BULLION MARKET HIGHLIGHTS- DECEMBER 2015- AUGUST 2016: RSBL

 By Mr. Prithviraj Kothari, MD, RSBL

AS 2015 came to a close, most traders expected that 2016 would be a year subjugated by a series of Fed rate hikes.

 

That belief strengthened in late-December 2015 after the Fed delivered on its promise – and raised interest rates for the first time in almost a decade.

 

In a widely telegraphed publication called the "Dots Plot", the Fed signalled that it would continue to normalize its monetary policy, and raise interest rates by a total of +1% through 2016 to a target of 1.375%, a "gradual" pace and in line with earlier forecasts.

Though gold was expected to be bearish on 2016, it showed upward prices movements and The World Gold Council attributed this rally to three principal factors:

• the widening landscape of negative interest rates in Japan and Europe;
• the devaluation of China's Yuan; and
• The realization that the Fed was bluffing on hiking the Fed funds rate, and wouldn't dare take any action that could knock the stock market lower ahead of the upcoming November elections in the US for Congress and the Presidency. 

While we are a few months away from the year end I would like to throw light on a few key highlights that influenced the bullion markets worldwide.

Fed Hike- on 4 January 2016, San Francisco Fed chief John Williams said he saw a steady campaign of interest rate rises. "There are still pretty significant headwinds" facing the US economy from weak overseas economies, the strong Dollar and housing related issues, Mr.Williams told reporters.

 

 

On 6 January, Fed deputy Stanley Fischer warned the markets could expect three to four increases in the Fed funds rate this year. Speaking on CNBC television Fischer warned:

"If asset prices across the economy – that is, taking all financial markets into account – are thought to be extremely high, raising the interest rate may be the suitable step."

Based on expectations of 4-Fed rate hikes to 1.375% by year's end, gold initially declined in the month of December to a six year low at $1054 per ounce. Most analysts expected the downfall to continue through 2016, but they were proved wrong.

 The price of gold suddenly surged 16% higher in the first quarter alone. Giving gold one of its strongest quarterly performance in nearly three decades.

SPDR- The world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca:GLD), surged in its holdings to the most in six years, jumping to 983 tonnes, and global gold holdings in ETFs topped 2,000 metric tonnes for the first time since June 2013 following the Brexit fallout, when gold buying sparked even more gold buying.

 

BOE-  On June 30th, Bank of England chief Mark Carney said the economic risks from Brexit had started to crystallize, and he hinted at a resumption of QE, lifting gold to its biggest one-day surge in years after Britons shocked markets by voting to leave the European Union, driving investors toward safe-haven assets such as bullion.  Gold soared as much as 8 percent to its highest in more than two years in the week ending 28^th June, 2016 after the UK referendum results, sending investors rushing for protection. Gold prices surged to its highest level in more than two years, at $1,359 since March 17, 2014, sending shock waves across markets.

BOS- by June 2016, all of Switzerland's government debt, including its 30-year bonds, started trading at negative yields.

 

In all, a record US$11.7 trillion of global sovereign debt has dipped to sub-zero yield territory. This has only strengthened the rally in gold, and about $13-14 billion of money has made its way into gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as asset managers moved from fixed income into gold earlier this year.

 

Gold climbed to a two-year high at $1371 per ounce in July, convincing UBS Group to predict that gold is probably at the beginning of its next bull run

BOJ- gold's spectacular rally found a stiff roadblock at the $1370 per ounce area when Japanese government bonds suddenly began to fall sharply into their worst sell-off in 13 years. On August 2nd the Bank of Japan shocked the markets and rattled gold traders by keeping its bond purchases steady, defying expectations it would buy even more.

 

 

Gold traders became even more nervous after the BoJ said it would re-evaluate its Negative Interest Rate and QQE policies in September. Some investors see the policy review as a tacit admission by the central bank that after more than three years of massive money printing, the BoJ could be ready to start tapering the pace of the QQE liquidity injections.

 

   

Since the $10.4 trillion bond market in Tokyo is at the core of the negative interest rate world, if the BoJ begins to allow Japanese bond yields to climb by tapering its QE scheme, it could continue to rattle the price of gold – at least on a short-term basis.

BoJ policy makers ordered staff to make a "comprehensive assessment" on the impact of its easing program and negative interest-rate policy ahead of the next policy-setting meeting on 20-21 September. Some traders suspect the review is aimed specifically at assessing the effectiveness of negative rates, potentially giving policy makers scope to declare the exercise unsuccessful.

So for the month to come, BoJ will surely have something crucial for gold in store.

The primary purpose of this article by Mr. Prithviraj Kothari is to educate the masses of the current happenings in the Bullion world.

Previous blog:

"Higher Gold Prices For The Domestic Market: RSBL"

http://riddisiddhibullionsltd.blogspot.in/2016/08/higher-gold-prices-for-domestic-market.html

Gold and Silver prices on RISE: RSBL

                                                                                      - Mr. Prithviraj Kothari, MD RSBL

Precious metals price rise is eminent and it ended the week on a positive note post poor US data released. The negative data sent the dollar tumbling, stimulating a good recovery for the yellow metal and its white counterparts.

Data released from the US was as follows:

• GDP data out of the U.S. disappointed on Friday, growing at a seasonally and inflation adjusted +1.2% during Q2 (exp: +2.5%) as business inventories contracted for the first time since Q3 2011
• The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index dropped to 90.0 in July (exp: 90.2) from 93.5 in June as both current and future conditions declined.
• The poor data countered the Fed’s statement that the US economy is stable and the near-term outlook is positive. Even though the unemployment rate is around five percent, the policy-board has been ineffective at spurring inflation or consistent wage growth. All eyes were on this meeting as something crucial was expected to happen regarding the interest rate hike. But negative data has postponed this hike and this gave gold the push. 

Apart from the US there was news that came in from other economies which affected the gold price: 

U.S Dollar:

Major downturn in the dollar created by the release of second quarter US GDP where it plummeted to 95.38 around the lowest mark since mid-June, before staging a modest uptick to 95.60.

Japan:

Host of new data releases and a Bank of Japan decision to inject further stimulus, markets were directionless this week with volatility and volumes continuing to drift lower. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) decided to adopt a minor adjustment to the existing monetary policy by increasing its purchases of exchange-traded stock funds to 6 trillion yen and expanded its dollar lending programme to $24 billion but kept its policy rate unchanged at -0.1 percent while maintaining the pace of government bond purchases.

The BOJ certainly doubled purchases of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and said it will “conduct a thorough assessment of the effects of negative interest rates and its massive asset-buying program in September.”

The bank was considering a $265 billion package, part of which would target low-income citizens in another attempt to boost inflation and weak wage growth.

This can be understood as- either the central bank may feel that Japan’s economic growth needs very, very extensive stimulation and they have yet to formulate an appropriate plan or it can be interested that they want to see how the chips fall in eight weeks and move cautiously from there.

India:

Coming to the domestic markets- India being one of the largest consumers of gold, but currently the demand for gold isn’t intense. Frankly speaking, very few people want to invest in gold at this price. Buyers, it seems, feel that the current price is not sustainable and hence, they wait for a correction. Gold price in India is governed by two major factors: global economic conditions and the movement of rupee against the dollar. Both factors have contributed to the current price rise. While global economic conditions continue to pose a greater risk by the day following fluctuating recovery trend in the United States, Britain’s exit from the European Union (BREXIT) and other geopolitical tensions. On the other hand, Indian rupee has depreciated against the greenback despite reports of good inflow of dollars.

Since BREXIT, spot gold price jumped rapidly but, stayed elevated. Also, rainy season is considered as a lean period for gold purchase due to the lack of festivals, weddings or any other occasions during this season. Also, consumers have faced two subsequent years of deficient monsoon rainfalls. Although, the current year has seen normal rainfalls yet its distribution continues to remain uneven. Also, the crucial rainfall month – August – is yet to come. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed for the Kharif sowing and harvesting this year. In case of normal monsoon and its even distribution, Kharif crop would bring some cheers for farmers with higher output which would translate proportionate increase in gold demand.

In India, therefore, standard gold is available at Rs. 31,300 per 10 grams approx. Gold price may touch $1400 in near future in the international markets which will translate in rupee term at Rs. 32,500 per 10 grams. While the uptrend continues there could be some profit booking.

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The primary purpose of this article by Mr. Prithviraj Kothari is to educate the masses of the current happenings in the Bullion world.

Previous blog:

Consolidation phase for Gold and Silver Prices: RSBL - http://riddisiddhibullionsltd.blogspot.in/2016/07/consolidation-phase-for-gold-and-silver.html

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Consolidation phase for Gold and Silver Prices: RSBL

                                                                           - Mr. Prithviraj Kothari, MD RSBL

BREXIT, FED, Dollar and many other key influential factors have proved to be beneficial for Gold and Silver prices in 2016. Last week too we saw many such factors influencing bullion prices but in the downward side. Let’s take a close look on the key highlights:

• The S&P (US Stock exchange) posted a fresh all-time closing high and the major U.S. stock averages 2,163.24 locked in a fourth successive winning week following the Brexit vote.
• At the weekends G20 summit in China, the world's biggest economies noted they will work to support global growth and share the benefits of trade, in a meeting dominated by the impact of Britain's exit from Europe and fears of rising protectionism. Philip Hammond, Britain's new finance minister, said the uncertainty about Brexit would begin to abate once Britain laid out a vision for a future relationship with Europe, which could become clearer later this year.
• On Thursday, 21^st July , in Frankfurt, the European Central Bank (ECB) and President Mario Draghi decided to leave rates unchanged after the Brexit-induced market shockwaves have faded somewhat. Draghi and his fellow central bankers gave no indication that the current 1.7 trillion-euro quantitative-easing plan needed to be increased following the UK vote to leave the single market. The council doesn’t meet again till September, but investors aren’t anticipating any adjustment to the bond-buying programme in the near-term thus leaving the door open to more policy stimulus, highlighting "great" uncertainty and abundant risks to the economic outlook.

Though bullion has benefited from the loose policy decisions coming in from central banks of Europe and Japan, but on the other side the dollar has gained on strong U.S. data, boosting bets the Fed will raise U.S. rates by year-end.

Globally, gold nearly fell to $1,312 and silver to USD 19.46. Traders attributed the fall in gold prices to a weak global trend where the precious metal headed for its first back-to-back weekly decline since May as gains in equities and the dollar ate into demand for the metal as a storage value. Few other important indicators that contributed to the downfall:

• Data released from the U.S. showed that U.S home resale’s hit their highest in nearly 9 and a half years in June as low interest rates lured first-time buyers into the market and the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell last week, underscoring the economy's strength.     
• Adding to the down trend in prices were the figures released by SPDR. Holdings of SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.22 percent to 963.14 tonnes on Thursday.

I do feel that the Price action will likely be skewed to the downside and expect to test the post-Brexit low around USD $1,305 and below this USD $1,300 should global equities continue their upward trajectory.

The Jackson Hole Symposium Aug. 25-27, where Yellen is scheduled to speak is where we will most likely get more relevant information about coming Fed policy and the next direction.

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The primary purpose of this article by Mr. Prithviraj Kothari is to educate the masses of the current happenings in the Bullion world.

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Gold prices to go up: RSBL - http://riddisiddhibullionsltd.blogspot.in/2016/07/gold-prices-to-go-up-rsbl.html

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Gold prices to go up: RSBL

                                                                 - Mr. Prithviraj Kothari, MD RSBL

While financial uncertainties were influencing gold prices, we have lately seen geo political uncertainties giving the yellow metal's safe haven appeal a further support if not permanent a temporary one.  The failed military coup in Turkey did manage to shake the markets.

Spot gold prices turned higher, reversing earlier losses in late trade on Friday in New York after Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said a group within the country's military has attempted to overthrow the government. For several hours overnight on Friday violence shook Turkey's two main cities, as the armed faction which tried to seize power blocked a bridge in Istanbul and strafed the headquarters of Turkish intelligence and parliament in Ankara. But the coup attempt crumbled as Erdogan rushed back to Istanbul from a Mediterranean holiday and urged people to take to the streets to support his government against plotters he accused of trying to kill him. The government declared the situation under control, saying 2,839 people had been rounded up, from foot soldiers to senior officers, including those who formed "the backbone" of the rebellion.

Earlier on Thursday, spot gold price crashed down to a two-week low of $1,320.45 after the Bank of England’s (BOE), contrary to expectations, kept interest rates unchanged in its Thursday meeting. In a somewhat surprising move, the Bank of England (BoE) decided to keep rates steady despite fear over the health of the UK economy following the Brexit vote.

Holdings in Global Gold ETF’s rose on Friday but lost about 10 tons in total over the week to 2002 tons, which was the biggest decline since March/April this year.

Gold continues to trade range bound between USD $1,320 - $1,340, however participants are still looking to play on the long side and we are likely to see moves lower well supported.

I largely see the spot gold price supported at the $1,300 level due to a post-Brexit global economic uncertainty and possibly lower US interest rates and given this critical situation at Turkey, precious metals prices are expected to move higher as they have always been influenced by geopolitical uncertainties.

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The primary purpose of this article by Mr. Prithviraj Kothari is to educate the masses of the current happenings in the Bullion world.

Previous blog:

Bullish direction of Gold and Silver prices: RSBL - http://riddisiddhibullionsltd.blogspot.in/2016/07/bullish-direction-of-gold-and-silver.html

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Bullish direction of Gold and Silver prices: RSBL

                                                                       - Mr. Prithviraj Kothari, MD RSBL

Gold has once again proved its worth and claims to be the best performing asset of 2016, emerging from a three-year bear market. The yellow metal has gained almost 26% since 1 January, the best half-year performance since 1980, Bloomberg data showed. Silver, following gold, rose 30% in the first six months, leaving other assets such as the US and German bonds, Japanese yen and the US dollar far behind.

The flight to safe haven assets triggered by global political and economic uncertainty has made bullion the year’s most preferred investment, with gold and silver beating other asset classes by a mile.

The past four sessions following the Brexit vote saw gold prices spike about 6%, while silver advanced about 5%. Gold has definitely benefited from the Brexit incident, but there have been reasons more than one that this yellow metal has once again has got into limelight.

Global economic uncertainty, slower growth in China, accommodative monetary policy of the major central banks and weakness in dollar earlier this year had prompted investments into safe haven assets like gold and silver.

Global Uncertainty:

The market continues to benefit from safe-haven investment flows in the wake of the UK vote to exit the EU, which has led to heightened uncertainty over global economic prospects and increased risk aversion.

Dollar:

Strength in the US dollar was the major contributor to weakness in gold and commodity prices for the past few years. However, increasing uncertainty about economic and political developments, low-to-negative interest rate environment as well as doubts over global economic recovery post the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 have led to demand for precious metals, analysts said.

China:

Economic slowdown of the Chinese economy has raised questions over the global growth and development. These concerns have put an upward pressure on gold. 

Monetary Policy:

The current economic backdrop, along with fading prospects of an interest rate hike by the US Fed at least till December validates further march of bullion on the upwards trajectory over medium-term.

Contradicting these prospects, the Jobs report released pulled gold prices down but not significantly. The report stated that in June, 287,000 Americans entered the labour market, far exceeding expectations of 174,000 while average hourly earnings period ticked up 0.1 percent, below the forecast 0.2 percent.

Still, the unemployment rate rose to 4.9 percent from 4.8 percent after the May figure was revised down to 11,000 jobs from what was already a multi-year low of 38,000. The June employment figure had gained greater significance following the disappointing May report, which suggested the US recovery was beginning to slow after seven years of expansion.

It was a session marked by extreme volatility on Friday with gold experiencing a $35 range and silver $1.00, with NFP's driving price action. The prices send a solid signal for the Gold price to move beyond $1400 in short to medium term.

Further supporting gold was the Chinese gold reserves figures. It stated that China's gold reserves stood at 58.62 million fine troy ounces at the end of June, up from 58.14 million at the end of May, the central bank said on Thursday. Such a stock up already appears to be in motion for the gold stocks.

Given these supporting factors for safe haven metals, investors have engaged themselves into purchases of gold and silver and this is further giving and upward thrust to precious metals.

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The primary purpose of this article by Mr. Prithviraj Kothari is to educate the masses of the current happenings in the Bullion world.

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Sharp increase in Silver prices: RSBL - http://riddisiddhibullionsltd.blogspot.in/2016/07/sharp-increase-in-silver-prices-rsbl.html

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Sharp increase in Silver prices: RSBL

                                                       -  Mr. Prithviraj Kothari, MD RSBL

On announcement of BREXIT, the markets panicked and this was reflected in the movements of gold prices. Initially gold prices soared and were at fresh highs of past few years. Once markets settled, gold did see some correction but then there were signs of a modest pick-up in risk appetite leading to further rise in gold prices. Once again gold was considered as a saviour in times of uncertainties and it regained its safe haven appeal with current prices at US$1,350.

But what surprised the market were the movement in prices of the white metal: Silver. 

Silver jumped to the highest level since September 2014 as investors speculated central banks will need to continue support the global economy in the wake of Britain’s vote to quit the European Union. Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday the Bank of England could cut interest rates within months as it tries to shield an unstable UK economy. 

The price of silver climbed 26% through the first four months of 2016. That not only beat gold prices by 7.5%, but it also bettered the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 by 24% and 25%, respectively. Silver prices had surged to a high of $20.46 (a near two year high) and currently trading at $19.80. 

Silver Price rise_RSBL SPOT Terminal

Apart from BREXIT, the Caixiin Chinese manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) released on Friday continued to raise concerns about China’s weaker-than-expected economic recovery with the Chinese manufacturing PMI for June read 48.6, which was below forecast of 49.1 and May’s number of 49.2. It was the index’s third monthly decline in a row and marked the steepest deterioration in manufacturing conditions since February.

Not only the above news item, but Silver’s bullish stance can be supported by the below given key points:

• Lower Gold/Silver ratio. The current ratio stands around 75 much lower than the peak of around 84 in March. Over the same time the Silver prices have gone up by nearly 11 off percent.
• Prospects for further US interest-rate increases have been wound back since the BREXIT vote. Commodity prices in US usually benefit from lower interest rates.
• Silver plays a key role in Photovoltaic (PV) cells that are being used in Solar panels. World economies around the globe are jumping on clean energy bandwagon to reduce the pollution levels and solar energy plays an important role. With an avid increase in solar energy contribution, Silver demand will increase exponentially.
• India is one of the key importers of Silver over the past few years and the demand has only been increasing in the wake of lower prices till Jan, 2016.

 

Silver prices still have room for further movement upwards and the current panic and fear in the markets could raise these prices further. Gold may have a room to correct till $1,280 – 1,300 in short term but the political and unknown economic conditions created by BREXIT, could raise prices further for precious metals.

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The primary purpose of this article by Mr. Prithviraj Kothari is to educate the masses of the current happenings in the Bullion world.

Previous blog:

UK Departs, GOLD prices shine: RSBL - http://riddisiddhibullionsltd.blogspot.in/2016/06/uk-departs-gold-prices-shine-rsbl.html

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