Physical Gold

Controlled markets in which price does not equilibrate supply and demand are often characterized by shortages. When this happens in gold market, it’s called “tightness” rather than shortages. It sounds better. The tightness in gold is revealed by the growing spread between physical and paper gold. This is revealed in the chart below. The tightness … Continue reading

From today’s JB report found in the Midas’ commentary at http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/: Reuters has a colorful story datelined Singapore today: “The market is very hot. There’s plenty of physical demand and I can’t meet the orders. It’s from India, Indonesia and Thailand,” said a physical dealer in Singapore. “Basically we are seeing buying from jewellers and … Continue reading

Russia’s Central Bank reported purchasing 1.1 million ounces of gold in May.  This is a staggering 31.21 tonnes.  The chart below is from Richard Nachbar at http://www.coinexpert.com/: Separately, a member of the finance committee of China’s National People’s Congress has called on the Government to increase its holdings of precious metals and oil: “China should … Continue reading

Over the past month, gold has quietly become the only true flight to safety. Forget the dollar: the dollar is “safe” just as long as Bernanke does not decide to pull a Sunday night comparable to what the ECB did last night and strangle the greenback with one press release: frankly it is just not … Continue reading

UBS comments on the very heavy demand from European investors for physical bars and coins (from JB’s dialy gold market commentary, which can be read every evening at http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/: “…our Zurich and Geneva sales desk experienced exceptionally strong demand for small bars and coins. All size bars up to 1kg are wanted by retail investors. … Continue reading

Below is an email that went out from a Canadian bullion dealer: “Sold almost a half tonne of silver on Friday. Bought 3,000 maple leafs in two orders over the last couple of days to replenish shop inventory…I am doing my best to add to my personal holdings but so much is coming in I … Continue reading

PHYS was added last week as a way to tag the NFTRH speculative account to actual gold as opposed to what may be going on over at GLD. If it worked out as a trade, hey great. Or it could be held longer term. The point was that I felt its management (Sprott) was of … Continue reading

I suggested to some colleagues earlier that, ulitmately, this Goldman Sachs derivatives scandal will further hasten investor distrust of paper “assets” and most likely accelerate the ongoing large flow of capital into phsyical gold and silver (and the movement toward investing strictly in gold/silver vehicles that offer verifiable, authentic custody) and ultimately cause the price … Continue reading