Diamond News Archives

The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and the Alibaba Group are selling Antwerp-sourced diamonds  in an online flagship store called “Shape of Antwerp” Tmall.

As the world’s second-largest market for polished diamonds, China is generating tremendous opportunities for the diamond consumer market as a whole.  T-Mall, Alibaba’s B2C marketplace, reportedly is the largest B2C platform in China with over 500 million registered customers, its success, the AWDC reported, is “driven by a strong brand integrity and a ‘Flagship Store’ approach.”

The AWDC said that currently, the Shape of Antwerp online store is fully functional and the daily traffic to the store is increasing dramatically, thanks to the co-marketing activities partnered with Alibaba.

Since its official opening, the store has received 85, 000 dedicated visitors, most of whom were high-income consumers who showed a strong interest in large and high-quality diamonds. in April and May, Tmall will run promotional campaigns with themes such as “Wedding Season” and “Made in Belgium.”

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Baselworld runs until March 26, 2019. And while the show has been and still is heavily criticized, there is also some good news. At the opening press conference, it was announced that in 2018, the Swiss Watch industry recorded a 6.3 percent increase in exports, and had reported a turnover of CHF 21.2 billion. 

But some already had made up their mind about this year's edition of the Swiss fair. This is what Frank Mueller, principal of The Bridge to Luxury, a Dresden-based consultancy, had to say:

“Today, I am leaving Baselworld 2019 with mixed feelings. A luxury industry that is no longer able to celebrate its glory and desire for the exclusive will face severe difficulties in convincing customers to buy high-end classical timepieces.  From the more than 2.000 exhibitors Baselworld hosted in the past, their numbers have dwindled to some 500 this year. What I found most striking and sad was the lack of any attractive, emotional and innovative branding concepts. This is an industry in shock and without answers for its future except for hopes that omnichannel distribution will bring salvation.”

Visiting jewelers also had their opinion ready.  This is what Luca Alfonsi, a prestigious retail jeweler from Cortina D’Ampezzo, a well- known Italian ski resort, said:

“As a jewellery retailer I’ve been visiting Baselworld since 1990 and I predicted its downfall years ago. Switzerland is not a competitive host country. Basel is unfriendly, unconvenient and ridiculosly expensive: 450 swiss francs per night in a modest hotel , 100 for a normal dinner and one ‘germanish’ pizza at the same price of Montecarlo.
While other fairs in the world send you invitations and special offers, Baselworld imposes...

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Former U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said on Monday the U.S. Treasury yield curve may signal the need to cut interest rates at some point, but it does not signal a recession.

Yellen, who led the Fed between 2014 and 2018, was speaking at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong.

The yield curve inverted on Friday for the first time since mid-2007, a shift that has in the past signaled the risk of recession. The slope regained its ascendancy in European trading on Monday after stronger-than-expected German data.

Charles Evans, a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee, told the same conference on Monday that it was understandable for markets to be nervous when the yield curve flattened.

(Reporting by Noah Sin; Editing by Kim Coghill)...

Most precious metals investors expect to reap a profit on their gold and silver as a result of higher spot prices. 

But what if I told you that when selling certain types of coins, you could gain another layer of profit when you sell? A little leverage on the spot price when it rises.

It’s entirely possible. Here’s how…

I was speaking at a conference in Vancouver in 2011, a time you’ll recall when gold and silver prices were shooting higher. Part of my talk included how bullion investors can recoup some if not all of their original purchase premiums in a strong bull market. To prove it to myself, I took a tube of sovereign silver coins to a local bullion dealer and sold them – and was paid above spot. 

There were a couple of reasons for this.

One was due to the surge in demand at the time. Dealers needed product and offered to pay more to attract sellers.

The second reason is less obvious. It has to do mostly with sovereign mint coins, like Silver Eagles, and it just might answer the question we get a lot from new buyers: Why buy a sovereign coin when they are virtually always more expensive than privately minted rounds?

The Super Silver Secret

If you’ve been around the precious metals industry for any length of time, you’ve noticed that premiums — the amount above spot that you pay for a coin — on silver have risen. They just keep creeping up, especially with American Silver Eagles.

There’s a reason for that. The US Mint.

If you’re unaware, there are typically three fees involved in a bullion purchase....

1. US Mint surcharge