Gold demand is building but gold fever is nowhere near

By the Aden Sisters: Gold demand is building but gold fever is nowhere near

You will recognize itwhen it comes because there’sno fever like gold fever.

Well, maybe the tech fever in the late 1990s was close. Keep in mind though, the gold market is small compared to stocks and bonds, which means it could easily spike up once the fever hits.

The 1970s saw gold rise tenfold. Today gold has only risen about 400% in nine years. This good solid, steady and consistent growth provides a very bullish backdrop for a further rise in gold.

In fact, it’s been almost two years now since we’ve seen a decent downward correction in gold. The March to November 2008 decline, when gold lost almost 30%, was the last great buying opportunity.

Gold’s risen nearly 80% since that November low without more than a 14% decline. This super rise caused the bull market to move into a stronger phase last September when the gold price reached the first record high that was well above the $1000+ record highs of 2008-09....read in full

When 10 billion people jump

By Kevin Bloom: The Population Reference Bureau, a United States research and data analysis body, has just released its latest forecasts on population growth in the coming decades. Put it this way: it’s going to get squashy.

In his book When a Billion Chinese Jump, author Jonathan Watts explores the consequences of the People’s Republic foregoing the faraway promises of socialist bliss for the more immediate joys of capitalist consumption. The title derives from a nightmare he had as a child – if all the men, women and children in China jumped at the same time, the world would be knocked off its axis – and alludes to the impact the most populous nation on Earth has on the planet’s diminishing resources...read on

Is SA's gold mining industry turning into Zimbabwe-Lite?

By Tim Cohen: Here’s an interesting factoid: despite having about half the world’s known gold reserves, South Africa will produce less gold this year than it did in 1906, when horses were the predominant form of public transport. But amazingly, the extraordinary decline of South Africa’s gold mining industry is not the subject of public outcries, parliamentary enquiries or even particularly of public comment.

Yet every year, less and less gold gets produced by an industry ravaged by increasing costs, lower ore grades, a hostile mining ministry whose priority is overwhelmingly focused on transformation rather than production and a largely disinterested public....read on

Soros favoured gold in Q2, cut US equities

By Aaron Pressman (Reuters): Billionaire investor George Soros in the second quarter stuck with his big bet on gold but slashed his holdings in dozens of major U.S. companies from Verizon Communications to Pfizer.

Soros also may have sold his entire holdings in Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4.SA) (PBR.N).

In a quarterly securities filing on Monday, Soros Fund Management reported owning substantially fewer U.S. listed stocks than three months earlier. The fund listed $5.1 billion of equities as of June 30, down 42 percent from $8.8 billion at the end of March.

After a terrible quarter for the stock market that saw the Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunge 12 percent, Soros may have been anticipating further turbulence ahead....read on

By Julian D.W. Phillips: At the moment, it appears that the gold price is being linked to the state of the global economic growth or lack thereof. Is it? Or are there other factors that contribute to the rise in the demand for gold? A look at the different types of demand gives us perspective on the real influences on the gold price...read on