Thai Guru's Gold und Silber ... (Informationen und Vermutungen)

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Rohstoffe
Der Dollar steigt - und Gold verliert an Glanz

07. Januar 2005 Zum Wochenschluß ist der Dollar den sechsten Tag in Folge gegenüber dem Euro gestiegen. Und das Kursplus fiel am Freitag besonders kräftig aus: Der Euro verlor bis zum frühen Abend 1,12 Prozent auf 1,3031 Dollar. In dieser Region hatte er zuletzt Mitte November sich bewegt. Seit dem Ende Dezember markierten Rekordhoch von 1,362 Dollar hat die europäische Gemeinschaftswährung fast fünf Prozent an Wert verloren.

Da der Goldpreis zumeist mit dem Euro läuft, geht die kurzfristige Aufwertung der Weltleitung am dem Edelmetall nicht spurlos vorüber: Gold hat am Freitag weiter nachgegeben und kurz vor Handelsschluß in Europa den tiefsten Stand seit elf Wochen erreicht. Am frühen Abend kostete die Unze 417,30 Dollar. Seit dem 27. Dezember ist ein Kursverlust von 6,4 Prozent aufgelaufen. Im Zuge dessen ist Gold aus dem seit Ende Juli aufgebauten kurzfristigen Aufwärtstrend gelaufen. Nun droht der Fall unter die Unterstützung bei 415 Dollar. Ein starker Dollar macht das in der amerikanischen Devise angeschriebene Gold für Investoren außerhalb des Dollar-Raums teurer.

Gold-Händler: Wir sind derzeit Sklaven der Währungen

Das offizielle Fixing des Goldpreises in London erfolgte am Nachmittag bei 422,20 Dollar nach 423,15 Dollar am Vormittag und 424,35 Dollar am Donnerstagnachmittag. Händler führten die nach den Rekordständen gegen Jahresende anhaltenden Gewinnmitnahmen und die am späten Nachmittag einsetzende Erholung des Dollar als Begründung für den anhaltenden Kursverfall bei Gold an. Die amerikanische Devise litt vorübergehend unter dem im Dezember geringer als erwarteten Stellenzuwachs in Amerika, erholte sich dann aber auch auf Grund der Kommentare von Finanzminister John Snow, wonach die Vereinigten Staaten ihre Defizitprobleme angehen wollten.

„Wir sind derzeit Sklaven der Währungen", sagte ein Händler. Ein anderer erklärte, daß unter 419 Dollar Stopp-Loss-Verkäufe eingesetzt hätten, mit denen Anleger ihre Verluste begrenzen wollten. Ein von Reuters befragter Edelmetallanalyst will weitere Verluste bei Gold nicht ausschließen, hält die Schwäche aber für kurzlebig. Sie sei eher ein Einbruch als eine Umkehrung der Gold-Rally der vergangenen Jahre. Die fundamentale Dollar-Schwäche dürfte nicht überwunden sein und eine Rückkehr der Weltleitwährung zu einem Abwärtstrend könnte Gold bis Jahresende auf 480 Dollar hieven.

Goldpreis könnte mittelfristig wieder steigen

Mit Blick auf die weitere Entwicklung des Goldpreises lautet die wesentliche Frage: Wird sich der Dollar weiter erholen? Der Dollar könnte seine seit drei Jahren andauernde Talfahrt im Vergleich zum Euro in diesem Jahr beenden, mutmaßt Bloomberg News. Stephen Jen, Devisenstratege von Morgan Stanley, verweist auf die Ankündigung weiterer Zinserhöhungen in Amerika, die den Zinsvorsprung vor Europa vergrößerten und amerikanische Staatsanleihen attraktiver machten. Zum Vorteil des Dollar. „Wenn die amerikanische Notenbank Fed die Leitzinsen von 2,25 Prozent auf drei Prozent erhöht und die Europäische Zentralbank bei zwei Prozent bleiben sollte, wirkt sich das auf die Währungen aus”, meint Jen.

Angesichts solcher Aussagen sollte aber nicht unbedingt auf eine nachhaltige Erholung des Dollar gewettet werden: 53 von Bloomberg News befragte Devisenstrategen sehen die amerikanische Devise zum Jahresende bei 1,34 Dollar je Euro. Das ist zwar höher als zum Jahresende 2004, vor dem die Experten befragt wurden, aber niedriger als derzeit. Für den Goldpreis müßte dies gemäß der üblichen Wechselwirkung mit dem Euro bedeuten, daß es mittelfristig wieder aufwärts geht.

Aus technischer Sicht wäre ein Fall unter die Marke von 415 Dollar jedoch ein weiteres kurzfristiges Verkaufssignal. Bei einem Rutsch unter 410 Dollar wäre der seit einem Jahr geltende Aufwärtstrend perdu, der langfristige positive Trend aber erst bei weniger als 385 Dollar. Dessenungeachtet sind Wetten auf Gold aus europäischer Sicht ein zweifelhaftes Vergnügen: Kursgewinne beim Edelmetall wurden im vergangenen Jahr durch die Dollarabwertung aufgefressen. Und Goldaktien-Fonds verloren sogar durch die Bank weg an Wert (Mit Gold gab es 2004 auf Euro-Basis nichts zu verdienen).
http://www.faz.net/s/Rub3B5979…Tpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html

07.01.2005 Michael Vaupel - EMFIS - http://emfis.com

Bei den Rohstoffpreisen hat es nochmals deutlich gekracht! Sie sind allgemein zurückgekommen. Wirkliche Gründe gibt es dafür nicht. Ölhändler verweisen auf den "ungewöhnlich milden Winter an der US-Ostküste", der die Heizölnachfrage dort geringer als erwartet ausfallen lässt. Als Begründung für einen Preisrückgang durch die Bank bei den Rohstoffen ist mir das allerdings deutlich zu mager.

In solchen Fällen, in denen die Rohstoffpreise ungerechtfertig verprügelt werden, empfehle ich sehr gerne den Einstieg. Im Hinblick auf zukünftige Gewinne sind solche Korrekturen im Bullenmarkt sehr gute Kaufgelegenheiten. Bei welchen Rohstoffen genau?

Am liebsten bei denen, bei denen die Nachfrage über dem Angebot liegt, und bei denen der Preis dennoch besonders stark zurückgegangen ist.

Ein Beispiel dafür ein Edelmetall: Silber. Hier ist der Preis deutlich gefallen – dabei sprechen die Fundamentals eindeutig für steigende Notierungen. Ich nenne Ihnen ein paar Fakten:

Über 90 % des gesamten Silbers, das in den letzten 5.000 Jahren aus der Erde geholt worden ist, ist von der Industrie verbraucht worden. Es ist damit für immer weg!

Jedes Jahr geht das Angebot an Silber um 200 Millionen Unzen zurück. Schockierend genug: Alle bekannten Silberlagerbestände liegen bei nur noch 150 Millionen Unzen. Und die Industrie verlangt fast 900 Millionen Unzen pro Jahr.

Sehen Sie, was ich meine? Schon jetzt liegt die Nachfrage über dem Angebot – das Angebot sinkt – und die Lagerbestände würden nur die Nachfrage weniger Monate befriedigen können. Das ist doch die perfekte Kombination für steigende Notierungen! Ein Kauf bietet sich besonders dann an, wenn Sie in eine deutliche Korrektur hinein kaufen können ...

Also, mein Rat: Kaufen Sie sich ein Silber-Zertifikat, falls noch nicht geschehen! Und nicht ärgern, wenn Sie nicht den absoluten Tiefstkurs erwischt haben (das können ohnehin meist nur Lügner). Alternativ zum sofortigen Kauf legen Sie einfach ein Abstauberlimit in den Markt, denn Intraday-Durchsacker beim Silberpreis könnten durchaus noch einmal vorkommen. Mit einem Abstauberlimit würden Sie für einen solchen Fall auf der Lauer liegen.

Viele Grüße,

Michael Vaupel

Quelle: Goldinvest.de

Der Goldpreis ist zusammen mit dem Dollar in wenigen Tagen deutlich gefallen. Hat die EZB die schwachen Handelstage in der ersten Januarwoche für eine 'heimliche' Intervention genutzt, Dollar gekauft und den Euro auf ca. 1,3 $ gedrückt? Den Währungsspekulanten ein's auf die Mütze gegeben?

Für die SA Goldminen war es (überproportinal) erholsam, der Rand hat sich ebenso abgeschwächt.

Gruß, Unlimited

PS: Kann man irgendwo nachprüfen, ob die EZB aktiv war?

Quanto oder nicht Quanto ist wiedermal die Frage...

Das ists was ich irgendwie nicht mag an den Edelmetallinvestments.... die ewige Währungsunsicheheit mit dem Dollar.

Also Quanto oder was?
Wolfgang

January 7 – Gold $418.40 down $2.10 – Silver $6.41 unchanged

US Power Structure Appears To Be Nearing Panic Mode

"We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times." -- George Washington

GO GATA!

When I retired for the evening, gold had recovered from Thursday’s Comex shelling to go up $2. Those gains held and were improved upon at the London Fix with gold at $423.15. By the time Comex opened and veteran traders knowing how the drill works (there was no way gold would leave a gap going into the highly anticipated US jobs report), it fell back to unchanged.

When that report was announced, slightly disappointing as to expectations, gold rallied nearly $4 when the bums showed up again. Locals and other traders, seeing the obvious capping of the rally, jumped in on the short side and took gold all the way back down. In addition to the locals, the funds turned massive sellers after the early rally, blowing gold through $420 and touching off even more stops. The "trade" stepped back, buying only gradually on the way down, "waiting for the last of the indiscriminate selling to hit the pits.” As the selling dried up later in the day, and after gold fell to $416.10, the trade became slightly more aggressive and joined the locals on the buy side.

While gold was trashed, silver balked at going lower all session long and the gold/silver shares held much of their early gains until late in the day.

Meanwhile, the dollar, which weakened on the jobs report, soared in one of the more obvious market manipulations in years. For reasons I will get into, the subtle evidence reveals a US power structure apparently going into a bit of a panic mode. As an example of increasing desperation, the Bush Administration trotted out Charlie McCarthy Snow again with his standard recorded message, timed almost perfectly to coincide with the dollar rally:

US wants to support strong dollar, cut deficit-Snow

WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - The United States supports a strong dollar and wants to "do things", including cutting its deficit, to support the currency's strength, Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Friday.

"Our policy is a strong dollar, we support the strong dollar, a strong dollar is in our national interest. We want to do things to sustain the strength of the dollar, among them is going to the Congress to work on the deficit, to bring the deficit down," Snow told CNBC television.

"By doing that we generate more savings in the United States, and that will help us deal with the fundamentals of the economy in a way that is beneficial," Snow said, adding that making tax cuts permanent was also necessary to keep the economy on a strong growth path.

-END-

Right on cue Snow comes out with the same laughable presentation he repeats over and over again. The only action the US has taken so far to support its strong dollar policy is rig the gold price – their ole standby. Curiously, apart from this covert activity, the prospects for US economic and stock market health is deteriorating, which should stunt the US dollar from going too much higher.

For weeks my focus has been on the big picture; that the situation in Iraq would disintegrate so badly it would have a significant impact on the US financial markets, and when it became apparent the US would make little, if any, progress on solving our US deficit problems, the dollar would resume its downtrend and break its 1995 lows - perhaps creating some chaotic market conditions.

If this is so, the US stock market should be belted and gold ought to take off again, this time for a myriad of reasons, with The Gold Cartel gradually losing control of their rig as gold rallies on more than on just dollar weakness.

The scorecard on this sort of analysis improved substantially this week, despite the orchestrated drop in the price of gold:

The US is in DEEP trouble in Iraq. Nine US soldiers alone killed yesterday. As mentioned often in December and as the Iraqi elections draw closer, the failure of our efforts there will become apparent to all. The Denialists will have to take a hike.

This is just what is occurring:

January 7, 2005

MILITARY POLICY

Rumsfeld Seeks Broad Review of Iraq Policy
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - The Pentagon is sending a retired four-star Army general to Iraq next week to conduct an unusual "open-ended" review of the military's entire Iraq policy, including troop levels, training programs for Iraqi security forces and the strategy for fighting the insurgency, senior Defense Department officials said Thursday.

The extraordinary leeway given to the highly regarded officer, Gen. Gary E. Luck, a former head of American forces in South Korea and currently a senior adviser to the military's Joint Forces Command, underscores the deep concern by senior Pentagon officials and top American commanders over the direction that the operation in Iraq is taking, and its broad ramifications for the military, said some members of Congress and military analysts.

In another sign that the Iraq campaign is forcing reassessments of Pentagon policies, Army officials are now considering whether to request that the temporary increase of 30,000 soldiers approved by Congress be made permanent. One senior Army official said Thursday that the increase is likely to be needed on a permanent basis if the service is to meet its global commitments - despite the additional cost of $3 billion per year….

-END-

If this is what the Bush Administration and neo-cons are forced to put out for public consumption, you have to wonder what is really going on behind the scenes. My bet is the US military is near mutiny because so many of their troops are being killed and wounded with no end in sight and with a good number wondering why they are there in the first place. Not mutiny in the classic sense, but with so many of the troops part-time warriors, the dissent must be boiling in the military bureaucracy, most significantly among a fair percentage of highly regarded generals. Who can help but reflect on the fact that those in the Bush Administration who challenged the President and neo-cons over the cost of the war and amount of troops needed to achieve strategic objectives were FIRED? Yet, they were right. Those who challenged the notion of going to war so quickly because of doubts about Iraq’s WMDs were ignored too. They were right on that score also. Now we are stuck over there with no easy, or graceful, way out.

When it comes to the economy, the manipulation of the truth is just as egregious. This is what the Labor Department came out with this morning:

08:30 Nov. nonfarm payrolls revised to +137K from +112K
* * * * *

08:30 Dec. nonfarm payrolls reported 157K vs. consensus +175K; unemployment rate 5.4% vs. consensus 5.4%
* * * * *

On closer inspection, the real numbers are remarkably different. From the ever vigilant Jesse:

Net out, we lost about 180,000 jobs in December

If one looks at the link you can see one of the tables from the 'back of the book' of the BLS.

Take a look at just the top line, labeled "Total Non-farm." You have to look at the dates above carefully. Under non-seasonal, look at December 2004 and November 2004. You can see that in November there were 133,207 (in millions) and in December there were 133,027. That's a loss of 180,000 jobs.

Ok, so we made it up in seasonality which is where the headline number came from. But if you look at what they did for seasonality for last year, it doesn't make any sense because last year the adjustment was mildly down.

The rest of it is hard to figure out just from this one table and they don't make it easy to find the non-seasonalized data for comparison. In another table I found that they went back and adjusted every month in 2003 DOWN, on average, about 100,000 jobs!

Can you believe these guys?

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t14.htm-

-END-

If all that weren’t bad enough, the US wage picture deteriorated:

08:30 Dec. avg. hourly earnings +0.1% vs. consensus 0.2%
Average weekly hours 33.8, in-line with consensus.
* * * * *

This is important as more and more stories are surfacing how the US consumer is beginning to wilt as he/she is falling further behind due to real US inflation. Pile on top of that a consumer who is tapped out debt-wise, and you have a recipe for a major economic slowdown in 2005.

Has it started?

U.S. economy gauge fell in latest week

NEW YORK, Jan 7 (Reuters) - A leading index of the U.S. economy fell in the latest week, due to higher jobless claims and rising bond yields. The decline was partly offset by higher stock prices.

The Economic Cycle Research Institute, an independent forecasting group, said its weekly leading index (WLI) fell to to 131.4 in the week ended Dec. 31 compared with an upwardly revised 133.8 in the previous week….

-END-

More evidence the US consumer is hitting the wall:

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--U.S. consumers unexpectedly scaled back their borrowing in November by the biggest amount ever, the first decline in consumer credit outstanding in a year, the Federal Reserve said Friday. Consumer credit outstanding fell by a record $8.7 billion in November to $2.085 trillion. That follows a revised $9.5 billion rise in October to $2.094 trillion, originally reported as a $7.7 billion increase. The November consumer credit drop was unexpected by Wall Street economists, who had forecast a $6.0 billion rise in consumer credit in November. Consumer credit data tend to be highly volatile from month to month and are frequently revised.

-END-

The following is an excerpt from an article in today's Asia Times which offers a more sophisticated, in-depth look at what problems the US is facing, ones which the power structure wants to be kept as quiet as possible:

THE NAKED HEGEMON Part 1: Why the emperor has no clothes
By Andre Gunder Frank

Uncle Sam has reneged and defaulted on up to 40% of its trillion-dollar foreign debt, and nobody has said a word except for a line in The Economist. In plain English that means Uncle Sam runs a worldwide confidence racket with his self-made dollar based on the confidence that he has elicited and received from others around the world, and he is a also a deadbeat in that he does not honor and return the money he has received.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/GA06Dj01.html

-END-

Then, we have another motive for the flagrant propping up of the dollar and trashing of the price of gold. From a fellow Café member:

hi bill-
yes the mkt. is miserable. i'm wondering if it has anything to do with the upcoming meeting in feb. of the G7.

to qoute the Privateer:

"France's Finance Minister Gaymard said the fall of the US Dollar could become "catastrophic" in world terms. Mr Gaymard said the US now "absolutely" had to understand that at the G-7 meeting of Finance Ministers which takes place in February, "coordinated" international management was needed. France has drawn a line in the sand. It would not have done so without global backing.

The Bush Administration has until February and that G-7 meeting - or - the world takes the money away."

maybe you have heard something in this regard.
rwh

MARKET ACTION MAKES MARKET COMMENTARY. This old tried and true saying reveals its right-on colors once again. Since there is little of meaningful substance the US can do to about our fiscal problems in the short-term, it clearly reverted to what it does best these days, MANAGE the markets. Years ago now, gold broke HIGHER before the dollar followed suit on the downside. It was trading just below 120 at the time. This time gold broke lower first, followed by the dollar moving up. The US is going all out to change the perception about the dollar ahead of this meeting, doing what it can to diffuse the issue prior to its convening.

The degree of the manipulation today was confirmed by the bond action. If the wimpish jobs report was so dollar friendly and bullish for the US economy, why did bond yields not rise after a turbulent session? March 30-year bonds finished the day basically unchanged at 112 1/8:

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/TR/35

The gold open interest continues to disappear, falling another 4652 contracts to 290,090.

The COT report released after the close revealed a 30,000 contract swing commercial reduction in their net short positions, sizeable, but not as much as I expected. With gold tanking three sessions since then, we have probably had another 20,000+ reduction added.

The silver open interest gained 331 contracts to 96,857.

Here is some good cheer. The silver stocks fell a fair amount for the second day in a row, to the tune of 449,670 ounces to 102,890,317. If silver is as tight around the world as our sources are reporting, this is just what should occur. A move below 100 million ounces would be significant.

The inflation/versus deflation discussion continues to make the rounds. The CRB is trading plus or minus 280, off its 291+ high. Can’t see commodity inflation topping out anytime soon. Oil was over $46 per barrel at one point today and the grain/soybean complex looks like it is completing a massive base.

It could not be clearer that the lynchpin of the US strong dollar policy is to aggressively rig and suppress the price of gold. On November 23rd the euro was 130.79, which is just where it is today. Gold on that date was $449.

Then, if you look at the bond, dollar and S&P charts, you will find the bond and stock markets are in the midst of broad sideways patterns (virtually going nowhere on a net basis over the past many weeks/months) and dollar mid-range to its activity over that period of time. ONLY GOLD has moved sharply in one direction on a net basis, that being down, WAY DOWN.

The dollar, up .36 to 83.72
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/US/35

Continuous gold chart
http://jessel.100megsfree3.com/GoldPF.jpg

March S&P
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/SP/35

The John Brimelow Report

Huge Comex liquidation = Selling climax?

Friday, January 07, 2005

Indian ex-duty premiums: AM $7.24, PM $7.15, with world gold at $422.50 and $423. Ample for legal imports. Both the rupee and the Bombay Stock Exchange elected to close the week on an uptick: the former was quite volatile today, making the task of Indian arbitrage operators difficult.

Shanghai Gold Exchange premiums continued high: over $3 on relatively heavy volume. Reuters reports that

"In our time zone, we are seeing good physical demand," said Bruce Ikemizu, head of bullion trading at Mitsui and Co in Tokyo.
TOCOM today traded the equivalent of 33,346 Comex lots (+55%), with world gold edging up 90c from NY to go out at $421.40. Open interest rose the equivalent of 866 Comex lots. Mitsubishi yesterday, (belatedly available) reported that the general public long had risen some 12 tonnes this week, so maybe there is some accumulation on this exchange.

Comex yesterday traded a heavy 73,327 contracts, with open interest falling again, by 4,561 contracts (14.47 tonnes) to 290, 091. Since peaking on December 28 Comex has shed 126.4 tonnes of open interest – 40,629 contracts. Even making the implausible assumption that there has been no short selling (which of course bolsters open interest) there has been a furious and unsustainable selling pace set in the past few days. Largely because of this, both The Gartman Letter and Mitsui’s Andy Smith, in different ways key spokesmen for the Bears, were envisaging an up day today.

Perhaps the most salient observation to be made about today’s action is that gold in Euros has stopped going down. So maybe we have seen the zenith of the ambitions of the Bears.

In a piece this morning on CBSMarketWatch, Mark Hulbert remarked:

"As of Thursday night's close, the HGNSI stood at negative 23.2%, which means that the average gold timer in this group is actually net short the market….over the past month, the gold market exposure of the average gold timing newsletter has dropped by more than 100 percentage points. That's more than just an orderly retreat. That's a veritable rush to the exits…the average gold timing newsletter that the HFD tracks is now more bearish than at any time since late 1997, more than seven years ago."

See
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/new…4%7D&dist=rss&siteid=mktw

As with the physical market premiums, one can only note this is not the behaviour of a cresting gold market.

JB

CARTEL CAPITULATION WATCH

The DOW fell late, dropping 19 to 10,603. The DOG also fell late, but only lost 1 to 2088. A couple of points to highlight:

*The US stock market could not hold gains all week long; not good.
*For the first week of the year, the market performance over the last five trading sessions is very disappointing to the bulls.

The constructive news and administrative moves to boost the market are long-gone to fading fast. What lies ahead is ugly. If the US takes the necessary steps to respond to foreign nation's insistence we get our financial house in order for them to continue to finance our deficits, the US economy will be jolted. If the US refuses to comply, the dollar will really tank. Once the momentum crowd turns aggressively on this market, look out below!

Here is a bit of a shocker:

"For the first time ever, the U.S. does not rank among the world's 10 freest economies in the Index of Economic Freedom, published annually by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal." http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=100330

Freedom's Top 10

AccountingWEB.com - Jan-6-2005 - For the first time ever, the U.S. does not rank among the world's 10 freest economies in the Index of Economic Freedom, published annually by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S.' score in the 2005 Index did not change from 2004. But improvements in the economies of Chile, Australia and Iceland enabled all three to surpass the U. S., leaving it in a tie for 12th with Switzerland and out of the top 10 for the first time in the 11-year history of the Index.

"The United States is resting on its laurels while innovative countries around the world are changing their approaches and reducing their roadblocks," said Marc Miles, a co-editor of the book, along with Ed Feulner and Mary Anastasia O'Grady. "The U.S. is eating the dust of countries that have thrown off the 20th-century shackles of big government spending and massive federal programs."…

-END-

Can you imagine where the US would rank if the Heritage Foundation knew the degree to which the US is actually manipulating our financial markets in Orwellian fashion? Our ranking would sink to level of the Communist Chinese.

Rhody on jewelry and gold:

Hi Bill:
You asked yesterday if walking out of Tiffany's with high fashion gold jewelry, the stuff lost 40% of its value. I have kicked around in this field a bit so I can comfortably say that if you tried to re-sell gold jewelry priced retail at Tiffany's, you would receive only 10 to 20% of the gold melt value. High end jewelry retails sell their gold at 10 to 12 times melt. Downtown jewelers have mark ups of 8 times and low end retailers mark up about 4 to 6 times.

Your best buy is estate jewelry from antique dealers who used to mark up 3 times over melt but more recently one can find material at double melt, a real steal compared to your local jeweler. On occasion one can find an estate dealer who flips gold jewelry at a 7% spread, which is the same as most bullion dealers. I go to a coin dealer who sells me the stuff at spot. I have picked up $2500 gold watches for a few hundred dollars. One caution:

stay away from the 9 and 10 K stuff. It's so low grade it is no longer considered gold. One of the signs of increasing shortage in the gold market is the wholesale switch to low carat gold in the jewelry industry. Most retailers don't carry 14 ct or above gold anymore. Picking up gold and silver at scrap prices or below is sort of a hobby with me.

I agree with your sentiment here. Gold is money, not an industrial grade ornament. Debasing gold from money to an industrial commodity is one of the strategies of the CABAL. I might add, that jewelry fabricators provide underlying support for the entire leasing market in gold and silver, which makes sense given the high markups for jewelry. With threshold demand provided by these industrial consumers of gold, the lease market is made available for the CABAL's use during interventions.
Regards, Rhody.

-END-

The gold shares sold off again late, like they do almost every day. The XAU only rose .38 to 93.39, while the HUI rose 1.04 to 202.73. One positive is the shares have stopped retreating versus bullion. Gold was battered the past two days and the shares took it all in stride. Odds are they have bottomed.

There is no denying the technical damage done to gold has been extraordinary. The Gold Cartel’s efforts to bury gold holders and deflect investor interest in the West have worked. It will take some time to repair this damage if history is any judge. However, the market is extremely oversold. Both gold and silver are due for healthy bounces. Silver could keep on going.

GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!

MIDAS