Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Here are the following closes for gold and silver today:
Gold: $1171.50 down $7.00 (comex closing time)
Silver $15.55 down 11 cents
In the access market 5:15 pm
Gold $1172.45
Silver: $15.70
First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:
At the gold comex today, we had a poor delivery day, registering 1 notice serviced for 100 oz for the June delivery month and zero deliveries for the first day notice for the non active July month. Silver comex is now officially in the record books for June and July saw 746 notices filed for 3,730,000 oz.
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today, the total inventory rests at 250.01 tonnes for a loss of 53 tonnes over that period.
In silver, the open interest rose by 34 contracts as Monday’s price was down 7 cents. The total silver OI continues to remain extremely high, with today’s reading at 196,198 contracts now at decade highs despite a record low price. In ounces, the OI is represented by .980 billion oz or 140% of annual global silver production (ex Russia ex China). 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 as they continue to raid as basically they have no other alternative. There can only be one answer as to how the OI of comex silver is now just under 1 billion oz coupled with a low price under 16.00 dollars: sovereign China through proxies are the long and they have extremely deep pockets. This is the first time in almost two years that the open interest in an active delivery month did not collapse in number.
In silver we had 746 notices served upon for 3,730,000 oz. for July
In gold, the total comex gold OI rests tonight at 443,223 for a gain 1,216 contracts as gold was up $5.60 yesterday. We had 1 notice filed for 100 oz to complete June and zero notices for July.
we had no change in tonnage at the gold inventory at the GLD; thus the inventory rests tonight at 711.44 tonnes. The appetite for gold coming from China is depleting not only gold from the LBMA and GLD but also the comex is bleeding gold. I am sure that 700 tonnes is the rock bottom inventory in gold. Anything below this level is just paper and the bankers know that they cannot retrieve “paper gold” to send it onwards to China .In silver, again, we had a sizable withdrawal in inventory at the SLV to the tune of 621,000 oz/ Inventory now rests at 323.718 million oz. Somebody was in need of silver badly.
We have a few important stories to bring to your attention today…
1. Today, we had the open interest in silver rise by 34 contracts to 196,198 as silver was down 7 cents yesterday. The OI for gold rose by another 1216 contracts up to 443,223 contracts as the price of gold was up $5.60 on yesterday.
(report Harvey)
2. Today, 7 important commentaries on Greece
(zero hedge, Reuters/Bloomberg/)
3.the impending default for Puerto Rico and a potential black swan emanating from a bond collapse of Puerto Rico bonds
(2 stories)
(zero hedge/Dave Kranzler/IRD)
4. China stock market initially crashes and then its protection team shows up
(zero hedge)
5. Gold trading overnight
(Goldcore/Mark O’Byrne)
6. Trading from Asia and Europe overnight
(zero hedge)
7. Trading of equities/ New York
(zero hedge)
8. Dave Kranzler/IRD: topic Market Intervention Creep
(Dave Kranzler IRD)
9. Bill Holter: two important papers;
i) You gotta scratch your head!
ii) Was the Greek development already “in the market”?
10. Alasdair Macleod delivers a great commentary on the huge problems facing the euro due to the Greek problems
(Alasdair Macleod)
11. Huge commentary on the massive derivatives undertaken by JPMorgan as they corner just about all derivatives related to commodities
(courtesy zero hedge)
12 Chicago manufacturing pMI worst showing in over 7 years:
(zero hedge)
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 appreciably by 1,216 contracts from 442,007 up to 443,223 as gold was up $5.60 cents in price yesterday (at the comex close). We are off the big active delivery contract month of June. The next contract month is July and here the OI fell by 34 contracts to 411. The next big delivery month after June will be August and here the OI fell by only 116 contracts down to 286,114. The estimated volume today (which is just comex sales during regular business hours of 8:20 until 1:30 pm est) was poor at 61,421. The confirmed volume yesterday (which includes the volume during regular business hours + access market sales the previous day was poor at 152,450 contracts. Today we had 0 notices filed for nil oz.(one notice was filed late last night to complete June)
And now for the wild silver comex results. Silver OI rose by a small 34 contracts from 196,164 up to 196,198 as the price of silver was down 7 cents in price with respect to Monday’s trading. We continue to have our bankers pulling their hair out with respect to the continued high silver OI. The front non active delivery month of June is now off the board. The next delivery month is July and here the OI fell by a considerable 9,525 contracts down to 2,699.Today is first day notice. The next major active delivery month is September and here the OI rose by a huge 9,290 contracts to 137,701. This is the first time we did not witness the collapse of OI in an active delivery month. All of the longs that stayed to the end in July rolled into September.. The estimated volume today was fair at 24,135 contracts (just comex sales during regular business hours. The confirmed volume yesterday (regular plus access market) came in at 74,341 contracts which is excellent in volume. We had 746 notices filed for 3,730,000 oz for first day notice deliveries.
July initial standing
June 30.2015
Gold
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz
13,692.337 oz (SCOTIA,Manfra)
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz
160,643.500 oz (Scotia, JPM)total: 5090 kilobars
No of oz served (contracts) today
0 contracts (nil oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
411 contracts 41,100 oz
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
0 contracts
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers inventory this month
nil oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month
13,692.337 oz
Today, we had 0 dealer transactions
we had zero dealer withdrawals
total Dealer withdrawals: nil oz
we had 0 dealer deposits
total dealer deposit: zero
we had 2 customer withdrawal
i) Out of Scotia: 13,660.187 oz
ii) Out of Manfra; 32.15 oz (1 kilobars)
total customer withdrawal: 13,692.337 oz
We had 2 customer deposits: (and the farce continues)
i) Into JPMorgan: 160,750.000 oz (5,000 kilobars)
ii) Into Scotia: 2893.50 oz (90 kilobars)
Total customer deposit: 163,643.500 oz (5090 kilobars) or 5 tonnes
We had 0 adjustments:
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 0 contracts of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account
For completeness: we had one delivery noticed filed upon for 100 oz to complete the june delivery month.
Thus the final number of oz standing for gold in June is 2959 contracts or 295,900 oz.
To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the July contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (0) x 100 oz or 0 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of June (411) and the number of notices served upon today (0) x 100 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for gold for the July contract month:
No of notices served so far (0) x 100 oz or ounces + {OI for the front month (411) – the number of notices served upon today (0) x 100 oz which equals 41,100 oz standing so far in this month of July (1.278 tonnes of gold). .
Total dealer inventory 517,216.902 or 16.08 tonnes
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 8,043,593.303 oz or 250.01 tonnes
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.02 tonnes for a loss of 53 tonnes over that period.
end
And now for silver
July silver initial standings
June 30 2015:
Silver
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory
630,432.89 oz (Delaware,Brinks,Scotia)
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory
601,703.118 oz (HSBC,CNT)
No of oz served (contracts)
746 contracts (3,730,000 oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
1953 contracts (9,765,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)
746 contracts (3,730,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers inventory this month
nil
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month
630,432.89 oz
Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
total dealer deposit: nil oz
we had 0 dealer withdrawal:
total dealer withdrawal: nil oz
We had 2 customer deposit:
i) Into CNT 599,772.818 oz
ii) Into HSBC: 1930.200 oz
total customer deposit: 601,703.118 oz
We had 3 customer withdrawal:
i) Out of Delaware: 4094.600 oz
ii) Out of Brinks: 25,99.78 oz
iii) Out of Scotia: 600,538.510 oz
total withdrawals from customer; 630,432.89 oz
we had 1 gigantic adjustment
out of the CNT vault:
We have a transfer of 1,822,680.39 oz out of the customer and this landed into the dealer account of CNT. This will be used in the settling process.
Total dealer inventory: 59.689 million oz
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 182.389 million oz
The total number of notices filed today for the July contract month is represented by 746 contracts for 3,730,000 oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in June, we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at (746) x 5,000 oz = 3,730,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of June (2699) and the number of notices served upon today (746) x 5000 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for silver for the July contract month:
746 (notices served so far) + { OI for front month of June (2699) -number of notices served upon today (746} x 5000 oz ,= 13,495,000 oz of silver standing for the June contract month.
these are initial standings for the July contract month.
for those wishing to see the rest of data today see:
http://www.harveyorgan.wordpress.comorhttp://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:
June 30/no change in inventory/rests tonight at 711.44 tonnes
June 29/no change in inventory/rests tonight at 711.44 tonnes
June 26./it did not take our bankers long to raid the GLD. Yesterday they added 6.86 tonnes and today, 1.75 tonnes of that was withdrawn/Inventory tonight rests at 711.44 tonnes.
June 25/a huge addition of 6.86 tones of inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests tonight at 713..23 tonnes
June 24/ a good addition of.900 tonnes of gold into the GLD/Inventory rests at 706.37 tonnes
June 23/no change in gold inventory/rests tonight at 705.47 tonnes
June 22/ a huge increase of 3.27 tonnes of gold into GLD/Inventory tonight: 705.47 tonnes
June 19.2015: no change in gold inventory/rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes.
June 18/no change in gold inventory/rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes
June 17/no change in gold inventory/rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes
June 16./no change in gold inventory/Rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes.
June 15/we lost a huge 2.08 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventor rests tonight at 701.90 tonnes
June 12/we had a small withdrawal of .24 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests this weekend at 703.98 tonnes.
June 11/we had another huge withdrawal of 1.5 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests tonight at 704.22 tonnes
June 10/ we had a huge withdrawal of 2.98 tonnes of gold from the GLD/inventory rests at 705.72
June 9/ no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 708.70 tonnes
June 8/ a big withdrawal of 1.19 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests at 708.70 tonnes
June 29 GLD : 711.44 tonnes
end
And now for silver (SLV)
June 30/we lost another 621,000 oz of silver form the SLV/Inventory rests at 323.718 oz (somebody must be in great need of physical silver)
June 29/ a monstrous loss of 4.777 million oz of silver from the SLV/Inventory rests tonight at 324.339 million oz
June 26/today we had another addition of 198,000 of silver/Inventory rests at 329.116 million oz
June 25/ a huge increase of 1.242 million oz of silver into the SLV inventory/Inventory rests at 128.918 million oz
June 24/no change in inventory/rests tonight at 326.918 million oz
June 23/we had a small withdrawal of 956,000 oz/Inventory tonight rests at 326.918 million oz
June 22/ no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 19/no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 18 no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 17/no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 16./no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 15/we had no change in silver inventory/327.874 million oz
June 12/we had another addition to the tune of 956,000 oz/Inventory rests this weekend at 327.874. Please note that there has been an addition on each of the past 5 days.
June 11.2015: we had another monster of an addition to the tune of 2.791 million oz/Inventory rests at 326.918
June 10/another monster of an addition to the tune of 1.126 million oz/Inventory rests at 324.127
June 9/ a monster of an addition to the tune of 3.393 million oz/inventory rests at 323.001 million oz.
June 8/no change in inventory/SLV inventory rests at 319.608 milion oz.
June 5 a huge addition of 1.433 million oz of silver added to the SLV/Inventory at 319.608 million oz
June 29/2015: we had another withdrawal of 621,000 oz of silver inventory/SLV inventory rests tonight at 323.718 million oz
end
And now for our premiums to NAV for the funds I follow:
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 7.4 percent to NAV usa funds and Negative 7.4% to NAV for Cdn funds!!!!!!!
Percentage of fund in gold 61.9%
Percentage of fund in silver:37.7%
cash .4%
( June 30/2015)
2. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): Premium to NAV rises to 1.40%!!!! NAV (June 30/2015)
3. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV falls to – .57% toNAV(June30/2015
Note: Sprott silver trust back into positive territory at +1.40%
Sprott physical gold trust is back into negative territory at -.57%
Central fund of Canada’s is still in jail.
Sprott formally launches its offer for Central Trust gold and Silver Bullion trust:
SII.CN Sprott formally launches previously announced offers to CentralGoldTrust (GTU.UT.CN) and Silver Bullion Trust (SBT.UT.CN) unitholders (C$2.64)
Sprott Asset Management has formally commenced its offers to acquire all of the outstanding units of Central GoldTrust and Silver Bullion Trust, respectively, on a NAV to NAV exchange basis.
Note company announced its intent to make the offer on 23-Apr-15 Based on the NAV per unit of Sprott Physical Gold Trust $9.98 and Central GoldTrust $44.36 on 22-May, a unitholder would receive 4.45 Sprott Physical Gold Trust units for each Central GoldTrust unit tendered in the Offer.
Based on the NAV per unit of Sprott Physical Silver Trust $6.66 and Silver Bullion Trust $10.00 on 22-May, a unitholder would receive 1.50 Sprott Physical Silver Trust units for each Silver Bullion Trust unit tendered in the Offer.
* * * * *
end
And now overnight trading in gold/silver from Europe and Asia/plus physical stories that might interest you:
First: Goldcore’s Mark O’Byrne
(courtesy Goldcore/Mark O’Byrne)
Greece Shows Importance of Gold as Europeans Buy Coins and Bars
By Mark O’ByrneJune 30, 20150 Comments
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– Demand for physical gold from Europeans surges
– Greek ATMs limit withdrawals to €60 per day
– Greeks panic buy food, fuel and medicine
– European elites threaten Greece with expulsion
– Gold not subject to capital controls or “bail-ins”
Demand for gold coins and bars from European investors has increased significantly in the past month as the Greek crisis enters a new phase.
As reported in our statement – to which Bloomberg referred in their piece – we saw a significant increase in demand from the U.K. and Ireland yesterday where sales of coins and bars were three times the average of the previous three Mondays.
The Royal Mint said that Greek demand for coins in June was double the average for the last five months and the U.S mint saw the highest sales of bullion coins since January.
Bloomberg report that many buyers want to store their gold outside of the Eurozone, citing Switzerland as an example. We advise our clients to do the same and many have opted for storage in Singapore also.
As the crisis in Greece accelerates the value of owning gold will become more apparent to everyday people.
What is happening in Greece today may well await the citizenry of other developed economies tomorrow – as recently warned by well placed observers in notable institutions such as HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Fidelity.
Greek banks remain closed and ATM withdrawals have been limited to €60 per day. There has been panic buying of various essentials such as food, fuel and medicines across Greece, as reported by the New York Times.
This is in anticipation of chaos and disruptions of supply chains should the country be forced out of the euro and onto a much depreciated drachma.
European elites have threatened Greece with expulsion from the euro currency should Sunday’s referendum – on using austerity as a tool to deal with Greece’s unpayable debt – return a “no” vote.
Greece has fought back with Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis telling the Telegraph,
“We are taking advice and will certainly consider an injunction at the European Court of Justice. The EU treaties make no provision for euro exit and we refuse to accept it. Our membership is not negotiable.”
What happens next in Greece is unsure. What is assured is the insurance gold will provide going forward. Physical gold, held outside the banking system, is not subject to capital controls.
With the ECB reneging on its responsibility as lender of last resort – not the first time it has used its power to political ends in Greece – Greek banks may soon be forced to “bail-in” deposits – i.e. confiscate the cash of their customers.
Those holding cash “under the mattress” and physical gold and silver coins will be provided a degree of security in such an environment.
Precious metals can be used directly in exchange for goods or are readily converted to cash for the same purpose while retaining their store of value until required.
Should the Greek crisis morph into a full-scale euro-crisis – if, for example, Credit Default Swaps were triggered which provoke a derivatives crunch – gold and silver would still enable you to secure life’s necessities if the value of one’s cash savings should collapse.
The euro, like all paper and digital currencies, is backed by nothing more than the faith in the institution that issues it. Faith in central banks is rapidly evaporating.
Physical gold, on the other hand, is a time-tested and academically proven store of value or safe haven in times of crisis. It will likely be recognised as such by the wider public in the coming months and years.
Must Read Guide:7 Key Gold Must Haves
MARKET UPDATE
Today’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,175.00, EUR 1,053.01 and GBP 747.08 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,176.50, EUR 1,060.82 and GBP 749.10 per ounce.
Gold climbed $5.10 or 0.43 percent yesterday to $1.179.20 an ounce. Silver slipped $0.08 or 0.51 percent to $15.72 an ounce.
Gold in Singapore for immediate delivery ticked lower by 0.3 percent to $1,176.35 an ounce near the end of the day. Gold is on track for a 1 percent decline this month.
Even with Greece just hours from defaulting on its 1.6 billion euro loan from the IMF, safe haven bids for gold are weak. The U.S. dollar gained 0.4 percent against other currencies, while U.S. and Asian stock markets rose.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is calling for a bailout referendum on July 5. The Greek drama is not finished.
In late morning European trading gold is fell 0.20 percent at $1,176.62 an ounce. Silver fell 0.10 percent at $15.71 an ounce and platinum rose 0.19 percent at $1,079.00 an ounce.
Breaking News and Research Here
Dave Kranzler: Market intervention creep
Submitted by cpowell on Mon, 2015-06-29 15:33. Section: Daily Dispatches
Don’t Panic — The Fed Is Control of the Markets
By Dave Kranzler
Investment Research Dynamics
Monday, June 29, 2015
If today’s market action does not convince the last skeptics that the U.S. financial markets are completely rigged, nothing will.
The action in the U.S. markets today after the Greece/EU situation hit a wall today demonstrates the degree of control the Fed and the U.S. central planners have over the markets now. …
Ever since 1987, and since President Reagan signed the executive order that authorized the Plunge Protection Team to prop up the stock markets, there’s been market intervention “creep” in this country. Robert Rubin’s role as secretary of treasury was to transition the Working Group on Financial Markets from its stock market-propping function into a full-fledged, all-encompassing market intervention mechanism. …
… For the full commentary:
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/dont-panic-the-fed-is-control-of-t..
end
Alasdair Macleod on the Euro/very important
(courtesy Alasdair Macleod)_
The euro crisis
By Alasdair Macleod
Posted 29 June 2015
Make no mistake; the Greek crisis is a euro crisis that threatens the solvency of the ECB itself, and therefore confidence in the currency.
Before going into why, a few comments on Greece will set the scene.
Last weekend it became clear that Greece is heading for both a default on its government debt and also a failure of its banking system. With the benefit of hindsight it appears that the Greek government was unwilling to pretend that it was solvent and extend its financial support as if it was. The other Eurozone finance ministers and the troika were not prepared to accept this reality.
There is no immediate benefit from debating why. What matters now are the economic and financial consequences, which are basically two: the Eurozone’s banking system is very fragile and cannot absorb any sovereign default shocks easily, and the ECB itself now needs refinancing. Let’s concentrate on the ECB first.
The losses the ECB face from Greece alone are about twice its equity capital and reserves. The emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) owed by Greece to the ECB totals some €89bn, and the TARGET2 balance owed by the Bank of Greece to the other Eurozone central banks is a further €100.3bn, which at the end of the day is the ECB’s liability. The total from these two liabilities on their own is roughly twice the ECB’s equity and reserves, which total only €98.5bn. Given the likely collapse of the Greek banking system and the government’s default on its debt, we can assume any collateral held against these loans, as well as any Greek bonds held by the ECB outright are more or less worthless.
The ECB has two courses of action: either it continues to support Greece to avoid crystallising its own losses or it recapitalises itself with a call upon its shareholders. The former appears to have been ruled out by last weekend’s events. For the latter a rights issue looks challenging to say the least, because not all the EU national central banks are in a position to contribute. Instead it is likely that some sort of qualifying perpetual bond will be issued for which there should be ready subscribers.
How this is handled is crucial, because there is considerable danger to the ECB from the instability of the whole Eurozone banking system, which is highly geared and extremely vulnerable to any reassessment of sovereign credit risk. If you believe that the Greek crisis has no implications for Italy, Spain, Portugal and even France, you will rest easy. This surely is how the ECB would like to represent the situation. If on the other hand you suspect that the collapse of the Greek banking system, plus their sovereign default, together with a knock-on effect in derivative markets, have important implications for euro-denominated bond markets, you will probably run for the hills. The latter being the case, highly geared Eurozone banks are likely to face difficulties, and they will affect the ECB’s own holdings of all bonds, both owned outright and held as collateral against loans to rickety banks.
In short, the ECB’s balance sheet, which is heavily dependent on Eurozone bond prices not collapsing, is itself extremely vulnerable to the knock-on effects from Greece. As the situation at the ECB becomes clear to financial markets, the euro’s legitimacy as a currency may be questioned, given it is no more than an artificial construct in circulation for only thirteen years.
In conclusion, the upsetting of the Greek applecart risks destabilising the euro itself, and a sub-par rate to the US dollar beckons.
End note on gold
This week should see the dollar strong against the euro and the euro price of gold can be expected to rise. The extent to which these happen may depend on whether or not central banks intervene. For what it’s worth last time this happened (over Cyprus February 2013) Europeans were reported to be requesting physical delivery against their unallocated gold accounts. The following April a co-ordinated bear raid of unprecedented size pushed the gold price down from $1580 to a low of $1183. The purpose of the raid was to disabuse investors of the safe-haven trade, in which it succeeded.
There is little such appetite for gold bullion today so a similar move is probably viewed by central banks as unnecessary; but if the gold price was to move significantly higher attempts to defuse the rise are less likely to succeed because there are very few sellers in western markets and the short positions on Comex in the Managed Money category start at record levels.
end
(courtesy Koos Jansen)
Posted on 29 Jun 2015 by Koos Jansen
Gold Fund To Serve The New Strategy Of The Silk Road, Lead The New Gold Development
Not surprisingly there is little official documentation on the recently launched Silk Road Gold Fund. However, the translation below (original article published on ifeng) provides an intriguing insight at what this Fund is about. On May 22 Chinese financial policy makers from the PBOC, Chinese gold industry executives from commercial banks, mining companies, the Shanghai Gold Exchange and the China Gold Association together with representatives of the Western gold industry discussed gold’s future role in finance and how it will serve the New Silk Road Initiative.
Representatives from gold and financial institutions talked freely about bringing gold’s superiority into full play, seizing the historic and strategic opportunity of the “One Belt And One Road”…
The holding of the conference enhanced the communication and cooperation between the western gold industry and countries along the line of the “One Belt And One Road”, clarified the development direction of the gold industry under the economic background of the new normal … and unlocked a new chapter of the gold industry development.
Largest Domestic Special Fund of Silk Road Positioned in Xi’an For Assisting “One Belt And One Road”
May 25, 2015, 08:34
Source: ifeng Shaanxi
In the afternoon of May 22, the “One Belt And One Road” Conference of Promoting Gold Industry Development & Launching Ceremony of Silk Road Gold Fund hosted by Shanghai Gold Exchange and Shaanxi Provincial Government and co-hosted by Shaanxi Gold Group Incorporation Co., Ltd. was held grandly in Xi’an. As an important part of the Investment & Trade Forum for Cooperation between East & West China and the Silk Road International Expo agenda,the conference officially initiated the Silk Road Gold Fund with the subject of “Serve the New Strategy of the Silk Road, Lead the New Development of the Gold”; discussed the innovative thinking and specific measures on grasping the great development opportunities of “One Belt And One Road” and enhancing the synergetic development with the gold industry of the countries and regions along the line of “One Belt And One Road” under the new normal of the economy, and initiated the new era of the gold industry development.
Wei Minzhou, Standing Committee member of Shaanxi Province and municipal party secretary of Xi’an, attended the conference and gave a speech; deputy head of the financial market department of People’s Bank of China Zou Lan gave a speech about the consistent support on the sustainable and healthy development of China’s gold market; vice president of the Shanghai Gold Exchange Song Yuqin made a keynote speech that profoundly analyzed the development direction of China’s gold market and the policies on the gold industry; Sun Feng, chairman of the Shaanxi Gold Group, addressed the development report of the Shaanxi Gold Group; vice president of precious metal department of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Qiu Yi gave his report on how to adapt to the new normal and how to develop new business. Chairman of Shaanxi Non-ferrous Metal Holding Group Co., Ltd Huang Xiaoping, vice chairman of China Gold Association Cui Jianguo, president of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Shaanxi Branch Shang Jun, president of Bank of China Shaanxi Branch Li Ruiqiang, Industrial Bank Co., Ltd. Xi’an Branch Guo Qiujun and president of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Sinkiang Branch Sun Jianyong gave their speech successively; Chen Yumin, general manager of the Shandong Gold Group, introduced the basic information of the Silk Road Gold Fund. Representatives from gold and financial institutions talked freely about bringing gold’s superiority into full play, seizing the historic and strategic opportunity of the “One Belt And One Road”, strengthening the bank-enterprise cooperation and financial-industrial combination, and leading the transformation and upgrading of the gold industry under the economic background of the new normal.
During the conference, vice governor of Shaanxi Provincial Government Wang Lixia and vice president of the Shanghai Gold Exchange Song Yuqin signed the agreement of comprehensively enhancing the strategic cooperation of the gold industry, which indicated promoting the Shaanxi gold industry to be superior and strong by establishing the fixed cooperative mechanism, setting up gold trading center, etc. Shaanxi Gold Group signed the comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with 8 banks as Shaanxi Branch of ICBC, Sinkiang Branch of ICBC, Shaanxi Branch of CCB, Shaanxi Branch of Bank of China, Shaanxi Branch of Bank of Communications, Xi’an Branch of Industrial Bank Co., Ltd., Bank of Xi’an and Shaanxi Rural Credit Cooperative Union.
As an important agenda of this conference, Shandong Gold Financial Holding Capital Management Co., Ltd., Shaanxi Gold Group Incorporation Co., Ltd., China Industrial Asset Management Limited, China Industrial Wealth Asset Management Limited, Western Capital Investment Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Gold Information Group Co., Ltd. signed the Sponsorship Agreement of the Xi’an Silk Road Gold Fund Management Co., Ltd. The guests activated the specially designed trigger and initiated the Silk Road Gold Fund in the form of turning stone into gold by touching. The Silk Road Gold Fund, with the Shanghai Gold Exchange as the leading initiator and the win-win cooperation of the Shandong Gold Group with the strongest comprehensive strength in domestic gold industry and the Shaanxi Gold Group with regional advantage, attracted large financial institution to work together on its establishment.“The Silk Road Gold Fund” (hereinafter short as “Fund”) will raise and manage one mother Fund and several sub-Funds, including a Gold ETF Fund, Gold Resource Merger and acquisition Fund, Gold Investment Fund, etc. The Fund will be issued in 3 phases with the first phase as 5 billion yuan, second phase as 30 billion and estimated gross as 100 billion, and it will become the largest gold fund in the domestic gold industry.
The holding of the conference enhanced the communication and cooperation between the western gold industry and countries along the line of the “One Belt And One Road”, clarified the development direction of the gold industry under the economic background of the new normal, and facilitated the western gold industry and gold market to grasp the opportunity under the motivation of the grand pattern of “One Belt And One Road”, it added new vitality and injected new energy to the prosperity of the development of the gold industry and gold market of China, and unlocked a new chapter of the gold industry development.
Koos Jansen
end
S. Africa’s gold mines offer wage increases of up to 13%
Submitted by cpowell on Mon, 2015-06-29 18:34. Section: Daily Dispatches
By Kevin Crowley
Bloomberg News
Monday, June 29, 2015
South African gold-mining companies tabled a five-year wage offer to the industry’s unions that falls short of demands for increases of more than 80 percent.
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., the world’s third-biggest producer of the metal, offered to raise entry-level workers’ pay by 13 percent annually starting July 1, while Sibanye Gold Ltd. and Harmony Gold Mining Co. proposed 11 percent and 7.8 percent respectively, they said in a joint statement on a website set up for the wage talks.
The National Union of Mineworkers, the industry’s biggest labor group, wants basic pay to be raised to at least 10,500 rand ($854) monthly from about 5,700 rand now. The inflation rate was 4.6 percent in May. …
… For the remainder of the report:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-29/south-africa-s-gold-pr..
end
OCC derivatives report suggests U.S. govt. has seized all commodity markets
Submitted by cpowell on Tue, 2015-06-30 02:50. Section: Documentation
10:56p ET Monday, June 25, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Citing the latest quarterly report of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Zero Hedge concludes tonight that JPMorganChase has “cornered the commodity derivative market,” the notional value of the investment bank’s commodity derivative position having just exploded from around $200 billion to nearly $4 trillion.
The OCC report, Zero Hedge adds, has ceased distinguishing gold derivatives from foreign exchange derivatives, but the combined total of gold and FX derivatives held by investment banks is shown to have exploded as well.
Zero Hedge’s analysis is headlined “JPMorgan Just Cornered the Commodity Derivative Market, and This Time There Is Proof” and it’s posted here:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-29/jpm-just-cornered-commodity-der…
Your secretary/treasurer is, of course, inclined to construe this astounding anomaly as comprehensive intervention in the markets by the U.S. government using Morgan as its broker, since it’s unlikely that a single investment bank would have the wherewithal to establish such fantastic positions on its own. The OCC report may mean that, with the fiat currency system cracking under the weight of years of abuse, the U.S. government has felt compelled to seize emergency control of all markets to bolt the exits from the system, gold being the primary exit, and to forestall hyperinflation.
This would signify the government’s belief that only totalitarian means — “financial repression” squared — can sustain the system now.
Venezuela already has shortages and rationing. Today Greece got capital controls, if indeed there is any capital left there. But before Americans snicker too much at those troubled countries, they should ponder the meaning of their country’s huge trade deficit, a privilege of issuance of the world reserve currency, a currency that is in effect a great tax on the world, a tax that, if Zero Hedge gets the OCC report right, now encompasses the destruction of all markets worldwide.
Immoral as it would be, it’s almost certainly all legal under the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 as amended in the 1970s —
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/international/ESF/Pages/esf-inde…
— the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977:
http://www.gata.org/node/5606
It just hasn’t been conducted in the open yet. But maybe with the OCC report we’re almost there, and pushing this totalitarianism into the open is probably the best we can hope for.
Of course the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and the other mainstream financial news organizations will report it only to rationalize it and make excuses for it, whereupon they will sound a bit like the old Daily Worker. Barron’s may have a little more trouble with it. But they’re all going to look pretty silly — not that they care.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
end
WOW!!!
(courtesy zero hedge)
JPMorgan Just Cornered The Commodity Derivative Market, And This Time There Is Proof
For years there had been speculation, rumor and hearsay that JPM had cornered the US commodities market. Now, finally, we have documented proof.
* * *
Traditionally, we look at the OCC’s Quarterly Bank Report on derivatives activities to see which was the largest bank in the US in terms of total notional derivative holdings. The reason being that like on frequent occasions in the past, we find some stunning results, such as most recently in January when we wrote that, for the first time, Citigroup had eclipsed JPM as the largest US bank in total derivatives, with just over $70 trillion compared to perennial megabank JPM’s $65.3 trillion as of the third quarter of 2014, explaining also why Citigroup had drafted the Swaps push out language in the Omnibus Bill.
And while this time there was little exciting to report at the consolidated level (JPM overtook Citi in Q4 only for Citi to once again become the world’s largest bank in total derivatives with $56.6 trillion compared to $56.2 trillion for JPM and $52 trillion for Goldman as Bloomberg reported earlier), and in fact total notional derivatives tumbled from $220.4 trillion in Q4 to $203.1 trillion in Q1 the lowest level since 2008…
… an absolutely shocking blockbuster emerges when looking at the underlying component data.
Presenting Exhibit 12: Notional Amounts of Commodity Contracts by Maturity: even a CFTC regulator would be able to spot the outlier charted below.
What the chart above shows is that after fluctuating around the low to mid $200 billion range for the past 5 years, in Q1 the amount of Commodities with a maturity of under 1 year exploded to a record $3.9 trillion!
Sadly, the OCC provides no actual explanation for why there was such an epic surge in commodity derivatives within the US banking system in the first quarter, so we decided to explore.
What we found is what those who have for years accused JPM of cornering the commodity markets, have known: because it is none other than JPMorgan’s Commodity derivative book primarily in the <1 maturity bucket, which exploded from just $131 billion to a gargantuan and never before seen $3.8 trillion!
In fact as the chart below shows, while historically JPM has accounted for just over 50% of total commodity holdings among all US commercial banks, in the Q1 this number soared to a stratospheric 96% which by anybody’s standards is the very definition of cornering the market!
We don’t know what prompted JPM’s derivative book to soar to such a never before seen amount, but the number most certainly looks abnormal on both an absolute and a relative basis, especially considering that no other banks boosted their particular derivative book with the same vigor.
So what is going on here?
We decided to dig down some more when we encountered something even more perplexing. Because whereas in previous quarterly updates, the OCC broke out the FX and Gold categories as separate derivative items as seen in this most recent chart from the Q4 update…
… in Q1, once again quite inexplicably, the OCC decided to lump these two products together, thus making any credible observation about the total notional outstanding of just gold derivatives, impossible! But wait, we thought that according to former Chairman Bernanke, gold anything but currency: is the OCC suddenly disagreeing with that assessment?
Furthermore, while in all previous iterations of the OCC’s Table 9, gold derivative notionals by maturity were explicitly broken out as can be seen in this Q4, 2014 table below:
Starting in Q1, 2015 the “gold” section in Table 9 no longer exists (although we can see that while JPM cornered “commodities”, it was Citi that had its total derivative notional of “precious metals” undergo a massive jump, also for reasons unknown).
One would almost think the OCC is hiding something as the demand of US commercial banks. So while we no longer know what just total gold derivatives outstanding is, for some unexplained, reason, we do know that the combined total of FX and gold just hit an all time high.
* * *
And while the OCC did all it could to mask the “gold” line item by lumping it with FX, it still kept “Precious Metals” as is, although we assume that this too will be lumped with FX and gold shortly.
It is this chart that shows something is truly odd when it comes to the US commercial bank industry’s activity in the precious metals space.
So in summary, this is what we do know:
in Q1, JPM cornered the commodity derivative market, with a total derivative exposure of just over of $4 trillion, an increase ot 1,691% from just $226 billion in one quarter!
What we don’t know is:
why did the OCC decide to effectively eliminate its gold derivative breakdown by lumping it with FX,
why