Beiträge von Schwabenpfeil

14:01Fed's Beige Book reports that economy expanded at a moderate pace through 2/28
The Beige Book for the 3/22 meeting says that the economy expanded in all districts, and that prices for consumer goods were mixed but relatively flat. The report appears to be little change from recent Beige Books. Seeing little movement in stocks or bonds on the report.
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Gold demand news … The Gold Cartel’s worst nightmare – coming drainage of physical gold supply:

Jewellers spot gold in mainland
JIANG JINGJING,China Business Weekly staff
2005-03-09 09:43

"No diamond rings, no marriages."

That is how jewellery industry insiders describe the sector's market potential in China.

The jewellery sector has experienced double-digit growth which has coincided with the growth in China's economy and the rise in people's living standards in recent years.

Jewellery firms, from both the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, are seizing every opportunity to reinforce their positions in the market.

Chow Tai Fook, the largest jewellery producer in Hong Kong, plans to open 100-120 outlets in the Chinese mainland this year.

Chow Sang Sang, another famous Hong Kong brand, plans to open 40-60 outlets.

3D-Gold Jewelry said it plans to own 1,000 stores in 100 cities. The firm has opened 200 outlets in the past five years.

-END-

Industry, energy deals to boost Iran-Venezuela ties
By Pascal Fletcher

CARACAS, Venezuela, March 9 (Reuters) - Iran and Venezuela will sign investment projects this week to build a cement factory and a car assembly plant in the South American nation in a growing economic, political, and energy alliance between the two OPEC oil producers, officials said Wednesday.

More than a score of cooperation accords, including broad agreements in oil, gas and petrochemicals, will also be initialed during a three-day visit to Venezuela by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami which starts Thursday.

The visit risks raising U.S. hackles as President George W. Bush's administration has both countries under close scrutiny.

Washington accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge denied by Tehran. Ties between Venezuela and its biggest oil client, the United States, have also become tense as U.S. officials portray left-wing President Hugo Chavez as an authoritarian anti-U.S. troublemaker in Latin America.

Stoking fears that the longstanding multibillion dollar Venezuelan-U.S. energy marriage may be at risk, Chavez has sought alternative oil partners by recently signing supply and investment deals with Russia, China, Brazil and India.

Venezuelan officials said similar wide-ranging energy cooperation deals would be signed with Iran.

–END-

PS:

13:26 Venezuela's Chavez says OPEC has no current spare capacity -- Dow Jones
April WTI crude quoted last at $55.35.

That wasn’t enough for the day. The Orwellian spin machine is out in full force:

13:28 Chicago Fed Pres. Moskow says policy still accommodative; rates can rise at measured pace
Nothing incremental in his comments. Moskow says must be vigilant regarding inflation pressures, but sees little evidence that long-term inflation expectations have risen.
* * * * *

Very reassuring Moskow. Your nonsense reads like it came from Moscow!

The geopolitical agenda of the US is becoming clearer by the day. There is a worldwide hunt to secure natural resources. Everyone knows how China is scouring the earth securing supply. So are other countries. Worse, the US in its Gold Cartel-like arrogance has offended so many other countries, they are going out of their way to snub us. The latest:

Meanwhile, the US interest rate picture is really heating up, as it well should:

08:00 Treasuries under pressure again this morning
The10-year note is off (15/32) to yield 4.45%. We have not heard of any fundamental reasons for the decline. German industrial production wasmuch stronger than expected at +3.1% year/year in January. The report was released at 6 ET, well before the selling began in Treasuries, but it may have been the catalyst talk of continued rising rates in the US.Some are also citing continued technical selling; the 10-year has been under consistent pressure since 2/14 when the yield hit 4.07%.
* * * * *

Obviously, sharp interest rate rises in the US are going to have a dramatic effect on our bubbleized housing market. Mortgage applications are already on the wane:

NEW YORK, March 9 (Reuters) - Applications for U.S. home mortgages decreased slightly last week as a drop in home refinancing activity for the second straight week offset an increase in purchasing, an industry group said on Wednesday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity decreased 0.7 percent to 704.8 in the week ended March 4, even as interest rates eased, after dropping 2.4 percent the week before.

Despite lower mortgage rates, U.S. homeowners continue to show little interest in refinancing their existing home loans, an indication that the refinancing boom may be slowing, economists say… - -END-

The Fed trying to having both ways, from Jesse:

On the same day in which the Treasury is selling billions of dollars of five year notes, they are adding liquidity to the primary dealer banks by lending them 3 billion in 'surplus' at a rate substantially below the target Fed Funds rate.

http://jessel.100megsfree3.com/TIOresults.png

-END-

Among the significant economic news of the day was this news out of the ECB:

ECB's Wellink: High Liquidity Warrants Rate Hike - Report

FRANKFURT -(Dow Jones)- The European Central Bank will have to tighten interest rates at some point due to excess liquidity in the market, ECB Governing Council member Nout Wellink told German newspaper Financial Times Deutschland.

"There will come a moment when we will have to take action," he said.

Although he said short-term inflation outlook is "not bad," Wellink added that middle-term inflationary pressures have built up due to high liquidity, the newspaper reported Tuesday.

Wellink, who also heads the Dutch central bank, also said that developments in real estate prices aren't yet problematic for the euro zone as a whole.
-Frankfurt Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires

-END-

This is important because it means the Europeans won’t be easing interest rates which could take some pressure off the dollar dive.

CARTEL CAPITULATION WATCH

Wake up time for stock market bulls. Contrary to the spin handed out by Wall Street, the scenario for the market and the US economy looks lousy with darkening clouds on the horizon. With longer term interest rates only JUST breaking out higher, the potential for serious chaos in the US real estate and stock market is now moved to the front burner.

The DOW gave up 107 to 10,806 and is leaving 11,000 in the dust. The DOG lost 12 to 2061, leaving 2100 in the dust too.

US oil news:

10:30 DOE reports crude oil inventories +3.2M barrels vs. consensus +1.7M barrels
Gasoline inventories reported (200K) barrels vs. consensus (125K). Distillate inventories (800K) barrels vs. consensus (1.775M) barrels. April WTI crude is trading lower in reaction.
* * * * *

0:32 API reports crude oil inventories +6.2M barrels
Gasoline inventories (269K) barrels, while distillate inventories +239KM barrels. April WTI crude is trading lower in initial reaction. April WTI crude quoted last at $54.24, ($0.34) for NY session.
* * * * *

12:20 US unleaded gasoline futures hit record spot month high over $1.55/Gal - Reuters
* * * * *

LONDON BRENT OIL RISES TO NEW RECORD $54.05/BARREL

The John Brimelow Report

Privateer on importance of $440

Wednesday, March 9, 2005

Indian ex-duty premiums: AM $6.10, PM $7.34, with world gold at $439.80 and $439.70. Ample, and lavish, for legal imports. The Reserve Bank allowed the rupee to firm a little against the dollar this morning.

Reuters carries a story this morning that premiums in Singapore are staying firm:

"In Singapore, Southeast Asia's biggest centre for bullion trading, buying interest from jewellers in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand is keeping premiums for gold bars at a high level of around $0.60 an ounce to London spot prices… roughly double the premiums seen in mid-January.

"Stocks at retail shops have really gone down after the Chinese New Year in February. I think that's the reason why premiums are high despite rising gold prices," said one regional dealer.

"People have to replenish stocks," he added."

(Of course, these countries are commodity exporters: no doubt a wealth effect is at work.)

TOCOM, meeting the highest yen prices this year, liquidated. Volume leapt 153% to equal 34,256 Comex lots, the active contract closed up 10 yen and world gold went out 65c above the finish in NY, but open interest fell by 2,614 Comex equivalent (8.8 tonnes). Mitsubishi’s estimate implies that the "General Public" cut their long by 9.9 tonnes. TOCOM is no help to the gold bulls just now. (NY yesterday traded 67,374 contracts. Open interest surged 5,795 lots – 18.02 tonnes.)

Yesterday, of course, gold broke out of the range which had contained it for almost three weeks. Several commentators note the move was muted compared with commodities, and the dollar; Reuters this morning found a London dealer who offered an all too plausible explanation

"Dealers reported brisk two-way trade on bullion with selling -- possibly from central banks -- well absorbed…"

Others try to argue gold in merely reflecting the euro, but a glance at a euro/gold chart shows this is not so, either on a daily or – yesterday – an intraday basis.

Since gold did break out of a range, one has to assume the 18 tonne increase in open interest was net of a good deal of short covering. The buying effort must have been very substantial.

Dennis Gartman (and therefore presumably some of his powerful Hedge Fund friends) was extremely upset by the dollar’s action yesterday:

"Last week we wrote a Watershed comment regarding the US dollar. We were wrong to have done so. It was hubris of the first and highest order, and it was silliness of an every higher one. Nothing other than our wish to see the dollar strengthen, and to read far too much into the one-sided nature of the overt dollar bearishness, and the wish to be a proper contrarian pushed this hubris upon us."

With admirable flexibility, he has now bought back his entire gold position which he sold on Friday. If his disillusionment with the dollar is shared, this move could be serious.

Over the weekend, the perspicacious Australian commentator The Privateer drew attention to the importance of $440:

"Any spot future close above $US 440 would be a strong signal of another run at the December highs in the mid $US 450s….the chart to watch for the indeterminate future continues to be the $US 5 x 3 point and figure chart. The uptrend line established on this chart when Gold broke above the $US 440 level in November is the final and conclusive technical evidence that $US Gold is now in the second leg of its bull market. The trendline on the chart (see the link) is a POWERFUL support for the bull."

"Please note once again the significance of the $US 440 level. It was this level which confirmed the next leg of Gold's bull market on the $US 5 x 3 chart when it was breached on the upside back in November last year. On a purely technical basis, it is the people who bought at or about the $US 440 level in November who are now selling to "get out even" now. If (when) that supply dwindles, Gold will once again surpass $US 440 on its way to a retest of the December $US 456 high."

Of course this has now been achieved. Technically motivated parties should now start weighing in on gold’s side.

JB

The point is the reasons to own physical gold are beginning to go off the chart. More and more investors around the world want IN. Silver too. The precious metals are going to go berserk when the bums are carried out on stretchers, when they lose control of their scam.

One of the other major reasons The Gold Cartel is sitting on gold is they are short so much gold, it CANNOT be covered. Their derivatives exposure to this mammoth gold short position must be staggering. When the gold price rises sharply, and it will some day in the not too distant future, our long waited gold derivatives neutron bomb should go off along with a Commercial Signal Failure. When this happens, interest rates will go that much higher as pundits point to a soaring gold price as evidence of horrific inflation in the US. Stock and bond markets will tank even further, along with the dollar.

Gold (and silver) will reign supreme in the developing troubled time. The Gold Cartel’s ploy will have backfired in the most ignominious of fashions. The cabal will be haunted by its own BEST LAID PLANS.

Silver remains explosive and yet the price managers are all over it too. The silver open interest rose 2,583 contracts to 101,960. The gold open interest gained another 5,786 contracts to 296,335, which is indicative of the specs piling in and The Gold Cartel doing all they can to keep the price from rising too fast.

Instead, because of their devious and greedy price suppression scheme – one originally put in play to effect the US’ strong dollar policy, they have made it the most important market of all these days. These short-term thinking fools among The Gold Cartel have created a time bomb which will inevitably go off (Murphy’s Law says at the worst possible time). They are suppressing gold to hide the true reality of the US economy and financial markets and give the US dollar as strong a presence as possible. They point to the subdued price action as evidence inflation is not really a problem.

However, the soaring commodity markets and now rising interest rates, along with a falling dollar, all suggest otherwise. This has to have a substantial impact on US financial markets in addition to all the other problems oft-discussed in this column. Meanwhile, because of the cabal’s fraudulent scheme, which made them many billions at the expense of the unknowing general public, the central banks only have half the gold they say they have. The crooks are running out of available gold supply at the worst possible time (yep, Murphy's Law again) which is why the phony financial press in the US won’t allow GATA to be heard.

The way it really is centers around The Gold Cartel using the dollar action to cap the price of gold and keep it in check via foreign currencies. One of the reasons is to stifle Western investment demand. Those holding gold in foreign currencies are seeing a nothing market and have no incentive to buy. Gold never appreciates in foreign currency terms no matter what else is going on in the world.

Why bring this up again? Because The Gold Cartel is being found out. There is a zero component in the price of gold for anything other than what the dollar is doing, which defies its historical trading pattern (see Dan Norcini below). And, as we saw in December, when The Gold Cartel wants to bury the gold price even the dollar action doesn’t matter.

What I mean by that is commodity prices are going nuts and US interest rates are on the rise in a major league way. This combination, along with a falling dollar, should have the price of gold on a tear for many reasons, which is JUST THE REASON WHY THE GOLD CARTEL IS ALL OVER IT.

Gold has been panned over the years as this relic of a market, a tiny one at that, which is meaningless in this day and age of super financial market sophistication. Quite frankly, if it weren’t for The Gold Cartel, there might be no reason to think otherwise. Gold could have been viewed as just another commodity and one rising with all the other commodities of the day.

My colleague and buddy Chris Powell was laughing at me this afternoon, saying I was the volcano about to blow. It’s just so hard to watch this all day long and take it without any of the nincompoops in the mainstream gold world saying anything about what is going on here.

It doesn’t get much more gold bullish:

CRB – up ANOTHER 1.05 to 313.70
April crude oil – up 18 cents to $54.77 per barrel
Dollar – down .35 to 81.58
March euro – up .56 to 134
10-year note – down 26/32 to 108 30/32
30-year bond – down a whopping 1 19/32, a new low for the move

The 10-year note breakdown is both dramatic and significant. Prices are breaking down (yields breaking out) after completing a MASSIVE top. The interest rate picture is worsening in stunning fashion even as the Doofuses in the Treasury and Fed continue to claim inflation is not a problem, nor is there any serious inflation in sight.

All that and gold pops a piddly $1.70 AFTER breaking out from a major support pattern. The euro gold price FELL .54 to 329.27.

I think it is important to pound away again on a long-held theme of mine. Those who say gold is the antithesis of the dollar are correct in some sense, yet have it all bass ackwards.

But, there is no inflation!

Thank you very much Bloomberg. If bonds are going up on inflation concerns, why is gold stuck in its tracks after a major breakout like we had yesterday? That was written with gold stuck at unchanged for the better part of the Comex trading period.

In a free market gold would have been up another $2 to $3 in the early going. When you have Orwellians controlling a market and rigging it on behalf of the major bullion banks in the US, gold has to be held in check to demonstrate to the naïve and clueless investment world that inflation really isn’t that worrisome. Same drill; these propagandists point to the calm gold price to prove their point. You would think a few dingbats in the mainstream financial market community would catch on to this repetitive deception.

The gold market is now closed. The farce worsens. Once again you could not have had a more bullish gold day, yet The Gold Cartel made sure reality was not allowed to reign. They sat on gold all both morning and afternoon. While other markets were surging, or swooning in fairly big moves, gold had to struggle for every dime on the upside. The crooks were on the case (gold) during the entire Comex trading session. Just like the other day, gold should have risen over $10 by the close. Instead we got crumbs.

The depth of The Gold Cartel’s depravity was reinforced this morning when the US bond market (the bond vigilantes are waking up to the true US inflation situation) was pounded for a full point going into and after its opening. Now, if there was ever a reason for gold to EXTEND yesterday’s capped rally, it would be another sign inflation is heating up, which we got this morning:

March 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. 10-year Treasury notes fell, pushing yields to the highest since early August, as a rise in oil and gas prices fanned concern inflation will accelerate… -END-

The early interest rate move extended its rise throughout the day:

30-year March bond
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/TR/35

Total breakdown from a massive top formation by the 10-year note:
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/NO/35

Don’t know about you, however, I consider this an omen for us. Mt. St. Helens is trembling and so are gold and silver. That volcano has come alive, just like silver and gold have. What you see when viewing this imposing Washington State mountain is what the investment world is looking at when it comes to the precious metals. The Gold Cartel has messed around with the natural, free way of things far too long. The Gods are not happy with them. SO BE IT!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, The Gold Cartel’s attempts to manipulate/suppress the price of gold continue to grow bolder. As one market watcher said this morning, "they don’t even care who sees it any more."

The Gold Cartel has a number of rules which they constantly execute as part of their rigging operations. The $6 Rule is well documented by now. Another one is once gold goes limit up ($6 Rule parameters), it is NEVER allowed to follow through on the upside the very next evening, or on the following Comex opening. NEVER! Doing so might engender some serious excitement re gold as an investment. The Orwellians will not tolerate such prehistoric notions, notions which might threaten their own cretinous empire building type of thinking.

Last night and this morning was no exception to this other cabal rule. Even though the dollar was comatose, the crooks immediately took gold 80 cents to $1.50 lower when trading commenced during the Kangaroo trading hours in Australia - where the volume is usually very light. What is astounding is that a humongous 7,000 contracts exchanged hands during Access trading hours. This means The Gold Cartel had its hands full keeping the price from extending yesterday’s gains, which any normal market would do after a major breakout.

March 9 – Gold $441.70 up $1.70 – Silver $7.59 up 10 cents

Gold, Silver, Mount St. Helens And Jimmy Buffet

"I don't know,
I don't know,
I don't know where I'm gonna go
when the volcano blows!"
Jimmy Buffett

GO GATA!

GO GOLD RUSH 21

The MIDAS headliners the past few days have had a volcano focus. Looks like my commentary might be prescient:

[Blockierte Grafik: http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2005/Midas/MtStHelens.jpg]

Zitat

Original von Spieler0815

Warum sollte ich es nicht jemandem können, als Käufer bei ebay
ein Schnäppchen zu machen.

Hallo Spieler,

ich kann von mir sagen, dass ich so einige Münzen über ebay gekauft habe. Bisher habe ich noch keine einzige negative Erfahrung sammeln müssen. Wichtig sind:

a) Kenntnis des Marktpreisniveaus, da manchmal auch unrealistische Summen geboten werden

b) Geschäfte nur mit Partner mit gutem Bewertungsprofil

Gruß
Schwabenpfeil

Appendix

After many of the mainstreamers in the gold industry, my biggest beef is with the US financial press and those in our government running around the world promoting democracy when we don’t even have a FREE financial market press in the US, nor do we have FREE financial markets. This particular rant touches on the lack of free press and I am going to focus on a highly regarded Bloomberg journalist, Caroline Baum, and Bloomberg itself.

Six years ago this coming June, Bloomberg gold reporter Claudia Carpenter came to a luncheon GATA gave in New York in which I explained to the attendees what GATA uncovered and what we had to say. The word GATA has not been mentioned once before then, or since, by Bloomberg. Not mentioned once even though we have received focused commentary on us by:

*Oleg V. Mozhayskov, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, who bluntly brought GATA to the attention of the mainstream gold world. Mozhayskov delivered the keynote address at the London Bullion Dealers Conference in Moscow on June 4th 2004. His speech was delivered in Russian. The only words he mentioned in English were Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (or GATA).

*Sprott Asset Management in Toronto, which released its own publication in August 2004, "Not Free, Not Fair: The Long-Term Manipulation of the Gold Price," confirming GATA's work.

*Eckart Woertz, vice president of CFC Securities in Dubai, for the Gulf Research Center, who just last week published a study, "The Role of Gold in the Unified Gulf Cooperation Council Currency," by his research foundation in Dubai. The report endorsed the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee's findings that Western central and commercial banks have rigged the gold market and have much less gold than they claim to have and so are vulnerable to rising demand for gold.

Yet, not one word from Bloomberg, who wouldn’t even mention our GATA African Gold Summit in Durban, South Africa, attended by 5 sub-Saharan gold producing nations, the SA Reserve Bank, trade unions, SA gold producers, etc. The South African Broadcasting Company featured us two days running. Bloomberg? Nothing!

Instead, via email commentary, Ms. Baum has resorted in the past to the most banal, trite commentary when having to deal with what GATA has to say. In this regard, she and her financial press colleagues in the rah-rah Wall Street world are nothing short of feeble for their lack of integrity when it comes to our issues.

Enough said. You can easily grasp all of this by reading one of her recent commentaries, followed by an exchange between Ms. Baum and GATA’s Wistar Holt.

The gold/silver senior shares roared today, as well they should have. What we have going on here in the commodity world is nothing short of sensational. People who don’t realize The Gold Cartel is out there ought to want IN on gold and silver as they are so incredibly undervalued relative to other commodities and becoming more so by the day – much less the ones who do know The Gold Cartel will be carried out some day.

The XAU moved up 3.32 to 102.27. The HUI (223.71, up 8.05) blew through 220 with ease and now has completed a significant reverse head and shoulders formation which should propel the shares to much higher levels. The first important resistance surfaces at its old highs around 258. A lot of money to be made here in the weeks and months ahead.

HUI
http://bigcharts.marketwatch.c…&o_symb=hui&freq=1&time=8

Compared to the other commodity charts, gold's is a bore. We all know why. What is important here is the pressures brought to your attention by your pounding the table MIDAS the past couple of days, and couple of weeks, are beginning to manifest themselves, Gold Cartel or no.

Even with the $6 Rule imposed by the cabal, gold broke out cleanly from Gold Cartel resistance. There were just too many funds, which are making fortunes in other commodity markets, who wanted IN:

April gold
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/GD/45

While I am thoroughly disgusted at the bums for their continued violation of US anti-trust laws and making a mockery of the notion we have free markets in the US, the big picture remains FABULOUS.

The corrupt Gold Cartel is like the boy with his finger in the dike. With commodity prices doing what they are, the dollar in the deepest of trouble and interest rates headed higher, more and more investors all over the world will turn to gold. There is SO MUCH money out there waiting to pounce on the tiny gold market, The Gold Cartel will not be able to turn back the flood of buying.

Gold, silver and the shares remain THE historic investment opportunity of a lifetime!

GATA BE IN IT TO WIN IT!

MIDAS

Rhody checks back in:

Hi Bill:
Last night's Midas concerning critical staff shortages curtailing mine development in Australia and Canada reminded me of my own experiences in this regard. I was a geology teacher in an Ontario high school for 30 years.

In 1999, the neo-conservative government in Ontario, Canada cancelled geology across the board in Ontario curriculum. As is typical of extreme right wing governments, they are anti-education and anti-academic. In the case of Ontario, the strategy was to under fund and degrade the public system in order to facilitate a move toward a privatized education system.

Without the geology input at the highschool level, geology enrolment at universities has shrunk to one third the size of the 1980s. So part of the problem is related to the business cycle, part cultural and part bad government. Bad government reduces us all. What happened to me?

I got out of teaching early and made more money with less effort than I ever did in the classroom. Even though the neo-cons are gone now, I won't go back, nor help to re-introduce geology. Geology requires an almost religious fanaticism to be successfully taught plus huge donations of time and material by the teacher. Nobody will make that effort, knowing that the neo-cons are still out there waiting to tear down the system again.
Regards, Rhody.

Yes Dan, the people at the Fed make the Orwellians and the Wizard of Oz look good – there is no inflation because they say so: 14:15 Fed's Poole says 'measured pace' must come out of FOMC statement at some point - Reuters
* * * * *

14:17 Follow up: Poole says inflation expectations are 'very well contained' - Reuters
* * * * *

Bernanke Says Federal Reserve Will Keep Raising Rates in a `Measured Way'

March 8 (Bloomberg) --
The Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates ``in a measured way'' as the economic expansion becomes self-sustaining with little threat of escalating inflation, Fed Governor Ben Bernanke said.

``With the economy strengthening, with inflation stable, and with the federal funds rate still at a relatively low level, at this point my expectation is that the committee will continue to remove policy accommodation in a measured way,'' Bernanke said in the text of a speech to the Executives' Club of Chicago. –END-

Like CNBC’s Lawrence Kudlow, who will surely point to the subdued price of gold as evidence Poole, Bernanke (and Greenspan) are correct. There is no inflation.

This truly is MADNESS!