hello seeker, two anecdotes:
(i) i witnessed yesterday for the second time in my life on this planet in this universe the sale by hoarder to hang seng bank hq of 50 gold bullion coins (american eagles, the inferior gold due to lesser purity) at ... get this ... price of usd 1,135/oz (exchange rate 7.75) when the indicated gold spot was at usd 1,080!
the seller had to sell bullion because he has just about all of his liquidity in gold form, and the next option check chevron wolverine for some portion of his oil acreage would not be banked until end of november - iow, he is out of spendable cash :0)
the interesting point to note is that, given the willing premium over spot paid by hang seng, as opposed to the more usual, i am guessing, discount under spot, either physical is tighter than indicated and/or the hang seng traders expect more rise.
(ii) my in-law lunched with head of metals desk of bank of china hk, and it appears that (a) the bank sees great future for metals (gold, platinum and silver) on the mainland as the certificate gold and silver savings programs roll across that ancient and traditional landscape, and (b) the bank actually pretty much match their hk certificate gold, platinum and silver programs with physical, oz for oz, mace for mace and tael for tael. should such discipline be carried acrossed the border (they had better, because any missing gold from peasants' a/c would trigger a bloodletting revolution in the best of ancient traditions), the news going forward would be increasing encouraging of gold savings, platinum thrift, and silver hoarding.
if i were a jpm / goldman sachs gold shorter, i would be getting alarmed.
let us do cheers from gold goblets (chow tai fook retails them) come christmas time, instead of the more usual gold flake floating in drinks, j |
