Gold

[elZorro]

An Equedia letter today: facts on the debt funding China's growth.

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact....W78BPxJ-ces%3D

[Skol]

The 'aunties' and 'very smart Chinese' lick their wounds: Herd instinct at its best.
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Taiwan's investors cautious about buying gold despite price fall

2013/06/23 21:30:27



Taipei, June 23 (CNA) Taiwanese investors, who purchased over 10,000 gold bars in April, were more cautious about the market now that the international price has tumbled again to below US$1,300 per ounce, local jewelry shops said Sunday.

Earlier in April, a group of investors, mostly mothers, created a gold buying craze by flocking to the stores as news emerged that the U.S. Federal Reserve may be ready to bring quantitative easing to an end, pulling down the price of gold to US$1,321 per ounce.

The purchasing price of 3.75 gram of gold was at NT$4,450 (US$147.35) while the selling price at local shops stood at NT$5,000, the lowest in the last three years, according to a jewelry union in Taipei.

The international price that was down to less than US$1,300 per ounce this month was driven by speculations that U.S. Federal Reserve may wind down its quantitative easing policy, it said.

More investors were inquiring about the market but the similar trend of buying craze has not occurred, Shih Wen-hsin, a union official, said.

He expects these hesitant investors will enter the market when the price bounces back next week.

After the international gold price fell below US$1,300, the number of people opening gold passbook accounts also dropped because they were adopting a wait-and-see attitude, Bank of Taiwan said.

[Skol]

XGD down 7.7%, more chaos on the horizon and gold down again today, lower highs and lower lows, and we all know what that means.

Gold sub $1300 and silver sub $20.

Looks like Round 3 might have begun.

Another bad day coming up for gold equities, HUI -3.5%, GDXJ -5%.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100837732

[JBmurc]

TORONTO, June 24 (Reuters) - Barrick Gold Corp will lay off about 30 percent of corporate staff at its headquarters in Toronto and in other offices in a downsizing plan triggered by problems at major mines and a drop in the price of gold.

Barrick and rival gold miners such as Newmont Mining and Newcrest Mining are shaking up operations, halting projects, slashing exploration spending and cutting jobs as the industry struggles with high costs and weak metal prices.

Barrick, the world's largest gold producer, confirmed on Monday a Reuters report that the layoffs were coming and said the cuts were part of an effort to "streamline the organization and manage costs in a challenging business environment".

Barrick said it is eliminating about 100 office positions, most of them at its home base in Toronto. The company will also cut jobs at a number of its regional offices as part of a company-wide effort.

Chief Executive Jamie Sokalsky announced the cuts at a town hall meeting with staff in Toronto last week, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Sunday.

The sources, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak about the matter, said the cuts in Toronto were to begin on Monday and will be completed before the end of the week. Cuts in Vancouver and other offices could drag into July.

Barrick has about 400 corporate staff, about 300 of them in Toronto.

The sources said Sokalsky, a long-time Barrick hand who took over as CEO barely a year ago, was visibly emotional during the mid-week town hall meeting with employees. He declined to take questions and informed staff that their direct managers would respond to their questions.

Shares in Barrick, which have more than halved in value over the course of the last year, were down 4.3 percent at C$16.95 early on Monday afternoon as the price of gold fell about 1 percent following last week's 7 percent decline.


BROADER CUTS

Spot gold, which peaked at more than $1,900 an ounce in late 2011, was trading at $1,285 an ounce at 1630 GMT on Monday, not far from a near three-year low touched last week.

One source said Barrick's latest job cuts were part of a broad cost-cutting initiative announced earlier this year, and not a knee-jerk reaction to declines in the price of gold.

In addition to pressure from the gold price, Barrick faces operational and regulatory issues at some mines and projects.

Chile last month fined Barrick and ordered it to halt all work at its massive Pascua-Lama project, on the border of Chile and Argentina, due to environmental violations. That was just the latest setback for the project, where capital costs have mushroomed over the last year.

The company has also faced setbacks at its copper mines in Zambia and Saudi Arabia, and has halted work on a number of projects in other parts of the world.

Barrick, which employs roughly 25,000 people, is also cutting jobs at a number of mines. Last week, it said it was cutting 60 to 65 jobs at its U.S. operations after earlier this month announcing a few dozen cuts in Australia.

Many of Barrick's competitors are taking similar actions.

Newmont said earlier this month it would cut its workforce at its home base in Denver, Colorado, by at least 33 percent over the next three months. And Australian gold miner Newcrest said it would write down its asset values by about $6 billion.

[Skol]

Check out these dreamers, some of the posters here thought they were on the money. lol
You don't hear much about them anymore.

http://bullionbullscanada.com/index....son&Itemid=138

[JBmurc]

The Gold/Silver Haters going get one big wake up call soon enough ....why


#1 -the move away from US bonds is turning into a Stampede
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100840444

#2-Comex's Gold inventory's are dropping to new lows.... yet the Spec paper shorts are at their highest levels in years
work that out ....http://harveyorgan.blogspot.co.nz/

Now this is dead opposite to want should be happening right SKOL ??? physical gold should be flooding into comex invertory's not exiting it....Bond rates should be holding strong on the strength of the US economy not increasing as investor flee .... to what ?? not the stockmarkets ...Cash maybe

Who owns US debt
http://useconomy.about.com/od/moneta...ional-Debt.htm

[Skol]

The momentum is downward JB, I've heard all the arguments about why gold and silver are going to the moon but they never do. I'm expecting a colossal downward correction soon, a big one, maybe down to $1,000 over a period of a few days.

The 'clever Chinese and asian' investors that the gold bugs bang on about have had their fingers burned and so have the whizz kids at the central banks, losing $600 bill., the Indians are paying heaps in taxes to import gold and as most families major asset they must be having a pretty close look at this very depressing situation as well.

Capitulation is nigh, I even see goldbugs talking about putting gold in the bottom drawer and one says he'll keep his silver and start selling it when it gets to $100 an ounce, which is never going to happen. The whole world has got it wrong according to the goldbugs, they like to portray Bernanke as a moron, a man with experience and an education second to none, whereas many goldbugs have probably never graduated from high school, they've got a degree from the University of KWN and Zerohedge, many struggle to spell properly when they post.

Goldbugs are eating humble pie - lots of it. It's finally sinking in, the party really is over.

[bear]

The momentum is downward JB, I've heard all the arguments about why gold and silver are going to the moon but they never do. I'm expecting a colossal downward correction soon, a big one, maybe down to $1,000 over a period of a few days.

The 'clever Chinese and asian' investors that the gold bugs bang on about have had their fingers burned and so have the whizz kids at the central banks, losing $600 bill., the Indians are paying heaps in taxes to import gold and as most families major asset they must be having a pretty close look at this very depressing situation as well.

Capitulation is nigh, I even see goldbugs talking about putting gold in the bottom drawer and one says he'll keep his silver and start selling it when it gets to $100 an ounce, which is never going to happen. The whole world has got it wrong according to the goldbugs, they like to portray Bernanke as a moron, a man with experience and an education second to none, whereas many goldbugs have probably never graduated from high school, they've got a degree from the University of KWN and Zerohedge, many struggle to spell properly when they post.

Goldbugs are eating humble pie - lots of it. It's finally sinking in, the party really is over.

Hey Skol

I admire your conviction and continuous warnings over the gold price..... have dabbled a bit with some of the mid tier producers and made some $$$

just wondering with such a firm position re $1000 gold price whether you are shorting gold.

Seems to me you would have made a fortune since the price collapse - no point getting the price direction right if you are not profitting from it

markets overall a little wierd at the mo - largely out except for small holding in UK energy related company

bear

[Skol]

Hey Skol

I admire your conviction and continuous warnings over the gold price..... have dabbled a bit with some of the mid tier producers and made some $$$

just wondering with such a firm position re $1000 gold price whether you are shorting gold.


bear

bear,

No, not shorting it but I do own lots of stocks which are generally not correlated with gold, besides I'm not planning on taking on the hedge funds and banks which will be doing just that, not many will be willing to throw their hard-earned cash at gold atm. I've noticed goldbugs 'backin' the truck up' all the way down from $1920, must be pretty painful for some.

I have to honestly say I haven't made a lot of money in the last few years, but I didn't lose any either. I converted my super to 50% cash prior to the GFC and have most of my stocks offshore, unhedged, and gains on stocks have largely been offset by currency movements, but what worries me is a major crash in the NZD, something that foot and mouth disease might precipitate. Some commentators say it's inevitable, one day it will arrive. I'm not planning on being the richest man in the cemetery, just having an extremely comfortable retirement. I plan on travelling when I retire, not down the back either, and not in backpackers or youth hostels.

My super is currently 100% cash, but would look at some exposure to stocks in the event of a reasonable correction, which given the state of the world economy probably won't happen. Goldbugs are always predicting financial Armageddon.

I work in the aviation industry, there is a thread here rubbishing it and portending its doom, but it isn't going to happen, aviation is booming, and in my very long experience in the industry (45 years), I've never seen anything like the current expansion. 848 Boeing and Airbus jets have just been sold at the Paris Air Show. The total Boeing and Airbus backlog is over 9000 jets.

I bought my current property several miles from the nearest town in a rural area 8 years ago to get away from it all and graze a few beef, the expansion is so great here that water pipes are being layed 3 km away and within a few hundred meters they're laying stormwater pipes, the city is about to arrive.

2000 hectares are planned for development around here and not far away is a 270 acre mall under construction.

Goldbugs endlessly bang on about debt, Greece, Spain, Euro crash, JP Morgan, USD crash, Dow crash, bond crash, property crash, manipulation, the Rothschilds, banksters, LIBOR, Bernanke, ad. infinitum, and has any of it happened? Yes, in some places there was a significant decline in property prices, an overheated market propped up with colossal amounts of shonky debt The Economist and the FT warned about for years. Much of the pain in the property market was self-inflicted, dopey people saddling themselves with huge amounts of debt believing the snake-oil salesman that property will never go down, buy land they're not making any more of it, and waterfront property only goes up. All you had to do was watch the TV programmes 10 years ago to know that something very bad was going to happen, humans get themselves in some fixes, but it's never permanent.

Goldbugs portray themselves as victims in a system where the 'manipulators' are winners and they're losers, the dice are loaded they say. If they believe that why are they dabbling in PM's? They go on endlessly about the 'naked shorters', JP Morgan, Bernanke, Fort Knox is empty, the Germans aren't going to get their gold back because it isn't there, yadda, yadda, yadda, it's very tedious. If you disprove one of their conspiracy theories they'll invent another one to counter it, some theories are so insane that I reckon the posters are certifiable, like the goldbug who believes that condensation trails from aircraft are because special chemicals are placed in the fuel tanks by the CIA to psychologically disable the population. When I pointed out that there's filters in the fuel system which would filter out such a chemical he reckoned the filters are specially designed CIA filters.

The goldbugs say the USA is in decline and China will run the world. Yeah, right! China is a communist one-party state, run by tyrants, rent wih corruption, pollution and internecine ethnic conflict. There are hundreds of riots in China each day, but we don't hear about them. China could be the next Yugoslavia. USA-hating is a goldbug trait.

Goldbugs are wrong, the world isn't ending, but I find it thought-provoking and amusing.

Cheers

[Skol]

hey skol, you invested in AIR.NZ?

No, but I own VAH, I like the CEO there.