Barry Stuppler

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’....

Chinese gold imports from Hong Kong, a proxy for the country’s overall overseas buying, leapt to a record high in September, when monthly purchases matched almost half that for the whole of 2010.

The buying spree follows a sharp drop in the price of the precious metal. After hitting a nominal all-time high of $1,920.30 a troy ounce in September, gold fell to a three-month low of $1,534 an ounce later in the month. Chinese investors snapped up the metal as prices fell....