Gold Today –Gold closed in London at $1,364.oo on Wednesday after Tuesday’s New York close at $1,355.60.  In Asia the gold price held at close to its previous close, as you can see below. We continue to see the Yuan trend lower..  

• The $: € slipped to $1.1066 down from $1.1058.
• The dollar index was almost unchanged at 96.17 from 96.19 yesterday.
• The Yen was slightly weaker at 101.00 from at 100.41 against the dollar.
• The Yuan was slightly stronger at 6.6820 from 6.6900 yesterday.
• The Pound Sterling fell to $1.2968 down from $1.2987! It fell to $1.2798 at one point this morning.

Yuan Gold Fix

Trade Date	Contract	Benchmark Price AM	Benchmark Price PM
2016  07  7 2016  07  6	SHAU SHAU	294.54 294.80	294.43 295.00
Dollar equivalent @ $1: 6.6847 $1: 6.6900		$1,370.54 $1,370.60	$1,369.96 $1,371.53

Shanghai saw gold prices hold higher than both London and New York, but only slightly [$4]. We cannot read too much into this difference due to the current market volatility in both currency and gold prices.

LBMA price setting:  $1,367.10 down from Wednesday 6th July’s $1,370.00.

The gold price in the euro was set at €1,232.45 down €5.46 from Tuesday’s €1,237.91.

Ahead of the opening in New York the gold price stood at $1,362.35 and in the euro at €1,229.67.  

Silver Today –The silver price closed in London on Monday at $20.09 up from $19.95 the day before.  Ahead of New York’s opening the price was trading at $19.90.

Price Drivers

While global financial markets are slightly calmer today, we see them digesting the worrisome information coming out of the impending crises areas. None of the information has changed but global financial markets need to get a sense of proportion and measure each factor within this context. For instance the Italian Banking crisis can drag out through the summer and could gain the green light for the Italian government to inject funds into them. Then it appears that in the short to medium term, the crisis would evaporate.

To give background to the E.U. systemic problems, we note that France, Italy and Germany have elections coming up. The political problems of Europe could spill over into the financial worlds easily. On top of that, the structure of the E.U. will come under intolerable strain if just one country exits the E.U.

Gold ETFs – In New York yesterday there was a tiny sale of 0.277 of a tonne from the SPDR gold ETF leaving its holdings at 982.444 tonnes. But there was a purchase of 1.76 of a tonne into the Gold Trust taking its holdings up to 213.19 tonnes.

Since January 4th this year, the holdings of these two gold ETFs have risen by 398.848 tonnes.

Silver –Silver prices are pausing, but we expect for only a short while before moving higher, again.

Julian D.W. Phillips

GoldForecaster.com | SilverForecaster.com | StockBridge Management Alliance [Gold Storage geared to avoid its confiscation]