Gold Lease Rate Higher, Registered COMEX Gold Lower

Just another update.

Gold Lease Rates are at an all time high again:

Chart 1: Gold Lease Rate

COMEX registered gold has once declined to even lower levels. J.P. Morgan unloaded its registered gold. Total registered gold at COMEX now stands at: 875713 troy ounces. We are nearing the bottom.

Chart 2: COMEX gold

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China Gold Imports from Hong Kong: Steady in June 2013

In June 2013, the gold imports from Hong Kong to China were essentially flat.
The summer isn't a good period for gold either, so this is pretty normal. But anyway, gross and net imports are still at an all time high, compared to history (see chart 2).

And what's also interesting is that the ratio between net imports and gross imports are at an all time high too: 89%. China wants to keep all its gold.

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Gold Backwardation Explained By James Turk

If you want to know what gold backwardation means, read this article of James Turk. Very interesting.

Let's say we have two currencies A (euro) and B (USD). Then the following is true:

- A's interest rate < B's interest rate
- A is in contango against B
- A's value rises going into the future
- Higher interest rates means a higher risk of debasement of the currency.


Now let's look at two other currencies A (USD) and B (gold):

- USD's interest rate < gold's interest rate (lease rate)
- USD is in contango against gold (or gold is in backwardation)
- USD's value rises going into the future (or gold's value declines going into the future = negative GOFO)
- Higher interest rates means a higher risk of debasement of the currency.

Now gold's interest rate is higher than the USD's interest rate. Which means gold has a higher risk of debasement than the USD. This is virtually impossible because gold cannot be debased.

Which means something has to give. This is a rare event and will mark a bottom in the gold price.

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COMEX stock touches new lows

And we have new lows this week. Total gold stock goes to 6989165 troy ounces.

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Red Alert: Gold Forward Rates Turn Negative

As I told before, the only parameter that is going to dictate gold lease rates, is the GOFO rate, because the Federal Reserve will always keep the fed funds rate at zero, which means the LIBOR rate will stay at zero. 

The GOFO rate though, is dependant on the demand and supply mechanics of gold. And today we have the first time that the GOFO rate actually turned negative, which is officially a backwardation in gold. Since the 2008 crisis hit us, the GOFO rate has never been negative, so this is a premiere. As a matter of fact, we have never seen a negative GOFO rate in a decade or more. (except for those few days in 2008 which are ignorable)

Once such events happen, we will see a huge shortage coming in gold.

Chart 1: LBMA GOFO rate turns negative

And the subsequent rise in lease rates:

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Registered gold at COMEX at all time lows

A 30% drop in registered gold at the Brink's vault and a 15% drop in registered gold at Scotia Mocatta marks a huge total drop of more than 200000 ounces of gold at the COMEX.

We are on course for a total sell out in physical gold at the COMEX at the end of the summer. We also see this in the spiking gold lease rates and lower gold forward rates.

It is going to be interesting. What happens when the blue line intersects with zero? Any predictions?

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China Gold Imports Edging Upwards in May 2013

The gold imports in May 2013 were a bit disappointing again, gross imports didn't budge much.

But the net imports surged to 106 tonnes in May 2013, meaning that China kept all the imports from Hong Kong. The ratio of net imports to gross imports is 83%.

But it's still a positive development for the gold market, net imports continue to trend higher.

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Shanghai Gold Premium Hit Another Record High

Almost each day marks another record high in Shanghai gold premiums to London spot price. We have hit 3% premiums.

They are really gobbling up the gold, that I can say.

Chart 1: Shanghai Gold Premium

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About Delivery Ratio and Cover Ratio at the COMEX

Interesting article by Jan Skoyles.
http://therealasset.co.uk/comex-2-paper-gold/

The summary says to us that the amount of gold bullion backing COMEX obligations is at an all time low (Cover Ratio). Meaning, there is very little gold backing at the COMEX.

If the delivery ratio (amount of delivered gold against contracts) ever spikes upwards, the COMEX could get under stress. Today, we are still fine, because people aren't really taking delivery as much as they should be.

Also notable is that registered stock is declining at a much faster pace than open interest (which is actually still very high). Such things cannot last, as this huge amount of leverage will blow up one day. You just can't trade contracts at this level without any physical backing of gold.

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Follow Up on Eric Sprott's Bullish Call on Gold

As a follow up on Eric Sprott's bullish call on gold here, let's see what has happened ever since.

His premise was that hedge funds take possession of their physical gold of the GLD trust, because there isn't any other gold available. As they take possession of this physical gold, they are going to sell it to China who give huge premiums on this physical gold (around 3%).

Following chart indeed says to us that hedge funds are still taking possession of their GLD trust units. The GLD now only has 969 tonnes of physical gold left. The question is now, how much physical gold does GLD really have? If someone knows, please tell me. But we have another way we can look at it, by just looking at how much registered gold there is on the COMEX.

Chart 1: GLD

If we look at the COMEX warehouses, registered gold (which represents 40 tonnes physical gold) is declining (blue chart on Chart 2). Total stock is declining too (around 200 tonnes). When these charts hit zero, there is no gold anymore at the COMEX and we will see defaults. The gold exchange will become a cash exchange.

Once the blue line intersects with zero, bad things will happen because no physical gold is available at the COMEX. I guess that when the blue line intersects, there is a chance GLD could blow up as people scramble to get physical gold at the GLD trust.

Chart 2: COMEX

Jim Sinclair confirms:

As long as physical gold remains at a premium above future that is above the cost of insurance and transportation, the lower the inventory of gold at the COMEX goes. A futures exchange without a warehouse inventory becomes a cash exchange. This is the emancipation of physical gold from the manipulative capacity of No-Gold, Paper - Gold

Now let's see how this translates into the premiums on the Shanghai Gold Exchange.

Chart 3: Shanghai Gold Premium

As you can see on Chart 3, the premium has never been as high since I monitored it. We are at 2.8% now.

So investors are taking the opportunity to make arbitrage profits by buying gold from GLD and selling it to China at a premium.

Let's see how long this can go on.

On the silver front, premiums have almost skyrocketed to 40% for some miners.

Chart 4: First Majestic Silver premium

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Gold/Silver Premiums Going through the Roof Again

Following the smash in gold and silver this week, premiums are soaring all over again.

Chart 1: First Majestic Silver Premium

Chart 2: APMEX Junk Silver Premium

Chart 3: Gold Premium Shanghai to London

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Correlation: LIBOR Vs. Fed Funds Rate

The LIBOR rate at which the banks lend each other money, is an important element in calculating the gold lease rate. Obviously, this LIBOR rate is influenced by the Federal Reserve via the Fed Funds Rate.

As you can see on this chart, there is an almost 100% correlation between LIBOR and the Fed Funds Rate.

As the Federal Reserve said that they will keep interest rates at zero until 2015, LIBOR rates will keep floating around the 0% level.

This also means that the gold lease rate (LIBOR minus GOFO (Gold Forward Rate)) is entirely dependent on the GOFO rate as long as the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates near zero.

Once inflation begins to pick up though, the Federal Reserve will have to raise the Fed Funds Rate (contractionary monetary policy), which will increase LIBOR rates and this will tend to raise the gold lease rates. In turn, high gold lease rates are a bullish environment for gold prices.

Note that there is one power that will force the Federal Reserve to increase its Fed Funds Rate and that is the yields on the bond market and the mortgage market.

As you can see on this graph below, the adjustable mortgage rates are starting to edge upwards even with a zero interest rate policy. Government bond yields are also edging upwards. So eventually, the Federal Reserve will be pressured to increase interest rates to keep up with the rise in bond and mortgage yields.

Investors who are still invested in the U.S. bond market, are taking a huge risk at this stage, especially when Ben Bernanke is forced to implement contractionary monetary policies at some point. Who will buy these U.S. government bonds... As a matter of fact, foreign investors are already dumping U.S. bonds as shown in the foreign U.S. bond investors report of April 2013.

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Warning: Deflation is on the horizon

As we know, Ben Bernanke sinked the markets yesterday and this has consequences.

As the premium on silver of some silver miners soars to 30%, we are getting to a point where mining companies are actually losing money, especially when they have mining projects in development. At these prices, nobody is going to invest in exploration companies as they would lose money in doing so.

On the other front, namely bonds, we see the U.S. treasury market decline in price while yields rise.

These high yields in bonds and mortgage yields will in turn crash the stock market and the housing market respectively, if the Federal Reserve stops its monetary easing.

These events are very deflationary, if Ben Bernanke doesn't up its QE, we will need to position ourselves in deflationary assets like cash and bonds.

Michael Pento warns for deflation in this status update.
http://www.pentoport.com/mp3/MRC130619.mp3

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Shanghai Gold Market Opens With a Boom

Shanghai Gold Market opens with a boom after the Dragon Boat Festival.

The gold premium jumped to 1.2%. 

For silver, Shanghai premiums shot up to 2.24%.

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COMEX gold another huge drop

Interesting article by Zerohedge:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-11/jpm-vault-gold-drops-284-overnight-slides-fresh-record-low-withdrawals-accelerate

As I indicated here, COMEX will run out of gold in August 2013.

The drop in gold stock is getting worse. Hold on to your belt. Once COMEX has a force majeure, the manipulation is over and the banks know this, as they are now net long in gold for the first time in history (since I monitored it).

If you want more info on the COT report, the slingshot effect and how banks are getting long, don't miss this Got Gold Report:

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COMEX to run out of gold in August 2013

At this rate, the COMEX will run out of deliverable gold on 14 August 2013.

Yes, that's only 2 months from now!

You decide what will happen when people can't redeem their physical gold and instead get a paper settlement.

David Morgan explains how little physical gold there is in the COMEX (scroll to 12:00).

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China Gold Imports from Hong Kong in April 2013: Disappointing

The China Gold Imports from Hong Kong in April 2013 came in lower than expected, but still very high. I had hoped for a higher number with the decline in gold price...

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COMEX not to be trusted?

While updating my COMEX charts I found something odd.

"The information in this report is taken from sources believed to be reliable; however, the Commodity Exchange, Inc. disclaims all liability whatsoever with regard to its accuracy or completeness. This report is produced for information purposes only.

For questions regarding this report please email Registrar@cmegroup.com or call (312) 341-3370."

I wonder why they put that in their reports...

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Gold Has Now Hit Marginal Cost of Production

In this post I will try to explain how important it is to watch the total marginal cash cost of gold mining to predict where the gold price (GLD) will be headed to. This marginal cost can be divided in two parts: cash cost of production and other costs (exploration, construction, maintenance, etc...) and stands at around $1300/ounce. With the recent decline in the price of gold, I believe we have finally hit the bottom.

The gold price has always followed the marginal cost of suppliers throughout history (Figure 1). The correlation between gold prices and gold mining cash costs between 1980 and 2010 stood at 0.85, which is pretty highly correlated (Source: CPM Gold Yearbook 2011).

With the price of gold at $1400/ounce today I'm pretty sure we can't go much lower if this correlation proves to be correct.

The following chart is the most important chart every gold investor needs to be aware of. As I mentioned before, there is a high correlation between the all in cash costs of gold mining and the gold price (Chart 4). So investors need to monitor the total cash cost of gold mining in order to predict the trend in the gold price itself.

(click to enlarge)

Chart 4: All in Costs Vs. Gold Price

Continue reading here.

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Shanghai Gold Premium Skyrockets to New Highs

One of the most important features of this blog is that you get real time alerts on important data.

One of those data is the premium I see on the Shanghai precious metals market. And today we see a huge increase in premium in gold (Chart 2). Gold premiums to London bullion price have reached 2.6%, the highest since I monitored it. Silver premiums also shot up to 3.8% (Chart 1).

That's a bullish sign.

James Turk talked about these huge premiums in Asia:

The huge premiums over spot in Asia and the long delivery times in London clearly show that this takedown in gold over the past few weeks was all about what was taking place in the paper market.

Chart 1: Silver Premium Shanghai to London

Chart 2: Gold Premium Shanghai to London

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