Gold Today –Gold closed in New York at $1,352.70 on Thursday after Wednesday’s close at $1,346.50.  London opened at $1,341 but immediately recovered to $1,346 before rising further.

• The $: € was correcting at $1.1307 from $1.1329.
• The dollar index was correcting at 94.52 from 94.35 Thursday.
• The Yen was correcting slightly at 100.20 from Thursday’s 100.08 against the dollar.
• The Yuan was weaker at 6.6517 from 6.6324 Thursday.

 

• The Pound Sterling was slightly weaker at $1.3122 down from Thursday’s $1.3144.

 

Yuan Gold Fix

Trade Date	Contract	Benchmark Price AM	Benchmark Price PM
2016  08  19 2016  08  18	SHAU SHAU	288.02 288.80	288.68 288.84
Dollar equivalent @ $1: 6.6517 $1: 6.6324		$1,346.79 $1,354.36	$1,349.87 $1,354.55

New York closed higher than Shanghai’s whole day as Shanghai gold prices remain steady in Yuan!

It was a rapidly weakening Yuan exchange rate against the dollar that was responsible for dollar gold prices to fall. The combination of the Yuan price of gold and the move in the Yuan exchange rate affecting dollar gold prices this way, is just what the Shanghai Gold Exchange wanted. When they established the Fix an accompanying statement made it clear that it was not just to give SGE gold prices but to promote the use of the Yuan in such dealings. Here it is!

The Yuan throughout the week has being doing just that as it gyrated up and down.  The dollar, at the same time, while showing a weakening trend, has been comparatively steady.

We will watch this feature going forward as it indicates where pricing power lies.

LBMA price setting:  $1,346.85 after Thursday 18th August’s $1,347.10.

The gold price in the euro was set at €1,189.80 up €1.20 from Thursday’s €1,188.60.

Ahead of the opening in New York the gold price stood at $1,345.20 and in the euro at €1,187.55.  

Silver Today –The silver price closed in New York at $19.75 on Thursday down from $19.66 on Wednesday.  Ahead of New York’s opening the price was trading at $19.45.

Price Drivers

Long time readers of this daily report will know that we believe a fundamental change in the structure of the gold price is underway with pricing power slowly but surely headed eastwards to Shanghai.

With COMEX, a ‘paper gold’ market with the exception of between 1 & 5% physical dealings, yet controlling the dollar gold price and London, a secondary influence, despite it having a considerably larger measure of physical dealing in its midst, the fundamentals of gold demand and supply have become secondary to the influences of economic events on the gold price.

With China the largest physical gold market in the world and dealings based on physical content it overshadows the rest of the world’s gold markets already and yet this is not apparent. We know it will happen, so we follow the Shanghai Gold Fixings carefully to see the change in influence over the gold price come through and show itself in the price. What we have seen this week, in Shanghai and the Yuan gold price, is a shift away from the dollar in establishing the gold price. If the Chinese get what they want the main gold price will be a Yuan price and not a dollar price!

Gold ETFs – In New York on Tuesday there were sales of 1.781 tonnes from the SPDR gold ETF but no change in the holdings of the Gold Trust. This left their respective holdings at 955.994 tonnes and 223.85 tonnes.

Silver –Silver prices are dropping as they exaggerate gold’s small slippage, but, as always, will turn if gold breaks through resistance. If gold does not, we expect to see silver hold around these levels as they have already discounted a fall in the gold price.

Julian D.W. Phillips

GoldForecaster.com | SilverForecaster.com | StockBridge Management Alliance