Gold spot price ranges
USD: 652 – 639.00
NZD: 871.00 – 851.00
NZDUSD: .7576- .7703
Yet another busy week, with a big range of movement on the currency front. We experienced a large drop midweek, primarily because of a release by the Reserve Bank explaining their reasoning for the intervention in the NZD exchange rate, and strong talk from the Bank of Japan regarding the carry trades. This then picked back up and we’ve seen record highs of over .77 in the last 24 hours. The expectation is the NZDUSD exchange is still going to keep climbing. The question is for how long? The effect this has on the gold price locally: gold is once again looking like the great currency hedge, despite the gold price increasing Thursday/Friday we’ve not seen much increase in the NZ price of Gold.
Gold has had an up and down week too, with the drop in price midweek, primarily caused by a drop in the oil price, and a move away from US investors to Treasury Bonds. This movement is being caused by better than expected economic data, but we still have more news coming this weekend, so things may change. However the oil prices increased last night, and with the prices being a their lowest point since January / February, a lot of physical buyers came back into the market yesterday, which has pushed the price back up to the mid 640’s with an expectation of a continued rise. The bargain buyers appear to be adhering to the old adage, buy on the dip.
Supply issues have been popping up again, with Russia announcing a 1% reduction in year on year supply, which coupled with the rumblings of the Labour strike in South Africa (which may still be on) and the worries about the declining production and increasing demand in Asia and the Middle East is likely to continue to be a long term factor in the prices.
A recent study by GNS Science and the New Zealand IER; has shown that there may be Gold deposits in the Far North (amongst $5 billion dollars of metallic mineral deposits) Coupled with the positive news from Heritage Gold of more finds in Waihi can only be good news for the local economy.
Looking for a way to use your gold? Have a look at the Emirates Palace Hotel. It cost more than $US3 billion dollars to build, with its golden rooftop domes to its gold-leaf lobby mosaics. The Flag poles are made of gold and the 1,002 chandeliers with Swarovski crystal made of, you guessed it, Gold.
At $US11,000 per night it rates itself as a 6 or 7 star equivalent “palace”.
And what would you wear to a place like this? How about General Ulysses S. Grant's sword at US$1.6m?
Friday, 29 June 2007
Friday, 22 June 2007
Gold price info - week ending June 22
Gold spot price ranges
USD: 661.90 – 649.30
NZD: 874.00 – 855.00
NZDUSD: .7650- .7525
A busy week – the Reserve bank has again intervened with the exchange rate locally, it doesn’t appear to be having much impact however with record highs recorded on the NZDUSD cross. This of course makes it a good time to look at buying gold in New Zealand dollars, as the high exchange rate suppresses the price.
Gold movements: The stronger US dollar and US Treasury bonds have kept the price fairly static, there is currently a strong support above $650/oz and we’ve seen a period over $660 later in the week. The long term prognosis is still quite positive with demand being predicted high enough to easily absorb the future sales by the Central bank (Swiss Natural bank selling 250 tonnes for example).
Oil prices have also played a part - with the crude prices dropping back below $70/barrel with the strike in Nigeria not expected to have a large impact on the market.
A labour strike in the gold mines in South Africa has been postponed until after talks are held on July 2. The labour demands are for 15% wage increase as well as 61 other demands. This could have quite an impact so would be well worth watching.
The lower prices seen over the last month are being viewed as a consolidation period, prior to another bullish growth period in the gold market. With the increase in investor interest towards Gold and Silver, and the demand for alternative investments increasing, there is a positive attitude to the medium and long term view for the strength in the precious metals.
Following on from last weeks article about Egypt reviving some of their Gold mines -
Clue to Egypt's Gold Source Discovered
USD: 661.90 – 649.30
NZD: 874.00 – 855.00
NZDUSD: .7650- .7525
A busy week – the Reserve bank has again intervened with the exchange rate locally, it doesn’t appear to be having much impact however with record highs recorded on the NZDUSD cross. This of course makes it a good time to look at buying gold in New Zealand dollars, as the high exchange rate suppresses the price.
Gold movements: The stronger US dollar and US Treasury bonds have kept the price fairly static, there is currently a strong support above $650/oz and we’ve seen a period over $660 later in the week. The long term prognosis is still quite positive with demand being predicted high enough to easily absorb the future sales by the Central bank (Swiss Natural bank selling 250 tonnes for example).
Oil prices have also played a part - with the crude prices dropping back below $70/barrel with the strike in Nigeria not expected to have a large impact on the market.
A labour strike in the gold mines in South Africa has been postponed until after talks are held on July 2. The labour demands are for 15% wage increase as well as 61 other demands. This could have quite an impact so would be well worth watching.
The lower prices seen over the last month are being viewed as a consolidation period, prior to another bullish growth period in the gold market. With the increase in investor interest towards Gold and Silver, and the demand for alternative investments increasing, there is a positive attitude to the medium and long term view for the strength in the precious metals.
Following on from last weeks article about Egypt reviving some of their Gold mines -
Clue to Egypt's Gold Source Discovered
Friday, 15 June 2007
Gold price info - week ending June 15
Gold spot price ranges
USD: 654.60 – 643.95
NZD: 884.00 – 859.00
NZDUSD: .7628 - .7465
A quiet week on the gold news front, with the main drivers being the New Zealand Reserve bank impact on the dollar on Monday, and the US Treasury Bonds becoming flavour of the week again.
The latter half of the week has seen the oil price rise again, primarily because of concerns in the US gasoline supplies. This has brought the Gold price back up over the $650 mark, and the Euro strengthening slightly against the Greenback helping. It has been noted that recently the strength of the Euro vs. the Greenback has been a good indicator of the gold price movement, as the Euro strengthens investor move out of US$ holdings and into gold. This is a fairly recent occurrence but interesting none the less.
Central bank sales: The Swiss National Bank has announced that it will be selling 250 Tonnes of Gold from its reserves by the end of September 2009, but they have chosen an approach that will avoid market unrest.
Supply and demand are still factors in the long term price: Dubai imported 15% more gold in the first quarter of this year than in 2006.
Old gold is good gold: In some instances after 2000 years of inactivity Egypt is reopening gold mines to revive their gold industry. Reuters Link
Invisible braces: Need braces for your teeth? How about Invisible Gold braces
WGC article
USD: 654.60 – 643.95
NZD: 884.00 – 859.00
NZDUSD: .7628 - .7465
A quiet week on the gold news front, with the main drivers being the New Zealand Reserve bank impact on the dollar on Monday, and the US Treasury Bonds becoming flavour of the week again.
The latter half of the week has seen the oil price rise again, primarily because of concerns in the US gasoline supplies. This has brought the Gold price back up over the $650 mark, and the Euro strengthening slightly against the Greenback helping. It has been noted that recently the strength of the Euro vs. the Greenback has been a good indicator of the gold price movement, as the Euro strengthens investor move out of US$ holdings and into gold. This is a fairly recent occurrence but interesting none the less.
Central bank sales: The Swiss National Bank has announced that it will be selling 250 Tonnes of Gold from its reserves by the end of September 2009, but they have chosen an approach that will avoid market unrest.
Supply and demand are still factors in the long term price: Dubai imported 15% more gold in the first quarter of this year than in 2006.
Old gold is good gold: In some instances after 2000 years of inactivity Egypt is reopening gold mines to revive their gold industry. Reuters Link
Invisible braces: Need braces for your teeth? How about Invisible Gold braces
WGC article
Friday, 8 June 2007
Gold price info - week ending June 8
Weekly outlook: continues to be good medium to long term.
Gold spot price ranges
USD: 673.40 - 658.60
NZD: 905.53 - 876.13
NZDUSD: .7565 - .7435
Current influences on price:
A strong rally in US Treasury bonds has pushed the prices down at the end of the week, primarily due to exceptionally high yields and a weaker Euro and GBP.
Interest rate rise in New Zealand (8%) and Europe (4%) and the USA to try and curb inflation, coupled with rising oil prices are all working in favour of gold investment for the medium to long term.
The interest rate hike on Thursday saw the NZDUSD exchange rate spike to a record high, which once again makes gold purchasing very cheap, and excellent hedge option at the moment.
Sentiment in long term Gold investment is still very positive, with global demand increasing – according to the world gold council.
Year-on-year demand increased by 4% globally, despite a 17% increase in the spot rate. Demand in China increased by 31% from last year, and in India increased by 50%! At the same time world supply dropped by 3% (South Africa and Peru both making double digit negative decreases). The important thing to note here: Gold production is decreasing despite higher prices. This indicates that it is getting harder and more expensive to mine gold, which will continue to push the price upwards.
A new tri-metal exhaust catalyst that uses gold, developed for diesel engines, that can reduce harmful emissions by up to 40% has been unveiled in South Africa. This is seen as a positive for both diesel engines (as the catalyst can be tuned for different applications by using different amounts of metals: Gold; Palladium; Platinum) and for the gold market.
The Bank of Spain sold another 28 tonnes of gold in May after having sold 40 tonnes in March and another 40 tonnes in April. In three months and via an unannounced sales program, Spain has sold over 25% of its total gold reserves into the market. The interesting point is that this might not necessarily be being done to grab the best price... no, this "sales program" which has merited no public comment from the bank could be forecasting a much larger problem on the horizon in the fiat currency of Spain. This fire sale of gold reserves looks much more like an attempt to raise quick cash to solve banking and housing issues rather than a program of diversification.
The 133 tonnes in total sales over the past 3 months has not included the 37 tonnes in sales from the ECB (European Central Bank) umbrella organization as of yet. Looking at updated figures this morning showing less than 2 tonnes of sales last week by ECB captive banks, that 37 tonne figure has yet to show up in reports. So all told, the gold market in the last 3 months actually digested 170 tonnes of gold sales from ECB banks. There are no updated figures yet on banks outside of the ECB system because they report on a 3-6 month lag.
For a point of reference, even during the Bank of England and Bank of Switzerland gold sales from 1999-2004, no three-month tally during has been as high as 170 tonnes of sales into the market. The fact that the price has held up during this sharp increase is nothing short of remarkable and should highlight for even the market novice the underlying strength in the market.
UBS has put out a new research note stating that they see ECB sales reaching the quota of 500 tonnes this year. This has been revised up from the 400 tonnes of sales they had been expecting. The significantly increased sales in a short time period have kept the prices bottled up, but have not satiated demand in the market. If you can figure out what's affecting prices, then it's easy to pin point that during a period of increased bank sales, it is an opportunity to buy. As has been proven after every major set of bank sales in the last decade, the price eventually goes higher after the sales are done
Bear Stearns Cos, the largest broker for US Hedge funds is expanding its commodities business to meet growing demand for investments in the metals markets.
Tired of having small change in your pocket – how about a Million dollar coin?
Gold spot price ranges
USD: 673.40 - 658.60
NZD: 905.53 - 876.13
NZDUSD: .7565 - .7435
Current influences on price:
A strong rally in US Treasury bonds has pushed the prices down at the end of the week, primarily due to exceptionally high yields and a weaker Euro and GBP.
Interest rate rise in New Zealand (8%) and Europe (4%) and the USA to try and curb inflation, coupled with rising oil prices are all working in favour of gold investment for the medium to long term.
The interest rate hike on Thursday saw the NZDUSD exchange rate spike to a record high, which once again makes gold purchasing very cheap, and excellent hedge option at the moment.
Sentiment in long term Gold investment is still very positive, with global demand increasing – according to the world gold council.
Year-on-year demand increased by 4% globally, despite a 17% increase in the spot rate. Demand in China increased by 31% from last year, and in India increased by 50%! At the same time world supply dropped by 3% (South Africa and Peru both making double digit negative decreases). The important thing to note here: Gold production is decreasing despite higher prices. This indicates that it is getting harder and more expensive to mine gold, which will continue to push the price upwards.
A new tri-metal exhaust catalyst that uses gold, developed for diesel engines, that can reduce harmful emissions by up to 40% has been unveiled in South Africa. This is seen as a positive for both diesel engines (as the catalyst can be tuned for different applications by using different amounts of metals: Gold; Palladium; Platinum) and for the gold market.
The Bank of Spain sold another 28 tonnes of gold in May after having sold 40 tonnes in March and another 40 tonnes in April. In three months and via an unannounced sales program, Spain has sold over 25% of its total gold reserves into the market. The interesting point is that this might not necessarily be being done to grab the best price... no, this "sales program" which has merited no public comment from the bank could be forecasting a much larger problem on the horizon in the fiat currency of Spain. This fire sale of gold reserves looks much more like an attempt to raise quick cash to solve banking and housing issues rather than a program of diversification.
The 133 tonnes in total sales over the past 3 months has not included the 37 tonnes in sales from the ECB (European Central Bank) umbrella organization as of yet. Looking at updated figures this morning showing less than 2 tonnes of sales last week by ECB captive banks, that 37 tonne figure has yet to show up in reports. So all told, the gold market in the last 3 months actually digested 170 tonnes of gold sales from ECB banks. There are no updated figures yet on banks outside of the ECB system because they report on a 3-6 month lag.
For a point of reference, even during the Bank of England and Bank of Switzerland gold sales from 1999-2004, no three-month tally during has been as high as 170 tonnes of sales into the market. The fact that the price has held up during this sharp increase is nothing short of remarkable and should highlight for even the market novice the underlying strength in the market.
UBS has put out a new research note stating that they see ECB sales reaching the quota of 500 tonnes this year. This has been revised up from the 400 tonnes of sales they had been expecting. The significantly increased sales in a short time period have kept the prices bottled up, but have not satiated demand in the market. If you can figure out what's affecting prices, then it's easy to pin point that during a period of increased bank sales, it is an opportunity to buy. As has been proven after every major set of bank sales in the last decade, the price eventually goes higher after the sales are done
Bear Stearns Cos, the largest broker for US Hedge funds is expanding its commodities business to meet growing demand for investments in the metals markets.
Tired of having small change in your pocket – how about a Million dollar coin?
Friday, 1 June 2007
Gold price info - week ending June 1
Weekly overview - still positive medium and long term
Gold Spot price ranges:
USD: 652- 665
NZD: 893 - 907
NZDUSD: 0.7250 - 0.7330
Current influences on price:
A strong rally in pricing by gold and silver at the end of the week, primarily due to weak US economic data, GDP at 0.6%
Positive US Economic data being released this week has kept the price of Gold subdued, with the expectation of the US dollar strengthening keeping the Gold price in the low $650’s. Oil prices are also subdued, again not pushing the prices forward, however as mentioned last week the gasoline prices in the US are at record highs and climbing. Despite this gold has finished on upbeat notes several times this week, once again reaffirming the long term belief in Gold as an investment for the future.
The price of Gold has leapt from an average of $300 in 2002 to around $660 currently and isn’t expected to decline. Rob Mcewen, Chairman and CEO of US Gold, talking to Timesnow.com said: “I see it going much higher. It reached its floor at $250 in 1999 and 2001. I think it's moving in 3 stages. The first stage we have already completed where it went from $250-$440 by the end of '04. Right now i think it's in a stage going from $440-$850 testing the old highs by the end of '08 and then '09, '10 it is going significantly higher 2,000-5,000 dollars an ounce."
Gold sales in China increased by 15% to $87 Billion in April.
Record numbers of American Eagle and Gold Kiwi gold coins are being snapped up by investors across the world. This is due to the coins having a high gold content and investors are specifically looking to purchase gold coins in order to acquire a secure investment so that currency fluctuations are offset. This is also the finding at New Zealand Mint, with the Gold Kiwi coins being the general preference of investors, as the .9999 Gold coins are GST free, and a sound base to a solid portfolio. DeMeritt of Lear Financial, the parent company of Gold Central, stated: "This is the best way for the small investor to enter the gold market with an investment in gold coins."
Currency news
Late flurry of news released at the end of the week, primarily the US GDP at 0.6% down from 1.3% (and the expected 0.8%). This means once again, that the NZDUSD exchange rate is back over the 73c mark, and is holding strongly. This is good news for bullion investors as this means the price of Gold in New Zealand is being held lower than against offshore currencies.
Mining news
South African gold production fell by 7.6% to 62,806 kilograms (2,019,276 troy ounces) in first quarter 2007 compared to first quarter 2006 as grades mined in the quarter declined by an average of 12.9%.
About 8% of production came from marginal mines, the SA Chamber of Mines said in a statement.
This is backed up by an industry insider predicting that China will become the largest gold producer in the world by 2010, according to Interfax-China.
According to the news source, the editor of gold investment report Goldletter International, Morino G Pieterse, made the comment at the Western China Mining Summit 2007 in Chengdu.
Mr Pieterse pointed to the fact that between 1997 and 2006 production of gold in China increased by 162.8 tonnes to 247.2 tonnes.
"China's gold output surpassed Australia's last year, is due to surpass US production this year and will surpass South African production within two years," Mr Pieterse told the news source.
He also noted that while gold production in traditional producing countries such as South Africa has declined over recent years, output from emerging gold producing countries has increased from 17.7 per cent of global production to 29.8 per cent in the last ten years
Closer to home, the owners of Solomon Islands' only gold mine say their operation will begin gold production in June 2008, eight years after it was shut down by militant fighting. During its one year of operation between 1999 and 2000, Gold Ridge Mine produced 30 per cent of Solomon Islands GDP. Gold Ridge Mine manager, Val Buenic, says the new operation will be 30 per cent larger than before.
Mr Buenic says the operation will employ between 400 to 500 locals and will be on a larger scale than the previous operation."The project should be in production on 30th June 2008," he said."We're a year away from pouring our first gold. "The stage of the project right now is we're refurbishing the accommodation village on the site ... we're about to begin two new relocation villages for the landowners."
Interesting story of the week:
Thieves steal an 80kg $1,000,000 gold bathtub from the men's bathroom of a Tokyo hotel. The odd news is the ladies bath is still there.
Stolen Golden Bathtub
Gold Spot price ranges:
USD: 652- 665
NZD: 893 - 907
NZDUSD: 0.7250 - 0.7330
Current influences on price:
A strong rally in pricing by gold and silver at the end of the week, primarily due to weak US economic data, GDP at 0.6%
Positive US Economic data being released this week has kept the price of Gold subdued, with the expectation of the US dollar strengthening keeping the Gold price in the low $650’s. Oil prices are also subdued, again not pushing the prices forward, however as mentioned last week the gasoline prices in the US are at record highs and climbing. Despite this gold has finished on upbeat notes several times this week, once again reaffirming the long term belief in Gold as an investment for the future.
The price of Gold has leapt from an average of $300 in 2002 to around $660 currently and isn’t expected to decline. Rob Mcewen, Chairman and CEO of US Gold, talking to Timesnow.com said: “I see it going much higher. It reached its floor at $250 in 1999 and 2001. I think it's moving in 3 stages. The first stage we have already completed where it went from $250-$440 by the end of '04. Right now i think it's in a stage going from $440-$850 testing the old highs by the end of '08 and then '09, '10 it is going significantly higher 2,000-5,000 dollars an ounce."
Gold sales in China increased by 15% to $87 Billion in April.
Record numbers of American Eagle and Gold Kiwi gold coins are being snapped up by investors across the world. This is due to the coins having a high gold content and investors are specifically looking to purchase gold coins in order to acquire a secure investment so that currency fluctuations are offset. This is also the finding at New Zealand Mint, with the Gold Kiwi coins being the general preference of investors, as the .9999 Gold coins are GST free, and a sound base to a solid portfolio. DeMeritt of Lear Financial, the parent company of Gold Central, stated: "This is the best way for the small investor to enter the gold market with an investment in gold coins."
Currency news
Late flurry of news released at the end of the week, primarily the US GDP at 0.6% down from 1.3% (and the expected 0.8%). This means once again, that the NZDUSD exchange rate is back over the 73c mark, and is holding strongly. This is good news for bullion investors as this means the price of Gold in New Zealand is being held lower than against offshore currencies.
Mining news
South African gold production fell by 7.6% to 62,806 kilograms (2,019,276 troy ounces) in first quarter 2007 compared to first quarter 2006 as grades mined in the quarter declined by an average of 12.9%.
About 8% of production came from marginal mines, the SA Chamber of Mines said in a statement.
This is backed up by an industry insider predicting that China will become the largest gold producer in the world by 2010, according to Interfax-China.
According to the news source, the editor of gold investment report Goldletter International, Morino G Pieterse, made the comment at the Western China Mining Summit 2007 in Chengdu.
Mr Pieterse pointed to the fact that between 1997 and 2006 production of gold in China increased by 162.8 tonnes to 247.2 tonnes.
"China's gold output surpassed Australia's last year, is due to surpass US production this year and will surpass South African production within two years," Mr Pieterse told the news source.
He also noted that while gold production in traditional producing countries such as South Africa has declined over recent years, output from emerging gold producing countries has increased from 17.7 per cent of global production to 29.8 per cent in the last ten years
Closer to home, the owners of Solomon Islands' only gold mine say their operation will begin gold production in June 2008, eight years after it was shut down by militant fighting. During its one year of operation between 1999 and 2000, Gold Ridge Mine produced 30 per cent of Solomon Islands GDP. Gold Ridge Mine manager, Val Buenic, says the new operation will be 30 per cent larger than before.
Mr Buenic says the operation will employ between 400 to 500 locals and will be on a larger scale than the previous operation."The project should be in production on 30th June 2008," he said."We're a year away from pouring our first gold. "The stage of the project right now is we're refurbishing the accommodation village on the site ... we're about to begin two new relocation villages for the landowners."
Interesting story of the week:
Thieves steal an 80kg $1,000,000 gold bathtub from the men's bathroom of a Tokyo hotel. The odd news is the ladies bath is still there.
Stolen Golden Bathtub
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