Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Harvey Organ's Evening Gold and silver Report - May 7 , 2013......Ed Steer's gold and Silver Report - May 7 , 2013 ( morning report ) ... News and Views and data from Monday May 6, 2013 ! Additional news - Paulson Gold Fund takes 27 percent hit in April !

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-07/china-s-gold-purchases-from-hong-kong-expand-to-record-in-march.html



China’s Gold Purchases From Hong Kong Expand to Record

By Bloomberg News - May 7, 2013 8:09 PM ET
Gold imports by China from Hong Kong more than doubled to an all-time high in March as buyers in the biggest consumer after India boosted purchases, underscoring increased bullion demand in the world’s second-largest economy.
Mainland buyers purchased 223,519 kilograms (223.52 metric tons), including scrap, compared with 97,106 kilograms in February, according to Hong Kong government data yesterday. Net imports by the mainland, after deducting flows from China into Hong Kong, were 130,038 kilograms compared with 60,947 kilograms a month earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Enlarge imageChina’s Gold Purchases From Hong Kong Expand to Record in March
The slump led to a surge in demand for jewelry, coins and bars from India and the U.S to China. Photographer: Lam Yik Fei/Bloomberg
China Growth to Pick Up, UBS Economist Wang Says
4:19
May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS AG, talks about the outlook for China's economic growth and the commodities market. She speaks with Tom Keene and Sara Eisen on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance." (Source: Bloomberg)
Sponsored Links
0.85% APY Savings Account. No Fees, No Minimums. Easy...
No Cost & No Fee Loan. No SSN rqd. Easy Process! (2.5...
Quality Products to Help Navigate Today's Volatile Ma...
Buy a link
The shipments preceded gold’s plunge into a bear marketlast month, with prices tumbling 14 percent in the two days through April 15 in the worst drop in three decades. The slump led to a surge in demand for jewelry, coins and bars from India and the U.S to China. Separate data yesterday showed China’s gold usage rose 26 percent in the first quarter as prices fell.
“This is quite out of expectation as all these imports were done before the market slump in April,” said Qu Mingyu, a trader at Bank of China, one of the country’s three largest bullion banks. “Judging from the explosive growth of trading volume on the Shanghai Gold Exchange in the second half of April, and anecdotes that many jewelry shops are sold out throughout the country, imports might be even more substantial in April.”

Price Slumps

Gold for immediate delivery in London dropped 4.6 percent in the first three months of the year as investment demandslumped, then plunged 7.6 percent in April. Bullion traded at $1,448.29 an ounce at 8:08 a.m. in Shanghai. Gold of99.99 percent purity on the Shanghai Gold Exchange dropped 1.2 percent in March, and was at 293.5 yuan a gram ($1,483 an ounce).
The purchases in March were more than three times higher than the 62,913 kilograms in the same month last year, according to the data from Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department. Mainland China doesn’t publish such data.
Exports of gold to Hong Kong from China were 93,481 kilograms in March, according to a separate Statistics Department statement, up from 36,159 kilograms in February, and compared with 32,484 kilograms in March 2012.
Volumes for the spot contract on the Shanghai exchange, China’s biggest cash bullion market, topped 323 tons between April 16 and May 3, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Volumes reached a record 43,272 kilograms on April 22.

‘Physical Demand’

“The trading volume of the spot gold contract on the exchange basically reflected physical demand as the contract is used by fabricators to take delivery of their raw materials,” said Bank of China’s Qu.
Retail gold sales tripled across China on April 15-16 after the rout, according to the China Gold Association. Zhang Bingnan, deputy head of the association, said on May 2 that there’s a shortage of gold jewelry inventory in the country after consumers bought up supplies and the industry is increasing raw- material purchases to ramp up production.
China’s gold consumption jumped 26 percent to 320.54 tons in the first three months from a year earlier, the association said yesterday. Consumption totaled 776.1 tons in 2012, down from 779.8 tons the previous year, according to the producer- funded World Gold Council. China and India account for more than half of global demand.















http://silverdoctors.com/bo-polny-silver-extremely-vulnerable-to-a-break-of-22-bottom-fri-mon/#more-26268

( In manipulated markets like gold and silver , where fundamentals and technical indicators are often trumped by  the the chosen manipulation of the day and Central Banker QE ,  the article below is FWIW.... However the Bankster goal is to break the aura of the PMs as real money / a safe haven , and as an alternative and viable option  to stocks and bonds - so could 22 get taken out in the near term , sure . Silver could fall perhaps to 18 in the medium term and gold could test 1280 too !  )


BO POLNY: SILVER EXTREMELY VULNERABLE TO A BREAK OF $22 BOTTOM FRI-MON

MAY 7, 2013 BY  30 COMMENTS
Jim Sinclair’s chartist Bo Polny, who predicted the April smash in gold and silver when the majority of PM investors thought the bottom was in (including Sinclair himself) has issued an update to his call for May 10th-13th to be the big turn dates for both gold and silver.
Polny states that Friday through Monday is a period for extreme caution in silver as the final bottom will be placed, and cautions that silver will likely re-test the April bottom of $22.  He states that Until May 13, 2013 has passed, silver is extremely vulnerable to a support break!

From Jim Sinclair:
I am writing to provide an update to the original post on JSMineset dated April 19, 2013. Click here to view the original post… http://www.jsmineset.com/2013/04/19/1300-goldnever-again/

In the gold chart provided back in April, there were two dates: the first May 2-3 and the second May 10-13, 2013 were noted as turn dates.

May 2-3 was to mark a short term high. If you check the price of gold you will see it did! Gold’s daily time clock from the rise off the April 15, 2013 low ended May 3, 2013.

The next date, May 10-13 is to mark the low off the May 2-3 high for both gold and silver.

With regards to silver, this is a time for extreme caution! What is next? May 9-10, 2013… the drop! The question is how low will it go? The bottom comes in either Friday May 10, 2013 or Monday May 13, 2013. Will support at $22 hold or not? That is the big question.  Again until May 13, 2013 has passed, silver is extremely vulnerable to a support break!

Gold’s low will hold due to its impressive rise since its bottom April 15, 2013.



Have a great day,
CIGA Bo Polny














http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2013/05/frances-industrial-production-and.html


Tuesday, May 7, 2013


France's Industrial Production and Manufacturing Production down signalling a big recession/gold raid/silver holds up/Comex registered gold remains at its low/

Good evening  Ladies and Gentlemen:

 
Gold closed down $19.10 to $1449.00 (comex closing time).  Silver fell by only 15 cents to $23.77  (comex closing time) as it refused to buckle under the weight of another attack by our bankers.


In the access market at 5 pm gold and silver are the following :

gold: $1452.10.
silver: $23.96


At the comex, the open interest in silver fell by 1461 contracts to 144,524 contracts.  The silver OI is  holding firm at elevated levels . The open interest on the gold contract fell by 235 contracts to 429,087.  The gold deliveries for May remains  at 5.87 tonnes and this is an off month for gold.  In silver we continue to see the total number of ounces standing rise above the quantity that stood on first day notice. The number of silver ounces, standing for delivery in May now stands at 16.405 million oz.  On first day notice:  14.860 million oz.

Today, physical gold continues to leave London with 4.51 tonnes of gold departing the GLD for the shores of China/and or Russia. The game ends when the last physical ounce held at the GLD departs.

Over at the comex  gold is departing as investors are frightened to death of a confiscation similar to what happened at MFGlobal or Refco. Tonight, the Comex registered or dealer gold rests at 1.858 million oz or 57.16 tonnes.  The total of all gold at the comex rose just above 8 million oz at 8.062 million oz.

Glencore reports that Irish banks are now back into trouble as they need another 30 billion euros.  You will recall that taxpayers in Ireland shelled out 64 billion euros to bail out the banks.

Today France's Industrial Production falls as did Manufacturing production. Germany's Industrial production rose.

In USA news, J.C. Penny will no doubt be the next big USA bankruptcy.

We will go over these and other stories but first.........................

Let us now head over to the comex and assess trading over there today:


The total gold comex open interest fell by 235 contracts today  from  429,322 all the way down to 429,087,  with gold rising by $3.80 on Monday. The front non active delivery month of May saw its OI fall by 7 contracts.  However we had 7 delivery notices filed on Monday.  Thus we neither gained nor lost any gold ounces standing.   The next active contract month is June and here the OI fell by 3351 contracts to 244,231. June is the second biggest delivery month in gold's calender and first day notice is a little over 3 weeks away.  The estimated volume today was huge at 203,974 contracts. It is amazing the firepower these crooked banks throw at the comex gold when a raid commences.   The confirmed volume on Monday was very weak at 88,139 contracts.



The total silver comex OI fell again by 1423  contracts from 145,947 down to 144,524  with  silver's fall in price of 6 cents on Monday.  The front active silver delivery month of May saw it's OI fall by 41 contracts.  We had 57 delivery notices filed on Monday so we gained a 16 contracts or an  additional 80,000 oz will stand for delivery in May.  The next  delivery month for silver is June and here the OI fell by 25 contracts to stand at 373. The next big active contract month is July and here the OI fell by 1254 contracts to rest tonight at 78,708.   The estimated volume today was pretty good, coming in at 43,804 contracts.  The confirmed volume on Friday was extremely weak at 24,545.


Comex gold/May contract month:


May 7/2013




Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz
 nil
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz
82,944.531 (Scotia, HSBC)
No of oz served (contracts) today
 3 (300  oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
124 (12,400)
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
1763  (176,300)
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Dealers inventory this month
nil
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month


 
477,003.23 oz  




We had good activity at the gold vaults.
The dealer had 0 deposits and 0  dealer withdrawals.


We had 2 customer deposits today:


i) Into Scotia:  18,887.197 oz
ii) Into HSBC;  64,057.334 oz




total customer deposit: 82,944.531 oz



We had 0 customer withdrawal:



total withdrawal:  nil  oz

We had 1   adjustment 

1.From the HSBC vault:  195.28 oz is adjusted out of the dealer account into the customer account




Thus the dealer inventory  rests tonight at its low of 1.858 million oz (57.16) tonnes of gold.
The total of all gold rises a bit  at the comex and this time, this time above the 8 million oz as it rests at 8.062 million oz or 250.76 tonnes.


The CME reported that we had 3 notices filed today for 300  oz of gold today.
To calculate the quantity of gold ounces that will stand, I take the OI standing for May  (127) and subtract out today's notices (3) which leaves us with 124 notices or 12,400 oz left to be served upon our longs. 
Thus  we have the following gold ounces standing for metal in May:

1763 contracts x 100 oz per contract  or  176,300 oz (served)  +  124 notices or 12,400 oz (to be served upon)  =  188,700 oz or 5.87 tonnes of gold.

This is extremely high for a non active month.  We neither lost nor gained any gold ounces standing for the  May comex gold contract today.


end


Silver:



May 7.2013:  May silver: 

Silver
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventorynil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory 439,785.49 oz (Delaware ,Scotia, )   
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory 67,873.775 oz (CNT,Brinks)
No of oz served (contracts)8 contracts ( 40,000 oz)  
No of oz to be served (notices)893  (4,465,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts) 2388  (11,940,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers inventory this month204,097.65
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month1,315,594.56


Today, we  had good activity  inside the silver vaults.

 we had 0 dealer deposits and 0  dealer withdrawals.


We had 2 customer deposits:

i) Into CNT:  50,265.775 oz
ii) Into brinks:  17,608.000 oz (another of those perfectly round deposits..this time in the brinks vault.

total deposit;  67,873.775 oz


We had 2 customer withdrawals:

1) Out of Delaware:  18,866.87 oz
ii) Out of scotia:  420,918.62 oz


total withdrawal:  439,785.49   oz



we had 1 very unusual   adjustments and one normal adjustment

i)  First the unusal adjustment Out of JPM:  176,211.90 was adjusted out of the dealer side of things  and 176,211.609 oz was adjusted into the customer account

 and 3.709 oz evaporated!!!

ii) Out of Brinks:  20,902.37 oz was adjusted out of the dealer and into the customer account


Registered silver  at :  45.217 million oz
total of all silver:  164.886 million oz.




The CME reported that we had   8 notices filed for 40,000.  To calculate the number of ounces that will stand in silver, I take the OI standing for May (901) and subtract out today's notices (8) which leaves us with 893 notices or 4,465,000 oz 
  
Thus the total number of silver ounces standing in this  active delivery month of May is as follows:

2388 contracts x 5000 oz per contract (served) = 11,940,000 +  893 contracts x 5000 oz =  4,465,000 oz ( to be served)  =  16,405,000 oz.

Two important points today:


1.  we gained another 80,000 oz of silver standing.
2. We have now fully surpassed what was outstanding on first day notice.
If you will recall, we had 14,860,000 oz filed on that first day notice.

On day number 2 of the delivery cycle, we slightly surpassed that total as just under 15 million oz was set to stand.  Today, we fully surpassed the original first day notice by quite a lot to stand at 16,405,000 oz.  In the past few years, we have always seen a decline in amounts standing in an active month for gold and in silver.  It goes to show you the demand for physical metal is strong and entities are looking everywhere for the scarce metal.
                                       

4 and one half tons of gold leave the GLD ETF today.....

May 7.2013:




Tonnes1,057.79

Ounces34,008,852.21

Value US$49.089   billion







May 6.2013:



Tonnes1,062.30

Ounces34,153,900.65

Value US$50.153   billion





Harvey's comment below on Comex and GLD...


Today, we lost another 4.51 tonnes of gold.  Yesterday, 3.31 tonnes of gold was lost.  On Friday, 3.6 tonnes of gold left the GLD vaults.  On Thursday we lost 6.02 tonnes;  Wednesday, 3.31 tonnes which followed  2.14 tonnes of gold lost last  Tuesday.

The registered  vaults at the GLD will eventually become a crime scene as real physical gold will depart for eastern shores leaving behind paper obligations to the remaining shareholders.  As you can see, the bleeding of physical gold from this locale continues unabated. There is no doubt in my mind that GLD has nowhere near the gold that say they have and this will eventually lead to the default at the LBMA and then onto the comex in a heartbeat  (same banks)



As a reminder the total comex gold had inventories of around 11 million oz in 2011. Today it rose just below 8 million oz. (8.06 million oz)





*     *    *


Selected news items......



Now we are beginning to see shortages in large gold and silver bars.  The shortage is spreading to wholesale from the retail!!

(courtesy GATA/James Turk/Goldmoney.com)




Shortages developing in large gold and silver bars too, Turk says

Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2013-05-07 16:37. Section: 
12:35p ET Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Shortages are developing not just in small gold and silver denominations but in the large bars that are the bulk of the monetary metals trade, 400-ounce gold bars and thousand-ounce silver bars, GoldMoney founder and GATA consultant James Turk tells King World News today.
Turk says: "If the central planners want to keep the precious metals at these low prices, to meet the demand for physical metal they will need to empty more metal from central bank vaults, or borrow metal from the exchange-traded funds as some have suggested is happening. Otherwise, the central planners will have to step back and stop their intervention, thereby letting the price of gold and silver rise so that demand tapers off, bringing demand and supply of physical metal back toward some kind of balance.
"We've seen this same situation several times over the last twelve years. It is what I have been calling a 'managed retreat.' Despite the current weakness, I firmly believe we have again entered a critical period where the central planners will need to retreat once again in order to let gold and silver prices climb higher."
An excerpt from the interview is posted at the King World News blog here:
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.



Bill Holter responds to the zero hedge story on bitcoin:



(courtesy Bill Holter)




Bill Holter of Miles Franklin responds to the above bitcoin controversy:


Yes, please investigate...Yesterday (as reported by Zerohedge) http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-06/us-regulatory-vice-closes-bitcoin Bart Chilton, one of the CFTC commissioners said that they need to investigate "Bitcoin" because as he put it
"this is not monopoly money - real people have real risk in these instruments". Yes very "real" so to speak. This is a "cyber" currency with no "touchy feely" actual coins, there are no derivatives (yet) like options or futures and as for the "size" of this market we are talking about just north of a whopping $1 billion. I don't mean to sound crass here but $1 billion? Jon Corzine stole $1.6 billion just a couple of years ago. He took this money from "real people" unless you think of farmers as alien holograms. Here we are nearly 2 years later and we hear nothing but crickets about MF Global and the dishonorable Jon Corzine walks the streets a free man...what's up with this?
No I haven't forgot about the other investigation, you know...the one nearly 5 years old looking into the forced Silver crash of 2008. I was worried a month or 2 back that the statute of limitations would run out before the CFTC finished their "extensive" investigation and let the culprits off the hook, that's no longer a problem as the clock just got reset with the latest blatant manipulation. How does Bart Chilton and the rest of the regulatory crew explain the 2013 instant replay of 2008? Price gets crashed from "sellers" yet what supposedly was sold can only be bought at a 30% premium...IF you can find it at all? We are still waiting...and now "Bitcoin" is on the front burner I'm sure that Silver (and Gold) will not be addressed until AFTER exchange defaults occur. For that matter, they won't be reported on after the fact either because we will then have bigger, MUCH BIGGER problems facing us...like where the next meal will come from.
I really wanted to believe that Bart Chilton was truly a "white hat" as he allowed Bill Murphy to testify before the commission as well as allowing the brilliant Adrian Douglas (may God rest his soul) to speak. In fact, it was these exchanges that led Jeffery Christian to admit that Silver and Gold were traded 100-1 paper to physical (at least) on the London Metals Exchange. At this point I just don't know and suspect that 'ole Bart is just pulling our chains. Silver is real. "We" who have invested in Silver are "real" people aren't we? We took real risk (well not really) exchanging our fiat Dollars for Silver didn't we? So...why "investigate" a ham sandwich $1 billion market which trades a product that cannot be felt, held in your hand or even seen when "real" (YES VERY REAL) fraud has occurred in a very real market of a strategic metal...and so publicly that an 8 year old could understand?
As I have said before many times, the CFTC cannot possibly come to a conclusion of the truth. The "truth" would crash the entire system within 72 hours of any statement. The "truth" will not be exposed until AFTER the system crashes and no one will even care at that point because everyone will be too busy dealing with the "every man for himself" scenario. ...So Mr. Chilton, please do investigate and castigate Bitcoin as it is "infringing" on the U.S. Dollar's turf. When you come out with your findings in a month or so we will feel SO much better!
I had planned to stop right here but I thought to myself "if Bart Chilton really is a white hat and cannot get the other 4 commissioners to do their jobs (paid for by public taxes), he should resign". He should not only resign but he should go "whistleblower". He has been given time, lots of it to get the truth out. 5 years and being handed the evidence (not to mention again seeing it with his own eyes again currently) on a platter should make anyone with a conscience do the right thing. He has not and I can no longer think of him as "a good guy" until he actually does something with the evidence. "We're looking into it" doesn't cut it anymore. Regards, Bill H. Miles Franklin Associate writer


John Paulson is a big loser as his fund loses big on GLD.  However he is hanging in there tough!!

(courtesy Reuters)_


Hedge fund chief Paulson a big loser in gold rout GLD.P 




07-May-2013 12:04
By Katya Wachtel



NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) - Hedge fund billionaire John Paulson is one of the biggest losers in this year's gold rout, with his gold fund of under $1 billion losing 27 percent in April alone, according to performance figures provided by a person familiar with the fund.
The jarring one-month decline in the Paulson gold fund brings the year-to-date loss for the fund to about 47 percent, the source said.The April selloff in gold was particularly fierce and came as a surprise to many hedge fund managers who were long either gold bullion or the SPDR Gold Trust GLD.P, the most popular gold exchange-traded fund.
Hedge fund manager David Einhorn said on a conference call on Tuesday, "We were somewhat surprised by the swift decline in the price of gold in April."
The majority of the money invested in the Paulson gold fund is believed to be the billionaire' s own. Paulson rose to fame for making $15 billion betting against the housing market on the eve of the financial crisis in 2007. But since then he has struggled to duplicate that success, and his portfolio of funds has struggled in recent years.
Paulson disclosed the gold fund loss to investors on Monday along with results for his other funds, the source said.
Over a two week stretch in April, the price of gold plunged 17 percent, from $1,603 per ounce to a low of $1,321 on April 16, before starting to rebound. As of Tuesday, the metal was trading near $1,446.
Regulatory filings show that at the end of last year Paulson & Co Inc, the firm that manages Paulson's hedge funds, was the largest holder of the SPDR Gold ETF, with 21.8 million shares. Paulson has not yet disclosed its latest position in the gold ETF. Since the beginning of the year, the gold ETF has fallen about 14 percent.
Paulson's hedge funds also are large investors in shares of gold mining companies, which similarly have sold ff this year.
Until this year, gold had been a solid investment. In the wake of the financial crisis, a number of hedge funds began buying gold as a hedge against inflation. But inflation has yet to materialize, despite the Federal Reserve's aggressive purchases of Treasuries and mortgage bonds to stoke the economy.
Paulson's more widely held Advantage fund declined 0.8 percent in April, largely because of its gold positions, the source said, and is up 2.5 percent for the year through April.
The Advantage fund and a leveraged version of it were once two of Paulson's most popular funds but now have less than $5 billion in assets.
The average hedge fund is up a little over 3 percent this year.
Assets at Paulson's firm have dropped to $18 billion, down from $38 billion in early 2011, due to redemptions and poor performance.
Two other funds managed by Paulson are performing well this year. His credit-focused fund is up 11.9 percent, and the Paulson Recovery fund is up 21.8 percent.









http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/usgs-data-reveals-u.s.-gold-production-declining


"I wouldn't read much into yesterday's price action considering the amount of volume there was."

¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD & SILVER

The gold price rallied about five bucks or so in mid-morning trading in Hong Kong on their Monday...and any further rally attempts were squashed, as volume was very heavy for that time of day.
That small gain lasted until shortly after 11:00 a.m. BST in London...and then got gently sold off for a five dollar loss by noon in New York.  After that, gold struggled back to about unchanged on the day.  The highs are lows aren't worth mentioning.
Gold closed the Monday session in New York at $1,470.30 spot...down forty cents from Friday's close.  Net volume was a tiny 74,000 contracts...and based on that volume, I wouldn't read a thing into yesterday's price action.
It was virtually the same thing in silver, but the spike at 9:00 a.m. Hong Kong time got dealt with far more harshly...and it was obvious that whatever buying activity showed up at the point, got dealt with in the same old way.
But from there, the silver price action mirrored the gold price action...and silver closed at $24.04 spot...down 9 cents from Friday.  Volume was tiny...only 23,000 contracts, with a large chunk of that coming during the Hong Kong spike in prices, as 'da boyz' had to throw a decent number of contracts at the price to put that fire out.
The dollar index closed at 81.105 on Friday afternoon...and traded sideways from there at the open on Monday morning in Far East trading.  From that point, there were a couple of small rallies...one starting around 2:00 p.m. in Hong Kong...and the second around 10:00 a.m. in New York.  The high tick of the days [82.41] came shortly before 11:00 a.m. EDT...and then slid a bit from there.  The index closed at 82.34...up about 25 basis points on the day.  Nothing much to see here.


The CME's daily delivery report showed that 3 gold and 8 silver contracts were posted for delivery on Wednesday within the Comex-approved depositories.

GLD reported that an authorized participant withdrew 106,371 troy ounces of gold yesterday...and as of 9:22 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, there were no reported changes in SLV.

Joshua Gibbons, the Guru of the SLV Bar List, updated his website last Thursday with the figures for the end of trading on Wednesday, May 1st.  Twice last week I remembered...and then forgot...to post this data.  This, in part, is what he had to say..."Analysis of the 01 May bar list, and comparison to the previous week's list...1,806,475.8 oz. were added (all to Brinks London), 3,207,486.6 oz. were removed (all from Brinks London), and 595 had a serial number change (all in Brinks London)."  The rest of his brief commentary is posted here.
The U.S. Mint finally had a sales report.  They sold 3,000 ounces of gold eagles...and 719,500 silver eagles.
Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Friday, they reported receiving 126,270 troy ounces of silver...and shipped 510,435 troy ounces of the stuff out the door.  The link to that activity is here.
In gold on Friday, the Comex-approved depositories reported receiving 65,253 troy ounces...and shipped out 119,581 troy ounces.  The link to that activity is here.
Here's a chart that New Zealand reader Bruce McLean sent my way yesterday...and it shows the extreme bearishness of the Hulbert Gold Newsletter Sentiment Index.  You know the bottom is in when you see readings like this, especially when you compare them to what's happened over the last fifteen years...and I've been around for all of them.  The 'click to enlarge' feature is a must with this graph.

selected news and views......

Brazil furious with Cristina Fernandez non-kept promises freezes relation


Brazil has virtually frozen political and economic relations with Argentina following serious discrepancies that were confirmed during the recent summit of presidents Cristina Fernandez with Dilma Rousseff who cut short the originally scheduled two-day visit to Buenos Aires.

The bilateral conflict exposes billions of dollars of investments from Brazil, which also happens to be Argentina’s main trade partner, since the government of Cristina Fernandez has not complied with any of the understandings reached in previous meetings referred mainly to limitations, restrictions and other obstacles implemented by the Argentines.
But this time also, according to Argentine and Brazilian diplomatic sources quoted in the Buenos Aires media, there were serious questionings towards Cristina Fernandez latest political decisions ‘on the path of the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez’, the main of which, judicial reform and the advance on the media.
This article appeared on the mercopress.com Internet site on Saturday...and I thank Casey Research's own Louis James for passing it around.

Uruguay admits trade and economic relations with Argentina ‘couldn’t be worse’


Vice-president Danilo Astori admitted on Friday that economic-trade relations with Argentina continue to deteriorate and seriously question Mercosur and Uruguay must therefore speed the search for other alternatives.

“Argentina protectionist policies are flagrantly contradicting the Treaty of Asuncion, (the founding stone of Mercosur), and even when the Argentine government has all the right to decide its policies, those decisions have no support in the Mercosur treaty”, pointed out Astori during a business forum.
He added that the current foreign exchange policy of Argentina which has seen the US dollar reach almost ten Argentine Pesos in the ‘blue’ or informal market with a 90% spread over the official exchange rate, already is seriously harming bilateral trade but “it’s not clear” how it can really affect the Uruguayan real estate market.
“To say this will not have an impact on us is to ignore reality; the issue is how do we behave to mitigate this possible impact, but at the same time even more important find other sources to diversify and improve our trade and economic situation”, argued Astori.
This is another story from the mercopress.com Internet site on Saturday...and the second offering in a row from Louis James.

France Declares Austerity Over as Germany Offers Wiggle Room


French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici declared the era of austerity over after his German counterpart offered flexibility on deficit cutting amid renewed bickering between Europe’s two biggest economies.

“We’re witnessing the end of the dogma of austerity” as the only tool to fight the euro debt crisis, Moscovici said yesterday on Europe 1 radio. “We’ve been pleading for a growth policy for a year. Austerity on its own impedes growth.”
The gap between the French Socialist finance chief’s view and the election-year positioning of Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble underscores the divergence between their economies and the wrangling that has marked the crisis fight since Francois Hollande replaced Nicolas Sarkozy as French leader a year ago.
This story was filed from Paris about lunchtime in Europe...and posted on theBloomberg Internet site very early yesterday morning.  I thank Manitoba reader Ulrike Marx for sending it along.

German euro founder calls for 'catastrophic' currency to be broken up


Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has called for a break-up of the single currency to let southern Europe recover, warning that the current course is "leading to disaster". 

"The economic situation is worsening from month to month, and unemployment has reached a level that puts democratic structures ever more in doubt," he said.
"The Germans have not yet realised that southern Europe, including France, will be forced by their current misery to fight back against German hegemony sooner or later," he said, blaming much of the crisis on Germany's wage squeeze to gain export share.
Someone at Casey Research said that this was posturing for votes in the upcoming fall election in Germany.  That may be true, but you should form your own opinion once you've read this Ambrose Evans-Pritchard piece from The Telegraph on Sunday evening BST...and I thank reader 'h c' for sharing it with us.

Draghi Says ECB Ready to Cut Interest Rates Again If Needed


European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers are ready to cut interest rates again if needed after reducing them to a record low last week.

“We will be looking at all the data that arrives from the euro-area economy in the coming weeks and if necessary, we are ready to act again,” Draghi said in a speech in Rome today. “Monetary policy will remain accommodative.”
The euro fell half a cent on the comment to $1.3057 and European stocks pared losses. The Frankfurt-based ECB on May 2 cut its benchmark rate by a quarter point to 0.5 percent, and Draghi said then that officials have an “open mind” about taking the deposit rate, currently at zero, into negative territory.
Money is worthless...cash is trash.  Take your pick.  A lot of customers showing up at our bullion store are saying precisely the same thing.  How has it come to this?  This story was filed from Frankfurt yesterday afternoon Europe time...and posted on the Bloomberg website mid-morning MDT.  My thanks go out to Ulrike Marx for her second offering in today's column.                                                                     

Afghanistan's Karzai Says He Was Assured C.I.A. Would Continue Delivering Bags of Cash


The C.I.A.’s station chief here met with President Hamid Karzai on Saturday, and the Afghan leader said he had been assured that the agency would continue dropping off stacks of cash at his office despite a storm of criticism that has erupted since the payments were disclosed.

The C.I.A. money, Mr. Karzai told reporters, was “an easy source of petty cash,” and some of it was used to pay off members of the political elite, a group dominated by warlords.
The use of the C.I.A. cash for payoffs has prompted criticism from many Afghans and some American and European officials, who complain that the agency, in its quest to maintain access and influence at the presidential palace, financed what is essentially a presidential slush fund. The practice, the officials say, effectively undercut a pillar of the American war strategy: the building of a clean and credible Afghan government to wean popular support from the Taliban.
Instead, corruption at the highest levels seems to have only worsened. The International Monetary Fund recently warned diplomats in Kabul that the Afghan government faced a potentially severe budget shortfall partly because of the increasing theft of customs duties and officially abetted tax evasion.
This short, but very interesting essay, is a must read for all serious students of the 'New Great Game'.  It was posted on The New York Timeswebsite on Saturday...and I thank Roy Stephens for finding it for us.

Policy battle rages in China as slowdown feeds 'sense of crisis'


Anti-reform hardliners in China's Communist Party have become seriously alarmed by the sharp slow-down in economic growth, creating a "task-force" to crank up production.

China's Caixin Magazine reports that there is a growing "sense of crisis" not felt since the depths of the global banking crash in 2008-2009.
The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission [SASAC] has assembled a team to "protect economic growth" and pressure state companies to boost jobs at all costs.
SASAC is the bastion of vested interests and controller of 115 state behemoths with assets above $6 trillion and lock on much of the economy.
The move comes amid further signs that growth is faltering across all fronts. HSBC's gauge of Chinese services fell three points to 51.1 in April, the lowest in almost two years.
This must read story by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard showed up on thetelegraph.co.uk Internet site yesterday afternoon BST...and I thank Roy Stephens for his final offering in today's column.

Seven King World News Blogs/Audio Interviews


1. Robert Fitzwilson: "The Global Run on Silver and What it Means Going Forward".  2.  Dr. Paul Craig Roberts [#1]: "Former U.S. Treasury Official - Gold, Silver the Fed and Bank Run".  3. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts [#2]: "Former U.S. Treasury Official - Gold, the Police State and More War".  4.John Embry: "This is How Close We Are to Total Collapse".  5. Richard Russell: "Big Money, Fed Gold, God and General Patton".   6. The first audio interview is with Jean-Marie Eveillard...and the second audio interview is with Dr. Paul Craig Roberts.


Woman scams metal buyers out of thousands with fake silver bars


Police are looking for a woman who they say sold several hundred fake silver bars to local metal buyers under the guise that it was real silver.

According to police, a 40-year-old white woman came to the Traverse City, Colorado area in late April and sold these metal bars to at least three different precious metal buyers in the area.
On April 27th, the woman walked into Bay West Antiques and sold 100 silver bars to store owners, Holly Dalley and her husband Pete. Real silvers bars are currently worth just over $24.00 each.
"She came in, she sat down, she had a couple of boxes," said Dalley. "She said there were 50 1-ounce bars in each box. I looked at the first one, I didn't take it out of it's plastic. I just saw that and said everything looked good. There wasn't anything that would have indicated that it was fake at all."
This is another example of caveat emptor.  Unless you know what you're doing, you should always buy from a reputable dealer...and have your guard up if you're buying privately.  You'll note that this person unloaded them at pawn shops or other such places where the persons working there know next to nothing about precious metals.  I thank James Anderson for sharing this story.

Jan.-Feb. data reveals U.S. gold production declining—USGS


U.S. gold mining output was already slowing when on April 10, Kennecott Copper’s Bingham Canyon Mine experienced a massive slope failure temporarily idling the country’s 4th largest gold producer.

Gold production by U.S. mines was down 8% in February from 18,300 kilograms (588,358 troy ounces) in February 2012 to 16,900 kilograms (543,347 ozs) this year, the U.S. Geological Survey reported in its Mineral Industry Survey.
This comes on the heels of a 10% drop in January of this year from 19,800 kilograms (636,584 ozs) in January 2012 to 17,900 kilograms (575,498 ozs).
The rest of this very short story was posted on the mineweb.com Internet site yesterday...and it's worth the read.

GoldMoney's Alasdair Macleod interviewed on 'The Keiser Report'


GoldMoney's research director, economist Alasdair Macleod, was interviewed for 15 minutes last week by Max Keiser on "The Keiser Report" program on theRussia Today network.  He remarked that the world's gold is moving from West to East, that liquidations in the major gold exchange-traded fund, GLD, could signify a shift by investors away from paper gold and into real metal, and that the recent attack on the gold price could have been undertaken by a central bank or a hedge fund. The program has been posted on the youtube.comInternet site...and Alasdair's segment begins at the 11:50 minute mark.


Gold to play major role in Italy economic recovery


Majority of Italian's, holder of world's fourth largest gold reserves holder, are against selling some gold from country’s huge reserves to sped up economic recovery.

According to a WGC survey, Only 4% of citizens and business leaders would support the sale of Italy's gold reserves, while 52% of citizens and 61% of business leaders would endorse using, but not selling, national gold reserves.
The study revealed that Italian business leaders (92%) and citizens (85%) overwhelmingly agree that the nation's gold reserves have an important and positive role to play in the country's economic recovery.
This short gold-related news item was filed from London...and posted on thebullionstreet.com Internet site yesterday afternoon India Standard Time...and I thank Ulrike Marx for her final offering in today's column.

¤ THE WRAP

I now hold the opinion that the commissioners and other high officials of the CFTC are traitors. That’s a real ugly word, but Merriam-Webster defines traitor as one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty. It may be ugly, but the CFTC has betrayed the public trust and has been false to a sworn obligation and duty to uphold commodity law. How else to describe a phony 4.5 year investigation and never a comment on the series of unprecedented price declines in silver while the supposed investigation was in place? I don’t know how these people live with themselves by betraying the public on a daily basis. - Silver analyst Ted Butler...04 May 2013
As I mentioned further up, I wouldn't read much into yesterday's price action considering the amount of volume there was.  However, it should be noted that the mid-morning rallies in both gold and silver in the thinly-traded Far East markets were squashed in the usual manner...and volumes at the time, were heavy.
Nothing has changed in the precious metals market since the big sell-off of three weeks ago.  The Commitment of Traders Report is still sitting in a wildly bullish configuration...and all that awaits is a trigger of some sort.  That, coupled with the reaction of JPMorgan et al when the rallies begin, will determine how high the rally goes...and how fast we get there.  Supply and demand means squat in a managed market.  So we wait.
Today, at the close of Comex trading, is the cut-off for this Friday's Commitment of Traders Report...and after last week's surprise, I'm not about to hazard a guess as to what the new report will show when it's posted on the CFTC's website at 3:30 p.m. EDT on Friday.
Both gold and silver came under some selling pressure during the Far East trading session on their Tuesday...and volumes at the London open [3:00 a.m. EDT] are already pretty chunky in both metals.  Virtually all of it is of the HFT variety.  The dollar index isn't doing much.
And as I hit the 'send' button at 5:10 a.m. Eastern time, London has been trading for a bit more than two hours.  Gold is down about ten bucks...and silver is lower by 35 cents, but was down 55 cents just before the Lodnon open.  Volumes are way up there...35,000 net in gold...and around 11,000 contracts in silver.  The dollar index is not doing a thing. 
Before heading off to bed, I'd like to mention that Casey Research is sponsoring another on-line video event.  This one is entitled The Myth of American Energy Independence Webinar.
Marin Katusa, CR's chief energy investment strategist, interviews the world’s top energy experts including former U.S. Energy Secretary - Spencer Abraham, Canada’s former Minister of Natural Resources – Herb Dhaliwal, and the Chairmen Emeritus of the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority – Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, and co-founder and CEO of Uranium Energy Corp – Amir Adnani about how important nuclear power will be for our global energy future.
Marin and Chairman of Sprott US Holdings, Rick Rule believe that due to increasing costs to bring uranium to market, increased demand, and the end of the Megatons to Megawatts agreement with Russia at the end of the year, uranium prices have nowhere to go but up.  And early investors can position themselves now for very large gains in the near future.
This free video will air on Tuesday, May 21 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.  It will be available for viewing after the initial stream for those who have schedule conflicts.
Following the webinar, all attendees will get a free copy of the new Global Resource Intelligence report on Uranium.  It’s a $29 value, roughly 39 pages, and will be e-mailed on May 21st.
If energy is your bailiwick, you can learn more about it here...and register at the same time.
See you here tomorrow.


http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-07/paulson-gold-fund-down-27-april

Paulson Gold Fund Down 27% In April

Tyler Durden's picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/07/2013 07:34 -0400



Curious who the biggest casualty of last month's forced precious metal take down is? It may very well be John Paulson, who has systematically been blown out of all his concentrated positions in the past few years, and who, according to Bloomberg, just lost a record 27% in one month in his gold fund. If anything, it may explain the ongoing collapse in GLD holdings as he (among others) is forced to continue liquidating. The good news is that once levered players such as Paulson are finally blown out, there is hope that only far more rational, "non-weak handed" players remain at the table.

And some more news on the ongoing physical stampede out of Reuters:
  • India, the world's biggest buyer of the metal, will celebrate Akshaya Tritiya next week, the second-biggest gold buying festival after Dhanteras. Weddings have also started and will continue until July.
  • At 0934 GMT, the actively traded gold for June delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was 0.54 percent lower at 26,950 Indian rupees per 10 grams, after gaining more than a percent in the previous two sessions.
  • A stronger rupee kept the upside in prices limited. The rupee plays an important role in determining the landed cost of the dollar-quoted yellow metal.
  • Premiums charged on London prices were at $7-8 an ounce on Tuesday.
  • The RBI could restrict the import of gold on consignment basis by banks only to meet the genuine needs of exporters of gold jewellery in late May, governor D. Subbarao said in the monetary policy statement on May 3.














Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)