Barry Stuppler

GOLD Gold sold off today with the entire precious metal group as the PIIGS countries debt problems worsened.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected French calls to deploy the European Central Bank as a crisis backstop, defying global leaders and investors calling for more urgent action to halt the Eurozone debt turmoil.  At 11am PDT, Gold was down $52.20, trading at...

Central banks made their largest purchases of gold in decades in the third quarter, as a sharp drop in prices in September accelerated the shift to bullion as a means of diversification. The scale of the buying, at 148.4 tonnes on a net basis, was far bigger than previously disclosed, surprising some traders. The data were published in a quarterly report by the World Gold Council, a lobby group for the gold industry, on Thursday.

The WGC declined to identify of the central banks behind the majority of the buying citing “confidentiality restrictions”, saying only that....

Commentary: Europe’s choices: Chaotic breakup or mass inflation

LONDON (MarketWatch) — As the euro struggles from crisis to crisis, it isn’t hard to identify the losers.

Peripheral country bonds have been hammered. Equities have struggled to make any progress all year. The main euro-zone banks have had to make huge write-downs on their holdings of Greek debt and have seen their shares collapse in value as a result. The euro itself has started to fall in value against other currencies, and almost certainly has a lot further to go.

But where are the winners? After all, all that money has to go somewhere....

GOLD At 11am PDT, Gold is trading at $1,776.60, down $5.50 per ounce on normal volume for a Wednesday. This morning, Asian markets were selling off on record high rates for PIIGS country bond rates and fears that the Eurozone debt problem will spread and cause a serious financial crisis. Major pro-gold hedge fund managers such as George Soros, David...

Gold is seen by most as a safe-haven. If equity markets are in turmoil, “buy gold,” we always hear. Gold bulls are currently predicting gold to move over $2000 an ounce by year end. Some of the gold bull’s thesis goes something like this:

Italy, Greece, and eventually Spain will cause a European end-game scenario. The default of bigger European countries will cause the European Central Bank to force money into the system in the form of a massive bailout, mainly being a dovish monetary policy.

The fears of contagion will spread throughout the continent and harm the economic outlook globally, including much harm to the United States. As the crisis unfolds, investors will flock more to gold than the U.S. dollar, as the United States will be in a similar mess. (This is a quick thesis.)

However ....

GOLD Gold had another up week, a $152 per ounce increase in just the last three weeks.  The volume of gold trading is increasing globally and volatility is growing. As the market price moves closer to a new all-time high I expect this scenario to continue. Last week, as in the past few months, the primary mover of the precious...

Physical gold will outsell ETFs by 500 per cent this year, Standard Bank’s Walter de Wet told the 8th Dubai City of Gold Conference today. Two years ago the position was completely reversed with physical gold sales running at only 20 per cent of ETFs.

‘It’s a complete flip from ETFs to physical gold,’ he said. ‘And it seems to reflect people’s lack of trust in financial systems and the shift in investment flows towards Asia and the Middle East’....