Diamond News Archives

Avraham Eshed, a veteran Israeli diamond manufacturer, was named an Israel Diamond Industry Dignitary for the year 2019. The biennial Israel Diamond Industry Dignitary Awards aim to recognize and honor those men and women who have advanced and promoted Israel's diamond industry, at home and abroad. Eshed, who is both a manufacturer of large diamonds and high-value colored gemstones, follows in the footsteps of his late father Eliyahu Eshed, who was named an Israel Diamond Industry Dignitary in 2006. Avraham Eshed was honored together with several other distinguished colleagues, during a ceremony on Sunday, July 28, at the Diamond Theater, adjacent to the Israel Diamond Exchange complex. ^[1]

Eshed is unique in the Israeli diamond and gemstone landscape, as he developed his equally successful diamond and colored gemstone businesses in parallel. More than 30 years ago, he stood at the cradle of Sarine Technologies and was instrumental in the transition and implementation of its manufacturing and decision-making technologies in the diamond industry.

As a second-generation diamond manufacturer, Eshed pays tribute to those who, against all odds, established a diamond industry during the 1930, before the establishment of the State of Israel. "Al most 90 years later, we stand on the shoulders of giants, those pioneers who literally built the Israel diamond industry with their own hands. My father Eliyahu was among those early pioneers who set up a polishing plant in Netanya," he recalled.

Eshed joined his father in his polishing plant in the second half of 1960s, after completing his army service. At that time, they employed more than 30 cutters and polishers. A few years later, he joined the prestigious Tarshish company, where he was introduced to the rich world of...

Gold rebounded last night from its $12 drop yesterday, trading in a range of $1414 - $1421, with the market retaining its nervous and choppy tone.  After bouncing to $1418 during Asian hours (news of Iran launching a medium range missile supportive), gold slid back to triple bottom support at $1414 during early European hours, pressured by an advance in the US dollar (DX from 97.76 – 97.94, 2-month high).  The greenback was lifted by weakness in the euro ($1.1151 - $1.1129, a miss on German Import Prices, ECB lowers inflation forecasts for inflation and GDP) and the pound ($1.2459 - $1.2423, persistent fears of no-deal Brexit under Johnson).  Mostly firmer global equities were also a headwind for gold with the NIKKEI off 0.4%, the SCI +0.2%, European markets were up from 0.4% to 0.5%, and S&P futures were +0.3% (stronger earnings reports from Alphabet and Intel last night).  Higher oil prices (WTI from $55.81 - $56.54, ongoing tensions with Iran) were supportive of stocks.  Ahead of the NY open, however, gold rebounded to $1421 – despite the DX remaining fairly firm, with strong bargain hunting buying seen. 

At 8:30 AM, the headline US Q2 GDP Report was better than expected (2.1% vs. exp. 2.0%) as well as Personal Consumption (4.3% vs. exp. 4.0%), and the GDP Price Index (2.4% vs. exp. 1.9%).  S&P futures plunged (+3 to 3010, less chance of Fed easing aggressively), while the US 10-year bond yield climbed to 2.088%.  The DX advanced to 97.99, and gold back off to $1414, where support at the triple bottom held again.  After a closer look, a miss in the Core PCE (1.8% vs. exp. 2.0%) and a fall in Business Investment (-0.6%, worst since early ‘16) kept hopes for aggressive Fed easing alive.  S&P futures...

Silver Outperforming Gold 2

Adam Hamilton     July 26, 2019     3232 Words

Silver has blasted higher in the last couple weeks, far outperforming gold.  This is certainly noteworthy, as silver has stunk up the precious-metals joint for years.  This deeply-out-of-favor metal may be embarking on a sea-change sentiment shift, finally returning to amplifying gold’s upside.  Silver is not only radically undervalued relative to gold, but investors are aggressively buying.  Silver’s upside potential is massive.

Silver’s performance in recent years has been brutally bad, repelling all but the most fanatical contrarians.  Historically silver prices have been mostly driven by gold^[1], with the white metal amplifying moves in the yellow metal.  Silver has generally leveraged gold by at least 2x in the past.  And rarely silver skyrockets as higher prices and bullish sentiment feed on themselves in powerful virtuous circles fueling huge gains.

Silver’s legendary upside is largely the result of it being such a tiny market.  Silver’s leading fundamental authority is the Silver Institute.  In its latest World Silver Survey covering 2018, it reported that total world demand ran 1033.5m ounces last year.  That was worth a mere $16.2b at 2018’s average silver prices, a rounding error in markets terms.  That was just 1/11th the size of last year’s world gold demand worth $179.4b!

So when investors grow interested in silver again and start deploying capital, relatively-small inflows in absolute terms catapult silver far higher.  This classic dynamic last worked in 2016.  In...

The longer the signals in capital markets go haywire under the influence of “monetary stimulus,” the bigger is the cumulative economic cost. That is one big reason why this fourth Fed stimulus — in the present already-longest (but lowest-growth) of super-long business cycles — is so dangerous.

True, there is nothing new about the Fed imparting stimulus well into a business cycle expansion with the intention of combating a threat of recession. Think of 1927, 1962, 1967, 1985, 1988, 1995, and 1998.

This time, though, we've seen it four times (2010/11, 2012/13, 2016/17, 2019) in a single cycle. That is a record. Normally, a jump in recorded goods and services inflation, or concerns about rampant speculation, have trumped the inclination to stimulate after one — or at most two — episodes of stimulus.

Also we should recognize that the length of time during which capital-market signaling remains haywire, is only one of several variables determining the overall economic cost of monetary “stimulus.” But it is a very important one.

Haywire signaling is not just a matter of interest rates being artificially low. Alongside this there is extensive mis-pricing of risk capital. Some of this is related to the flourishing of speculative hypotheses freed from the normal constraints (operative under sound money) of rational cynicism. Enterprises at the center of such stories enjoy super-favorable conditions for raising capital.

There are also the giant carry trades into high-yielding debt, long-maturity bonds, high-interest currencies, and illiquid assets, driven by some combination of hunger for yield and super-confidence in trend extrapolation. In consequence, premiums for credit risk, currency risk, illiquidity, and term risk, are artificially low. Meanwhile a boom in financial engineering — the camouflaging of leverage to produce high momentum gains — adds to the overall...