News Articles

The Indian government has been proved right once again in not lifting its curbs on gold. Trade deficit has widened the most in 18 months, as imports of the precious metal have surged . . . . 

Gold’s $20 plunge on Friday was accompanied by a big increase in bullishness among gold timers.That’s just the opposite of what you would expect, since the normal pattern is for gold timers’ bullishness to rise and fall in lockstep with the market. It’s a bad sign that this normal pattern has been broken . . .

In a piece published today by the Council on Foreign Relations, former Fed chair Alan Greenspan examined the recent dramatic rise in gold imports by China. 

He theorized that the country was likely in the process of converting its foreign reserves to gold in order to . . . .

China is far more adept than the capitalist West in looking to the long term and nowhere is this more apparent in its attitude towards gold . . . .

Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs has recently reiterated its negative view on gold, which it has held for the past year.

While I am in agreement with Goldman that the Fed will be the dominant force behind the price of gold, I believe the central bank will soon be back into the QE business, rather than raising interest rates and crushing the dollar price of gold . . . .

Silver is playing an important, if not critical role in the growing world of wearable technology.

At the new intersection where fashion and biometrics meet, silver provides the conduit in innovative athletic clothing that transmits sought-after biometric data, such as the wearer’s real time heartbeat, to a sensor that displays the data . . . .

One of the depressing factors with regard to the gold price so far this year has been the reported fall-off in Chinese gold demand, although by world standards it remains pretty healthy. But there are now signs that it is beginning to pick up again . . . .

Will Asia still want gold as it gets richer? I was in Malaysia last week, speaking at a gold conference. To give you an idea of how important gold is considered to be out there, the prime minister was delivering the keynote speech. Can you imagine David Cameron giving a keynote entitled ‘Gold: Sustaining Future Growth’ over here? It just wouldn’t happen. The episode has got me thinking about the vastly different attitudes to gold between East and West – and that’s what I want to look at today. . . .

The IMF’s latest international gold reserves data, updated yesterday, shows that in July, Russia raised its official gold reserves to 5.5 million ounces (1,104 tonnes). This confirms data released last week by the Central bank of the Russian Federation, which reported an increase of over 300,000 ounces from June’s 5.197 million ounces figure. IMF data is reported with a one month lag . . . .

Russia added about 9.4 metric tons of gold valued at $400 million to reserves in July as it expanded holdings for a fourth consecutive month to the highest in at least two decades.

Russia’s reserves, which overtook those of Switzerland and China this year, almost tripled since the end of 2005 . . . .