payment in gold bullion.
CME Group declared a force majeure at one of its New York precious metals depositories yesterday, run by bullion dealer and major coin dealer Manfra, Tordella and Brooks (MTB), due to “operational limitations” posed by Hurricane Sandy.
Gold inched lower on Wednesday despite Greece's lenders being unable to agree on a debt deal, but support for bullion remains due to the very uncertain economic backdrop and global central bank’s loose monetary policy stance.
The Chairman and President of the Shanghai Gold Exchange told the LBMA gathering that the Shanghai Gold Exchange will launch an interbank market early next month that will initially begin with spot contracts and will gradually offer forward contracts.
Gold rose for a third day yesterday after confirmation that President Barack Obama won re- election, while stock markets fell sharply and treasuries headed for the biggest advance in 11 weeks.
After the US Fed’s QE1, (December 2008-March 2010) silver rocketed 53%, almost twice the jump as gold, and for QE2, (ending June 2011) silver rose 24%. Morgan Stanley predicts that silver will again return more than gold after QE3 was announced this September.
The Bundesbank won't let German parliament members inspect the German gold vaulted abroad because the central bank vaulting facilities supposedly lack "visiting rooms."
Gold edged down on Monday, as pressure from speculators exiting long positions and continued concern about the health of the global economy dampened interest.
The EU must now agree on the structure that makes the ECB (European Central Bank) the main supervisor by January 1st. This new system was created to break the link between banks and governments at the root of the zone’s financial crisis and will roll out in the next year and expect to cover all 6,000 eurozone banks by January 2014.
