March Gold News 2017

The UK triggered Article 50 on Wednesday 29^th March – the formal process of beginning to leave the EU.  With it comes considerable uncertainty with an increase in UK investors buying gold to protect their wealth and savings because of the volatility over the next few years as the UK heads out of the Union.

As reported in The Wall Street Journal – demand for gold in the UK increased by almost 40% last year according to GFMS.

Commentators say whilst the uncertainty continues – demand for gold in the UK will continue for some time to come.

However, it’s ...

China’s second largest gold producer the Shandong Gold Group Co have discovered China’s largest ever gold mine in the North East province of Laizhou-Zhaoyan.

Initial reports estimate that the deposit could yield 382 tons of yellow metal over the next 40 years. The mine is expected to produce 4.52 grams of gold for every ton and is 67 metres wide and over 2 kilometres in length.

China has the fifth largest gold reserves in the world after the United States, Germany, Italy, and France. The mine is expected to increase the country's gold reserves by 20% to over 2,000 tons ...

Donald Trump's setback on Friday has helped to push up the price of gold to a one-month high.

The President's failure to pass the US healthcare bill on Friday has led to worries that Trump won'y be able to deliver on his promises laid out in the election campaign.

Gold rose by as much as 1.1pc to $1,258 an ounce after investors stampeded to safe haven assets on Monday morning.  

Speaking in The Daily Telegraph this morning,  Naeem Aslam, of Think Markets, says the reason for the panic which is triggering market’s selloff,  which is actually across the board, ...

It’s been confirmed that a hoard of gold found inside a piano in Shropshire was a collection of sovereign coins.

The collection includes an undisclosed amount of full and half sovereigns.  They were found in the piano just before Christmas when the owners had it retuned and repaired.

The coins are dated between 1847 and 1915, and experts say a full sovereign could be worth at least £220.  It is thought that the coins may have been deliberately hidden and could be worth a life-changing sum of money.

An inquest is taking place to decide if the haul can be ...

Analysts are predicting an upsurge in the number of investors putting their cash back into gold.

That’s according to Commerzbank analysts who say the fact that the gold price rose to $1,250 an ounce this week is one of the reason why there is renewed interest in the precious metal.  Despite reaching that key level, prices did fall slightly lower on Friday.

A team of analysts said:

“Although this psychologically important threshold appears to be posing something of a challenge in the short term, the chances of the price rising above it are good”

Fuelling this is the fact that ...

The gold price has reacted well to last week’s much anticipated U.S rate hike. The price has advanced over $25 per ounce and is fast approaching the psychological $1,250 barrier.

Investors are once again turning to the yellow metal for protection from future inflation caused by Donald Trump’s $1 trillion stimulus plan. Most analysts focus their attention on demand while few understand the true dynamics behind supply.

After three years of a falling gold price, the largest mining companies scaled back future exploration and focused solely on cutting costs, unsurprisingly global gold production has fallen dramatically. It takes years to ...

Following 18 months of money printing the European Central Bank (ECB) has over 1 trillion euros of government debt sitting on their balance sheet.

Despite pumping billions of euros into the economy, growth and inflation remain anemic and market conditions in the Eurozone are deteriorating fast. Even the ECB’s own data suggests that we are entering a period similar to that of 2008.  Capital has started to flee Greece, Italy, Spain and Ireland to the relative safety of German government paper.  The 10 year German bund is now trading with a negative yield, meaning investors who buy the debt today will ...

The UK could be out of the European Union by March 2019 after it was announced the Prime Minister will trigger article 50 - the formal process of beginning to leave the union - on Wednesday next week.

Two years of negotiations will then begin between EU member states and the UK.  It comes nine months after the UK voted to leave the union following the referendum in June with a 52% - 48% majority.

Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis said:

"Last June, the people of the UK made the historic decision to leave the EU. Next Wednesday, ...

For the second time in three months, the federal reserve took the decision to increase interest rates by 0.25%. The hike was widely expected, but the cautious tone adopted by Fed Chair Janet Yellen caused the U.S. dollar to fall and the gold price to rise over $20 per ounce. It appears the markets were expecting a more hawkish outlook for the U.S. economy.

Despite expressing reservations over future growth, the Fed is expected to raise rates again in June and December. Despite the rhetoric, the Fed has only managed to raise interest rates three times in the last 10 ...

It appears the only way to stop Indian gold demand is to confiscate their cash. Prime Minister Modi has spent most of his time in government trying to stem gold demand and convince the population to deposit their bullion in one of the country's banks.

Firstly, the government hiked import taxes on the yellow metal and more recently offered interest if Indians deposited their bullion. The import tax hurt refiners and manufacturers and smuggling soared. The deposit programme failed spectacularly with only 14 tonnes being deposited out of the estimated 20,000 tonnes owned by the Indian population.

However, removing notes ...

With the pound on its worst run since August and plenty of indications of a downturn in the UK economy as Theresa May moves to trigger Article 50, we predict an increasing interest in safe-haven investments in the near future. One asset whose popularity is rising is bitcoin. The cryptocurrency's value has risen dramatically in the last twelve months, and some advocates view bitcoin as the currency of the future. Bitcoin has drawn attention recently as the price of one coin rose above an ounce of gold. It is currently trading at £1019 per bitcoin.

However to consider bitcoin a viable alternative for gold seems premature. As ...

There is no doubt that China wants to control the International Monetary System, which is why the emerging superpower has been purchasing huge amounts of bullion via government and private channels.

The Chinese gold market is opaque by design as the Chinese want to hide the true extent of their stockpile. The best estimate comes from Koos Janssen who has studied the Chinese gold market for over a decade. He estimates that the Chinese own a staggering 19,500 metric tonnes of the yellow metal.

At first glance this seems unrealistic, but when you consider the Chinese government has prompted private ...

The UK’s economy is being kept afloat by retail spending and unsustainable spending, according to the office of Budget Responsibility (OBR).

For the first time since the 2008 economic crisis UK consumers are spending more than their incomes. By 2022 household debt is estimated to reach 153% of disposable income.

Unfortunately, the debt problem does not stop there. The government has also grown accustomed to living beyond its means and is expected to run a £69 billion deficit in 2017. UK Sovereign debt currently stands at £1.8 trillion and is growing at staggering £5,150 per second.

Phillip Hammond can raise ...

On March 15^th U.S. federal debt is expected to reach $20 trillion. By law the Trump administration will not be able to borrow a further dollar unless the debt ceiling is raised. If not raised the U.S government will soon run out of cash and run the real risk of defaulting on its debt and federal liabilities.

The U.S Treasury has $200 bn in cash and a monthly deficit of $75 bn, so by the summer the government will officially run out of money. There are many Democrats and Republicans in Washington who would love to see Trump Fall. If the ...

The silver price has consolidated in recent days following Thursday’s savage attack which saw the silver price fall 4% in under an hour. Just as the European markets closed, someone decided to dump over 23,000 silver futures contracts or 1.15 million ounces of silver into the paper market.

Prior to the sell off the silver price had broken $18 per ounce and was trading above the metals 200 moving average.  The price decline was usual as there was no breaking news or announcements from the Federal Reserve.  The usual price action has led many to speculate the take down may been ...