Precious metals continue to feel the weight of a rising USD as gold and company have moved lower throughout the week. With news on Greece and Iran behind us, the market has focused on Chair Yellen’s testimony before Congress which was quite upbeat and leaves no doubt that the FOMC intends to raise rates this year with many “experts” now calling for a quarter point hike in September and again in December.
The headline story for our market today is the Chinese Central Bank releasing their official gold reserves for the first time in 6 years. In 2009, China claimed to have reserves of 1,054 tonnes and today that figure is 1,658 tonnes. If this figure is correct, and there is already chatter that it is not accurate, it falls far short of market expectations. This figure puts Chinese reserves in fifth place behind the U.S., Germany, Italy and France. If this figure is accurate, it may signal that the Chinese Central Bank may be a buyer of gold in the short term as it prepares for a meeting with the IMF in the fall where it wants the IMF to include the Yuan as an approved global reserve currency. In the short term our corner of the market benefits from excellent physical demand as investors of all sizes are attracted by the lower price points.
My next commentary will be on July 27. Have a good weekend and upcoming trading week.
Roy
Roy