29 October 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Fedwatch predictions see aggressive interest rate approach easing

Latest Fedwatch Tool predictions see the U.S. Federal Reserve easing off in its aggressive approach to raising interest rates at future FOMC meetings, which has given a boost to equity markets, supported by a strong Q3 GDP estimate, although this may not be all that it seems.

21 October 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Swiss gold exports stay high to China, India,Turkey. Eastern flows dominate.

September's Swiss gold import and export figures show a continuation of flows from West to East with China, India and Turkey dominating and confirming recent reports on Bloomberg of resultant high premiums in some Asian markets.

16 October 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Blip in China September gold demand y-o-y?

After a succession of months where SGE gold withdrawals this year were higher than a year ago, September saw the reverse and the cumulative total for the year has dropped below that of 2021 despite anecdotal evidence that Chinese gold demand remains strong. We speculate that Russia, though, may be secretively exporting substantial amounts of gold cross-border as traditional western markets are closed by sanctions.

25 September 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: China, Turkey, India biggest importers of Swiss gold in August

08 September 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: China gold consumption still climbing y-o-y

The latest gold withdrawal figures for August from the Shanghai Gold Exchange suggest that Chinese gold consumption continues to rise year on year, but still remains well below its earlier peaks, but it could be making up for any shortfall in domestic production by buying Russian gold.

04 September 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Russian gold going to China, but are amounts as tiny as reported?

The Moscow Times reports on Russian gold shipments to China, but in amounts so small that it raises the question as to their accuracy given Russia's needs to finance its Ukraine war and China's perceived desire to build its own gold reserves.

29 August 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Gold far better performer ytd than equities or bitcoin

The gold price may have looked weak in recent weeks, but in comparison with equities and bitcoin it has been doing extremely well. We compare gold's performance year to date with these other two asset classes which both look vulnerable to further sharp falls as we seem to be heading for a global recession.

23 August 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: China back on top for Swiss gold exports

July's Swiss gold export figures were much higher than for the previous three months and show that China returned, after a gap of several months, to being the top recipient that month, replacing India which dropped to fourth.

22 August 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Russia still coy on its gold reserve position

Another month has passed without Russia making any announcement on any changes to its gold reserve position. The conclusion is that this information is being suppressed because of the ongoing war in Ukraine and that Russia may well be using its gold to help finance this.

08 August 2022

LAWRIE WILLIAMS: Chinese gold demand picking up nicely despite lockdowns

Latest SGE gold withdrawal figures put July comfortably ahead of those for the same month in 2021 indicating that Chinese gold demand is picking up nicely despite problems associated with lockdowns resulting from the nation's zero-Covid policies