Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Have we entered the eye of the financial cyclone?

For North American readers a cyclone is the correct scientific term for what you incorrectly call a hurricane.

March Gold Sales Drop as Stability Returns, Perth Mint Says

From Bloomberg

Original source

Gold sales from Australia’s Perth Mint, which processes all of the country’s bullion (tears ~ this statement is so wrong, that is not even worth my normal derision), declined 9.6 percent last month as signs of an accelerating economic recovery in the U.S. curbed demand for haven investments.

Sales of gold coins and bars dropped to 38,123 ounces from 42,161 ounces a year earlier, according to data e-mailed by the mint after an April 13 interview with Neil Vance, wholesale manager at the facility in Western Australia that was founded in 1899. Silver sales slumped 39 percent to 698,559 ounces, it said.

Bullion prices dropped in February and March as U.S. non- farm payrolls expanded, boosting signs that the world’s largest economy is recovering even as European countries including Spain tackle the region’s debt crisis. Sales from the mint may rebound later this year following a pattern seen in 2011, Vance said.

“What’s happened is a little bit more stability in world markets at the moment, and some of the interest has leveled off,” Vance said by phone from Perth. “Since the global financial crisis hit, we’ve experienced peaks and troughs, and we believe at the moment we’re just in a trough.”

Immediate-delivery gold, which dropped 2.4 percent in February and a further 1.7 percent in March, traded at $1,653.05 an ounce at 4:51 p.m. in Singapore. Spot silver was at $31.58 an ounce after declining 7 percent last month.
‘Bit More Gloomy’

“We’re getting to an area where it’s probably smart to get back into the market,” Nick Trevethan, senior commodities strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., said by phone today. “The decision to buy is highly dependent on news headlines. We’ve seen in the last day or so, headlines about Europe turning a little bit more gloomy.”

Read more

No comments:

Post a Comment