Barry Stuppler

Global consumers aggressively ramped up purchases of physical gold in the April-June period, led by opportunistic buyers in emerging markets at a time when the precious metal suffered a record quarterly loss, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday . . . .

The latest World Gold Council Gold Demand Trends report, which covers the period April-June 2013, highlights how recent falls in the gold price have generated significant increases in demand, most notably from consumers in China and India - by far the biggest markets for gold - compared with the same time last year . . . .

Indians bought more gold in July than June despite a series of moves by the central bank to strangle supplies, and their insatiable appetite has forced neighbouring countries to take steps to curb their own imports  . . . .

Silver has suffered a miserable year so far, bludgeoned by gold’s unprecedented selling anomaly. The exceptional weakness in both metals was greatly exacerbated by futures speculators piling on short-side bets. But with silver shorts hitting record extremes, a super-bullish short squeeze now looms. Any rapid silver rally is likely to spook the highly-leveraged futures traders, sparking a massive stampede to cover . . . .