Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Here are the following closes for gold and silver today:
Gold: $1198 down $3.50 (comex closing time)
Silver: $16.28 up 1 cent (comex closing time)
In the access market 5:15 pm
Gold $1198.50
Silver: $16.32
Gold/silver trading: see kitco charts on the right side of the commentary.
Following is a brief outline on gold and silver comex figures for today:
At the gold comex today, we surprisingly had a good delivery day, registering 334 notices served for 33,400 oz. Silver comex filed with 0 notices for nil oz .
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 243.05 tonnes for a loss of 60 tonnes over that period. Lately the removals have been rising!
end
In silver, the open interest fell by a whopping 3,999 contracts with Wednesday’s silver price up by 12 cents. The total silver OI continues to remain extremely high with today’s reading at 173,878 contracts remaining close to record highs. The front April month has an OI of 170 contracts for a loss of 23 contracts. We are now at multi year high in the total OI complex despite a record low price. This dichotomy has been happening now for quite a while and defies logic. There is no doubt that the silver situation is scaring our bankers to no end.
We had 0 notices served upon for nil oz.
In gold, the total comex gold OI rests tonight at 396,575 for a gain of 89 contracts with gold up by a considerable $8.70 on Wednesday. We had 334 notices served upon for 33,400 oz.
Today, we had no change in gold inventory at the GLD/ Gold Inventory rests at 736.08 tonnes
In silver, / /we had no change in silver inventory at the SLV/ and thus the inventory tonight is 324.900 million oz
We have a few important stories to bring to your attention today…
1. Today we had the open interest in silver fall by a huge 3999, contracts despite the rise in price on Wednesday (13 cents). The OI for gold rose by 1486 contracts up to 396,575 contracts as the price of gold rose by a considerable $8.70 on yesterday.
(report Harvey)
2.Greece paid the iMF on Thursday. On Friday, it was announced that the ECB increased its ELA to Greece by 1.2 billion euros up to 73.2 billion euros as more depositors fled. On Monday, the London’s Financial times has reported that Greece has decided that it will withhold the IMF payment in May and June so it can pay its pensioners. Also the reform package submitted by Greece is totally offside on its pension reform and on privatization. Contagion seems to be spreading as yields widen with the advanced risk of default. Also on Tuesday, the ECB advanced another 800 million euros of ELA as more depositors fled. Yesterday, it was announced that the Greek finance minister will visit a bankruptcy lawyer in the USA. Greek yields skyrocketed northbound . Today, we were informed that Greece has informally asked the IMF to delay receiving its payment to which they immediately rejected the informal request. Yesterday the German Fin. Minister promised that there would be no contagion in peripheral yields but that was thrown out the window today. Rioting occurred on the streets of Athens.
2b. Graham Summers delivers a terrific commentary explaining the real problem with the Greek debt
London’s financial times/goldcore/zero hedge/Bloomberg/Graham Summers/Phoenix Research Capital.
3. China’s real GDP tumbles to a gain of only 1.6%/we highlight 3 other big misses. These misses should showcase in reality how the USA economy is performing.
zero hedge
4. a)Two big misses on data from the USA:
i.the Philly manufacturing index
ii Housing starts and permits
(BLS/zero hedge)
b) higher initial jobless claims
(BLS/zero hedge)
5. Bill Holter delivers a great paper on 5,000 dollar silver
(Bill Holter/Miles Franklin)
this is very important so you do not want to miss this.
6. German bonds reach negativity in yield out to 9 years. the 10 year German bund is now only 8 basis points to the positive side. The ECB s going to have trouble buying the number of bonds it needs for QE
(zero hedge)
we have these and other stories for you tonight
Let us now head over to the comex and assess trading over there today.
Here are today’s comex results:
The total gold comex open interest rose by 1486 contracts from 395,089 up to 396,575 with gold up by $8.70 yesterday (at the comex close). We are now in the active delivery month of April and here the OI fell by 2 contracts down to 2,146. We had 2 contract filed upon yesterday so we neither gained nor lost any gold ounces standing for delivery in April. The next non active delivery month is May and here the OI fell by 25 contracts down to 524. The next big active delivery contract month is June and here the OI fell by 1572 contracts down to 264.256. June is the second biggest delivery month on the comex gold calendar. The estimated volume today (which is just comex sales during regular business hours of 8:20 until 1:30 pm est) was poor at 99,437. The confirmed volume yesterday ( which includes the volume during regular business hours + access market sales the previous day) was poor at 142,753 contracts. Today we had 334 notices filed for 33,400 oz.
And now for the wild silver comex results. Silver OI surprisingly fell by a huge 3,999 contracts from 177,877 despite the fact that silver was up by 12 cents, with respect to Wednesday’s trading. Somebody big is willing to take on JPMorgan and we must have lost a few nervous nellies along the way. We are now in the non active delivery month of April and here the OI fell to 170 for a loss of 23 contracts. We had 23 notices filed on Wednesday so we neither gained nor lost any silver ounces in this delivery month of April. The next big active delivery month is May and here the OI fell by 4575 contracts down to 72,819. We have 2 weeks before first day notice on Thursday, April 30.2015. The estimated volume today was poor at 25,590 contracts (just comex sales during regular business hours. The confirmed volume yesterday (regular plus access market) came in at 59,632 contracts which is excellent in volume. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today.
April initial standings
April 16.2015
Gold
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz
50,052.166 oz (Manfra, Scotia)
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz
nil
No of oz served (contracts) today
334 contracts (33,400 oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
1812 contracts(181,200) oz
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
1023 contracts(102,300 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers inventory this month
oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month
270,089.2 oz
Today, we had 0 dealer transaction
total Dealer withdrawals: nil oz
we had 0 dealer deposits
total dealer deposit: nil oz
we had 2 customer withdrawals
i) Out of Manfra: 32.15 oz (1 kilobar)
ii) Out of Scotia: 50,020.016 oz
total customer withdrawal: 50,052,166 oz
we had 0 customer deposits:
total customer deposit: nil oz
We had 0 adjustment:
Today, 0 notices was issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 334 contracts of which 161 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account
To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the March contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (1023) x 100 oz or 102,300 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of April (2146) and the number of notices served upon today (334) x 100 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for gold for the April contract month:
No of notices served so far (1023) x 100 oz or ounces + {OI for the front month (2146) – the number of notices served upon today (334) x 100 oz which equal 283,500 oz or 8.18 tonnes of gold.
we neither gained nor lost any gold ounces standing.
This has been the lowest amount of gold ounces standing in an active month in quite some time.
Total dealer inventory: 567,831.90 or 17.66 tonnes
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7,815,647.348 oz. (243.09) tonnes)
Several weeks ago we had total gold inventory of 303 tonnes, so during this short time period 60 tonnes have been net transferred out. However I believe that the gold that enters the gold comex is not real. I cannot see continual additions of strictly kilobars.
end
And now for silver
April silver initial standings
April 16 2015:
Silver
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory
50,992.768 oz (Delaware,Scotia)
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory
1,191,275.67 oz (JPM)
No of oz served (contracts)
0 contracts (nil oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
170 contracts(875,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)
343 contracts (1,715,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers inventory this month
548,169.5 oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month
10,504,647.3 oz
Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
total dealer deposit: nil oz
we had 0 dealer withdrawals:
total dealer withdrawal: nil oz
We had 1 customer deposits:
ii) Into JPM: 1,191,275.67 oz * this is the 6th day out of 7 ,that JPMorgan has deposited a huge amount of silver in its customer account. Something is seriously happening behind the scenes.
total customer deposits: 1,191,275.67 oz
We had 2 customer withdrawals:
i) Out of Delaware: 10,916.758 oz
iii) Out of Scotia; 40,076.010 oz
total withdrawals; 50,992.768 oz
we had 0 adjustments:
Total dealer inventory: 62.972 million oz
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 174.819 million oz
.
The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts for nil oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in April, we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at (343) x 5,000 oz = 1,715,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of April (170) and the number of notices served upon today (0) x 5000 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for silver for the April contract month:
343 (notices served so far) + { OI for front month of April(170) -number of notices served upon today (0} x 5000 oz = 2,565,000 oz standing for the April contract month.
we neither gained nor lost any silver ounces standing in this April contract month.
for those wishing to see the rest of data today see:
http://www.harveyorgan.wordpress.com orhttp://www.harveyorganblog.com
end
The two ETF’s that I follow are the GLD and SLV. You must be very careful in trading these vehicles as these funds do not have any beneficial gold or silver behind them. They probably have only paper claims and when the dust settles, on a collapse, there will be countless class action lawsuits trying to recover your lost investment.
There is now evidence that the GLD and SLV are paper settling on the comex.
***I do not think that the GLD will head to zero as we still have some GLD shareholders who think that gold is the right vehicle to be in even though they do not understand the difference between paper gold and physical gold. I can visualize demand coming to the buyers side:
i) demand from paper gold shareholders
ii) demand from the bankers who then redeem for gold to send this gold onto China
vs no sellers of GLD paper.
And now the Gold inventory at the GLD:
April 16.2015: no change in inventory at the GLD/total inventory at 736.08 tonnes
April 15/ a huge addition of 1.79 tonnes of gold inventory added to the GLD/ Inventory tonight at 736.08 tonnes
April 14/ no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 734.29 tonnes
April 13.2015: we had a withdrawal of 1.75 tonnes of GLD/Inventory at 734.29 tonnes
April 10/we had no change in inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 736.04 tonnes
April 9.2015 we have a huge addition of 2.98 tonnes of gold inventory/GLD inventory tonight stands at 736.04 tonnes
April 8.2015:no changes in the GLD/Inventory 733.06 tonnes
April 7. we had another withdrawal of 4.18 tonnes of gold at the GLD/Inventory rests at 733.06 tonnes
April 6. no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 737.24 tonnes
April 2/no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 737.24 tonnes
April 1/2015/ no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 737.24 tonnes
march 31.2015/ no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 737.24 tonnes
April 16/2015 / we had no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory stands at 736.08 tonnes
The registered vaults at the GLD will eventually become a crime scene as real physical gold departs for eastern shores leaving behind paper obligations to the remaining shareholders. 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).
GLD : 736.08 tonnes.
end
And now for silver (SLV):
April 16.2015: no change in silver inventory tonight at the SLV/324.900 million oz
April 15.2015: no change in silver inventory tonight at the SLV/324.900 million oz is the inventory tonight.
April 14. we had another addition of .67 million oz of silver at the SLV/Inventory rests at 324.900 million oz
April 13.2015: a huge addition of 2.391 million oz of silver at the SLV/Inventory rests at 324.230 million oz
April 10/ no changes in silver inventory at the SLV/Inventory rests at 321.839 million oz
April 9/2015 no changes in inventory at the SLV/Inventory rests at 321.839 million oz/
April 8.2015: no changes in inventory at the SLV/Inventory rests tonight at 321.839 million oz
April 7.2015: no changes in inventory at the SLV/Inventory rests tonight at 321.839 million oz
April 6. we had a small withdrawal of 136,000 oz/inventory tonight rests at 321.839 million oz
April 2/2015: no changes in inventory/SLV inventory rests this weekend at 321.975 million oz
April 1.2015: we had a huge withdrawal of 1.913 million oz of silver from the SLV vaults/Inventory 321.975 million oz
March 31.2015: no changes in inventory at the SLV/Inventory at 323.88 million oz
April 16/2015 we had no change in inventory at the SLV / inventory rests at 324.900 million oz
end
And now for our premiums to NAV for the funds I follow:
Note: Sprott silver fund now for the first time into the negative to NAV
Sprott and Central Fund of Canada.
(both of these funds have 100% physical metal behind them and unencumbered and I can vouch for that)
1. Central Fund of Canada: traded at Negative 8.8% percent to NAV in usa funds and Negative 8.9% to NAV for Cdn funds!!!!!!!
Percentage of fund in gold 61.4%
Percentage of fund in silver:38.20%
cash .4%
( April 16/2015)
Sprott gold fund finally rising in NAV
2. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): Premium to NAV rises to + 0.35%!!!!! NAV (April 16/2015)
3. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV rises -.31% to NAV(April 16/2015
Note: Sprott silver trust back into positive territory at +0.35%.
Sprott physical gold trust is back into negative territory at -.31%
Central fund of Canada’s is still in jail.
end
And now for your more important physical gold/silver stories:
Gold and silver trading early this morning
(courtesy Goldcore/Mark O’Byrne)
U.S. And Global Property Bubble Fears Mount
By Mark O’ByrneApril 16, 20150 Comments
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– “Renewed global property bubble” warned of by Financial Times
– Research company MSCI says returns on property last year averaged 9.9% globally
– “Best performance” since 2007 and fifth consecutive annual rise
– Rents have not increased in line with asset appreciation
– Speculators moving into more risky peripheral markets around the major hubs like London
– Demand being driven by lack of yield and ultra loose monetary policies
– Bubble is now fully dependent on record low interest rates in the U.S. and EU continuing …
– Bubble will burst as all bubbles do … question is not if but when …
Fears of a renewed global property bubble are rising as prices hit records last seen before the financial crisis.
New data shows real-estate returns in the UK surging 17.9% in 2014 and London returns of over 20% and global returns averaging 9.9%, the Financial Times has warned of a “renewed global property bubble”.
Drawing from a report by research company MSCI, the Financial Times‘s Kate Allen explains that the returns were driven primarily by “rapid capital value appreciation” saying it was “the best performance since 2007 and the fifth consecutive year of increasing returns” and driven by “frenzied buying.”
However, rents have not risen by the same extent. In the U.S. – where property investments saw returns of 11.5% – “investors’ returns from rental income are now lower than before 2008, when a crash in massively overleveraged property triggered an international banking slump.”
MSCI question the sustainability of the current trend. Rental revenue as a proportion of property values in “most global markets are at or close to historic low [yield] levels.”
The MSCI report states that leveraged capital is now flowing into the riskier peripheral property markets around some of the very highly priced U.S. cities and London and also into the peripheral European nations.
“In the past year investment cash has poured into continental Europe — particularly the periphery” according to MSCI. Dublin property prices went parabolic and saw record returns of 44.7%
“People are moving up the risk curve into riskier locations and taking on higher levels of debt and more challenging development activity,” says Peter Hobbs from MSCI.
The demand is being driven by a lack of high-yielding investment opportunities elsewhere. Against “exceptionally low” bond yields and equity markets returning 10.4% on average globally, real estate companies generated returns of 19.5%.
MSCI suggest that the global property market is now dependent on the ultra-loose policies of the ECB and the Fed. “QE is sucking in real estate capital because debt finance is so cheap,” says Hobbs.
He adds “If the US keeps doing what it has been doing for the past five years and Europe catches up, then we are set for another strong year [in 2015].”
This should set alarm bells ringing. The recent boom in high-quality residential property was initially driven primarily by Gulf state oligarchs and high-net-worth Russian and Chinese investors looking to park cash in reasonably safe assets.
We warned back in January 2014 about the developing London property bubble and warned that the bubble would burst and then cautioned people should prepare for property prices to fall globally in January of this year.
Back in December we wrote with regard to London’s “super-prime” market,
“Western sanctions on Russia have led to a shuddering halt to Russian money entering the UK. Since Xi Jinping came to power in China in November 2012 there has been a crack-down on corruption in China and the amount of Chinese cash being funnelled through tax-havens and into London property has been greatly reduced. The Fed’s QE has come to an end, for now at least, so U.S. sources of capital have waned.”
“Now the plummeting oil price is leading to a drop in demand from wealthy Middle Eastern elites. Many Gulf States are having difficulty financing their social programs due to the very low price of oil. Control over their countries restless populations is becoming more tenuous. So providing “bread and circuses” is a higher priority than pet investment projects in the UK.”
We cautioned that this would have consequences for the UK economy and sterling.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg confirmed that the Gulf States were indeed reigning in their overseas investments. Quoting BNP Paribas it stated,
“This is the first time in 20 years that OPEC nations will be sucking liquidity out of the market rather than adding to it through investments,” due to the depressed price of oil.
Investment into many property markets globally is now being driven by speculative leveraged buying based on near zero percent interest rate policies.
The primary driver of these markets is leverage and floods of cheap money being provided by the ECB, the BOJ, BOE and the Fed. It, once again, poses a major risk to the global financial and banking system.
A “soft landing” is unlikely and an allocation to safe haven goldwill protect investors from the bursting of this latest bubble.
MARKET UPDATE
Today’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,204.60, EUR 1,131.19 and GBP 811.40 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,189.85, EUR 1,123.56 and GBP 808.58 per ounce.
Gold climbed 0.84 percent or $10.00 and closed at $1,202.50 an ounce on yesterday, while silver rose 0.74 percent or $0.12 closing at $16.32 an ounce.
In Singapore gold prices climbed 0.3 percent to $1,204.76 an ounce near the end of day trading.
Gold continues upward for its second session and has risen above $1,200 an ounce to near $1,209 an ounce after weak U.S. producer data and a soft U.S. dollar. U.S. economic data out yesterday saw a drop for industrial output in March with its largest fall in two and a half years.
FOMC members Dennis Lockhart and Stanley Fischer are scheduled to speak this evening.Expect more mixed messages from the Fed.
With half of the month gone, sales of gold American Eagle bullion coins by the U.S. Mint are on track to fall well short of both last April’s total, and the final figure for March according to Reuters. This month the Mint has sold just 10,000 ounces of gold Eagles, versus 46,500 ounces in March and 38,500 ounces in April 2014. Some 1.4185 million ounces of silver American Eagles have been sold, meanwhile, against 3.569 million ounces last April and 3.519 million ounces last month.
In late morning European trading gold is at $1,209.40 an ounce or up 0.6 percent. Silver is at $16.56 an ounce or up 1 percent, while platinum is also up 0.34 percent at $1,167.89 an ounce .
end
Big discovery of silver on the ocean floor:
(courtesy GATA)
Record dive recovers $50 million in wartime silver from ocean floor
Submitted by cpowell on Wed, 2015-04-15 19:24. Section: Daily Dispatches
From the British Broadcasting Corp., London
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
In the deepest salvage operation in history, a British-led team has recovered a $50 million (L34 million, E47 million) trove of coins that has lain on the seabed since the steamship carrying them from Bombay to England was sunk in 1942.
The SS City of Cairo was torpedoed 480 miles south of St. Helena by a German U-boat and sank to 5,150 meters. Its precious cargo — 100 tonnes of silver coins — belonged to HM Treasury. The silver rupees had been called in by London to help fund the war effort.
But they never made it. The steamship’s tall plume of smoke was spotted by a U-boat on 6 November 1942 and it was torpedoed.
Ten minutes later, amid efforts to abandon ship, the City of Cairo was hit with a second torpedo which sealed its fate.
The ship and its cargo was presumed lost until 2011, when a team led by British salvage expert John Kingsford located an unnatural object among the ridges and canyons of their South Atlantic search area. …
… For the remainder of the report and some great photographs:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32316599
end
This story is fascinating: Why? the state of Massachusetts has no gold mines:
(courtesy Boston Globe/GATA)
State’s exports enjoying a gold rush
Massachusetts shipped nearly $2 billion of the precious metal to far-flung markets last year
By Megan Woolhouse Globe Staff April 14, 2015
Massachusetts’ top export is not sleek medical devices, cutting-edge machinery, or life-saving pharmaceuticals. It is something more intriguing: gold.
In a state devoid of gold mines, Massachusetts exported nearly $2 billion in gold last year to places such as the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, according to WiserTrade.org, a Leverett trade research group. And these were not paper transactions but 62,500 pounds of the glittery metal — roughly the weight of a herd of more than two dozen rhinoceros.
But exactly who is exporting this gold has stumped even specialists studying the Massachusetts economy, who can talk knowledgeably about almost any product that leaves the state, from semiconductors to seafood to colon cancer tests.
“I really would like to know, but I don’t,” said Northeastern University economics professor Alan Clayton-Matthews.
As it turns out, much of the gold leaving the state appears to be just passing through. In 2014, Massachusetts was not only the nation’s fifth-largest gold exporter but also its fourth-largest importer, accepting about $1.5 billion from countries such as Canada, Colombia, and Mexico.
The middle man appears to be the gold-refining industry, which understandably keeps a very low profile. Massachusetts has its own version of Fort Knox, the Metalor refinery, located in North Attleborough. Metalor, a subsidiary of a Swiss firm that makes gold bullion and parts for Rolex watches, is among the nation’s largest gold refiners.
The company did not return phone calls and e-mails. Juan Carlos Artigas, director of investment research at the World Gold Council, a trade association in London, also was tight-lipped about who here is buying and selling all that gold.
“There are bar and coin dealers in Massachusetts that basically function as a repository to sell gold to other parts of the country and parts outside the US,” Artigas said “But I don’t think I can expose names.”
Artigas has good reason to be careful. Last month, armed robbers stole $5 million in gold and silver from a truck headed from Miami to Boston. The FBI said the truck driver pulled over on a remote stretch of Interstate 95 in North Carolina when men who said they were “policia” ordered them out of the truck, then loaded barrels of gold and silver into a white getaway van.
The security guards were employed by TransValue Inc., a Miami transportation company that is offering $50,000 in addition to the FBI reward of $25,000 to anyone with information. FBI Special Agent Michael D. Leverock of the Miami bureau declined to discuss the truck’s exact destination.
Larry Nyborn, the second-generation owner of Precious Metals Reclaiming Service , a Westwood refiner, said much of the gold that arrives in Massachusetts comes through Miami.
His small firm opened a location in West Palm Beach, Fla., in recent years, extracting gold from old jewelry and electronics and selling it to other US metal refiners, including Metalor.
Metalor makes gold bars stamped with its name and “999.9,” representing the near-purity of the bars, and sells them internationally, according to the
Allan Nyborn of Precious Metals Reclaiming Service in Florida tested gold in preparation for melting.
Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Allan Nyborn of Precious Metals Reclaiming Service in Florida tested gold in preparation for melting.
Metalor’s suppliers include mining companies, central banks, dealers, recyclers, and industries producing precious metal waste, according to the company’s most recent annual report.
“They’re one of the big boys,” Nyborn said. “They could account for a big amount of [gold exports], but I don’t have any way to know. And I don’t think they’re going to tell you.”
Neither will the US Census Bureau, which tracks specific goods and the companies that export them. A spokesman said the names of those businesses are confidential.
Metalor’s 2013 annual report, the most recent available, offers few clues, other than to say that the company’s sole US plant “gained market share” in recent years. Metalor board chairman Scott Morrison told Bloomberg News in 2013: “Right now we can’t keep up with demand in terms of investors in Asia purchasing gold.”
In 2013, Massachusetts shipped about $1 billion in gold to Hong Kong, up from less the $1 million in 2011, according to WiserTrade.org. Last year, the state exported about $217 million in gold to Hong Kong.
Commodities specialists said a modernizing global economy is creating affluence in nations such as China and India, where demand for gold has spiked. “Part of having more wealth is you’re able to purchase more jewelry,” said KC Chang, a senior economist at IHS Global Insight, a Lexington forecasting firm. “Gold benefits from a rising middle class in Asia.”
The price of gold doubled from 2006 to 2010 before peaking in 2011 at about $1,900 an ounce, helping the precious metal become one of the state’s top dollar-value exports. Gold is now trading at about $1,200 an ounce.
Daniel Hodge, director of the Donahue Institute, a policy and economic research arm of the University of Massachusetts, said state economists have concluded that a single company, located near Attleboro, is responsible for the gold passing through the state.
But that’s as far as the research went, he said, because gold doesn’t have a big impact on the state’s broader economy. Technology, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing employ more workers and offer a better barometer of international trade and the state’s economic health.
“There are other sectors we think are more telling about how well Massachusetts companies are trading with Europe and Asia,” Hodge said. “But gold is one of the larger categories of commodities that we export.”
Jason Nyborn (right) of Precious Metals Reclaiming Service in Westwood tested the content of a computer part that was brought in by Wesley Bucklin of MW Recycling in Biddeford, Maine.
end
(courtesy Mike Kosares/GATA)
Mike Kosares: Don’t be a Mr. or Mrs. Unicorn
Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2015-04-16 18:42. Section: Daily Dispatches
2:40p ET Thursday, April 16, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Perpetuating “quantitative easing,” USAGold’s Mike Kosares writes today, will be inflationary and tend to support the gold price, while ending QE likely will shake the markets and support the gold price as well. Kosares’ commentary is headlined “Don’t Be a Mr. or Mrs. Unicorn” and it’s posted at USAGold here:
http://www.usagold.com/cpmforum/2015/04/16/dont-be-a-unicorn/
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
end
$5,000 Silver?
A catchy title this “$5,000 Silver?” don’t you think? Am I crazy? Is this even possible? In who’s lifetime? Ours or our great, great grandchildren long after we are dead and buried? The best way to look at this I believe is to briefly look at silver’s big brother gold and then postulate whether it’s possible or not.
To begin, let’s look at what happened in 1980 and why gold traded up to $875 in the first place. As Jim Sinclair has said many times, gold “moved in a manner to cover the value of foreign held debt of the U.S.”. He has also said “$50,000 gold is possible and it may turn out that this figure is far too low”. Before you laugh and start firing spitballs at me or Mr. Sinclair, I remind you of his call of “gold at $1,650 per ounce by Jan. 2011″. He said this when gold was $350 per ounce or so and the year was around 2004 if memory serves me correctly. He was called a nutjob and far worse …he was correct in retrospect and off in his timing by about eight months …SEVEN YEARS AHEAD OF TIME!
To refresh your memory, let’s do some basic mathematics. The U.S. purportedly has 262 million ounces of gold. (As a side note, if you understand how much gold China has imported just over the last six years and compare that to global production, then you understand the U.S. has in all likelihood “dishoarded” much of this gold). We can compare this 262 million ounces to our national debt rounded off at $18 trillion. Doing the math, if we had to back our debt with the gold we supposedly have, the number currently comes up to $68,700 per ounce!
Before you call me nuts, I have one question for you. Were foreigners to decide that “dollars” for any (many!) reason was no longer acceptable, what would we “pay” with? Remember, since the dollar is the reserve currency, the U.S. holds almost NOTHING in foreign reserves. Why should we have to hold foreign reserves, we issue THE reserve currency?! And yes, I understand the debt is “contracted” in dollars so all we have to do is print more to make the payment. All I am saying is this, if the U.S. was forced somehow to actually settle the debt …in gold, our gold would need to be valued at $68,700 per ounce “now”. I say “now” because our debt burden will only grow larger, our gold holdings (IF they truly still exist) will not grow or “breed” making our stash larger with new little goldlings. My point is this, $68,700 is a credible number only assuming we do have the gold we claim to have.
Now let’s look at silver. Silver is taken out of the ground at roughly a 10-1 ratio to gold production. This number includes “by-product” silver. The current price ratio is 70-1 or thereabouts, nonsensical when you factor in the price to produce silver is higher than the market price. This situation argues for severe supply cutbacks in the future unless the price goes higher to allow for a mining profit. Silver is also a very miniscule market when looked at from a dollar standpoint. There are roughly 800 million ounces produced globally which in dollar terms is less than $15 billion. In today’s world, $15 billion is nothing! Individual companies are bought and sold for more every day.
Another aspect to silver is the “low hanging fruit” has already been found and mined. Many companies have high graded production just to stay in business. New silver deposit exploration has found very little over the last 5-10 years, current new exploration today is almost non existent because the funds from operations have turned into losses. The capital to look for new silver deposits simply does not exist.
New “uses” for silver, be they electrical, industrial, solar, medical or other seem to be popping up regularly. Demand will increase over time. And speaking of time, it is estimated that silver may become the next “extinct element” in about 20 years. Does this mean there will be no silver left on the planet? No, new silver will be found and dug up but probably not enough to satisfy the fledging demand of 100’s of years ago unless new mining technology becomes available.
What comes our way is a once in hundred’s of years currency event. Never before has the world not had a single currency backed by silver or gold. There is no place to hide from the currency derivatives/debt/currency meltdown except in the actual metals themselves, “receipts” will not do this time!
To finish, I would like to paraphrase something from the Bible. In Matthew 25, verses 14-30, the “Parable of talents” is written. It speaks of a master going on a trip and leaving three of his servants bags of gold to care for while he is away. To one he gave 10, another he gave two and the third servant just one bag. He did so based upon his judgment of their abilities to handle money. When the master returned, the servant who was given 10 bags, returned 20 and the servant given two bags returned four. The last servant, who dug a hole in the ground and buried his bag of gold, dug it up and returned it intact. The last servant was scorned and called lazy for doing nothing with his “talent”. Please understand in those days, “talent” was considered weight or coinage but can be looked at today as one’s talent or ability, it should not be wasted.
In my opinion, because the “moneychangers” have so rigged and fraudulently ruined the global monetary system, now is not the time to “earn interest”. Now is not the time to try to “make money”. The system is on the verge of a mathematically certain collapse where institutions and governments themselves stand to perish. Believe this or not, mathematics don’t lie. Now is the time for you to be the third servant and bury you bag of whatever you have accumulated. Get it out of the system and thus out of the way of the financial carnage coming. You will have something to “start over” with and give you a head start. As Richard Russell has said, right now is NOT about making money, it is all about not losing everything.
Will silver go to $5,000 per ounce? Who knows, we may have a completely different currency in short order and nothing will be quoted in “dollars” anymore. All I can tell you is that when gold and silver are remonetized back into the system, their purchasing powers will be at least equal to if not many times higher than these depressed levels. In “dollar terms” they may approach infinity! Regards, Bill Holter
Early morning trading from Asia and Europe last night:
1. Stocks higher on major Chinese bourses as bubblemania is the name of the game in Shanghai and Hong Kong /Japan bourse higher /yen rises to 119.04/
1b Chinese yuan vs USA dollar/yuan strengthens to 6.1967
2 Nikkei up by 16.01 or 0.08%
3. Europe stocks down/USA dollar index down to 97.99/Euro rises to 1.0721
3b Japan 10 year bond yield .33% (Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese yen vs usa cross now at 119.04/
3c Nikkei still above 19,000
3d USA/Yen rate now well below the 120 barrier this morning
3e WTI 55.37 Brent 62.23
3f Gold up/Yen up
3gJapan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion uSA dollars worth of bond per month or $1.3 trillion. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa.
Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and by 2018 they will have 25% of all Japanese debt. Fifty percent of Japanese budget financed with debt.
3h Oil down for WTI and down for Brent this morning
3i European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10 yr bund below 10 basis points. German bunds in negative yields from 9 years out.
Except Greece which sees its 2 year rate rises to a monstrous 27.75%/Greek stocks down another 0.78%/ still expect continual bank runs on Greek banks.
3j Greek 10 year bond yield: 11.91% (down 25 in basis point in yield)
3k Gold at 1207.80 dollars/silver $16.48
3l USA vs Russian rouble; (Russian rouble down 1/4 rouble/dollar in value) 50.05 , the rouble is the best acting currency this year!!
3m oil into the 55 dollar handle for WTI and 62 handle for Brent/Saudi Arabia increases production to drive out competition. (see zero hedge)
3n Higher foreign deposits out of China sees huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation. This scan spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/China may be forced to do QE!!
30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the SF
3p Britain’s serious fraud squad investigating the Bank of England/ the British pound is suffering
3r the 9 year German bund now enters negative territory with the 10 year close to negativity/no doubt the ECB will have trouble meeting its quota of purchases and thus European QE will be a total failure.
3s The ECB increased the ELA to Greece today by another large 800 million euros. The new maximum is 74.0 billion euros. The ELA is used to replace depositors fleeing the Greek banking system. The bank runs are increasing exponentially.
Greece repaid the IMF last Friday. There will be nothing left April 24..
3t Greece informally asks the IMF to delay its payment for May 1 and they refuse.
4. USA 10 year treasury bond at 1.87% early this morning. Thirty year rate well below 3% at 2.53%/yield curve flatten/foreshadowing recession.
5. Details Ransquawk, Bloomberg, Deutsche bank/Jim Reid.
(courtesy zero hedge/Jim Reid Deutsche bank)
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