November 23 - Gold $491.90 down 50 cents - Silver $8.11 down 4 cents
The John Brimelow Report
Dubai's importance. Excellent LRC on Bernanke
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Indian ex-duty premiums: AM $2.98, PM $2.60, with world gold at $491.35 and $488.75. Adequate for legal imports. Indian buying must be conceded to have tolerated gold’s $35 rise since early this month rather well, and can be expected to intensify on any pull back.
The Dubai Gold Exchange appears to have traded a mere 125 contracts today – the equivalent of only 40 Comex lots. Nevertheless, this entity has great possibilities. If enough capital is attracted to it, the owners of the immense fabricator pipeline of bullion in India and the Middle East could be able to lay off some of their inventory risk. This in turn could make them more willing to hold metal. The Exchange also appears to be anticipating participants taking delivery. If this materializes, Dubai could serve as a valuable price discovery mechanism for Middle East gold appetite. Currently this is an obscure topic, and difficult to follow.
I think the Dubai Gold Exchange may be a more important development than the Gold ETFs. (GLD is showing a little life at present, increasing its gold holdings twice in the past week, by 6.19 tonnes to 221.23 tonnes, a record.)
Japan was closed today. Given the dip-buying propensities of the TOCOM public, and their recent interest in gold, the Bears may find the next couple of days in Asia hard on the nerves.
Reuters carries a story datelined Singapore reporting that sales of gold bars have been seen in the region, and that kilo bars are now at parity with London compared to a 10-40c premium a week ago. Given the abrupt rise in gold, it is surprising they are not at a discount.
Comex on Tuesday traded 159,501 lots, 86,000 net of switches on Tuesday. Gold was essentially beaten down from the levels it achieved in Asian and European trading, although of course the Comex close was up $3.40 on Monday. Open interest was up only 966 lots.
ScotiaMocatta said of Tuesday in NY:
"Short covering entered the market…taking the yellow metal up to a session high of 494.00/494.50. Dealers became aggressive sellers at this point…"
and Mitsui-London observed
"Investment banks were on the sell side while funds were buying Feb and rolling their longs as well."
Given their clear behavior pattern, it must be assumed the ECB group of Central Banks is selling heavily right now. Perhaps this will intimidate the Western Specs who have obviously entered the market: the crucial Indian and Middle Eastern buyers will not be moved.
A solid reason for Western interests not to be deterred from gold stems of course from contemplating the reputation of the incoming Fed Chairman, Ben Bernanke, especially in the light of the peculiar M3 abolition decision. This matter has seen its first significant MSM discussion. John Crudele in the NY Post has to my mind a very reasonable comment:
http://www.nypost.com/business/58052.htm
while Bloomberg’s Caroline Baum has been deployed to do a hatchet job:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/…kHk&refer=columnist_baum#
An excellent essay on Bernanke’s record is posted today on Lew Rockwell’s paleolibertarian website. The author documents that there is good reason to suppose that the new Chairman believes it his duty (and right) to sustain Financial Asset bubbles by intervention. I think this is essential reading for gold’s friends:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blumen/blumen10.html
A happy Thanksgiving to all my friends. I intend to publish on Friday.
JB