Diamond News Archives

Gold was choppy again last night, trading in a range of $1285.45 - $1294.40, and against movements in the USD.

The yellow metal rose to its $1294.40 top during Asian hours as the resurgent DX pulled back to 93.11, hurt by some strength in the yen (110.41 – 110.07), euro ($1.18 - $1.1838), and sterling ($1.3480 - $1.3564, hopes for Britain staying in the Customs Union).

Later on, the DX bounced to reach 93.56 - helped by an official denial from Teresa May that the UK will be leaving the Customs Union that knocked sterling back to $1.3473, and a pullback in the euro ($1.1777).

This pressured gold down to a fresh 5-month low of $1285.45, but support in front $1284 (up trendline from 12/15/16 $1123 low) held.

Another move up in the US 10-year bond yield to 3.122% was a headwind for gold, while global equities were mixed.

The NIKKEI was up 0.5%, the SCI slipped 0.5%, European markets were up from 0.2% - 0.4%, and S&P futures were -0.2%.

Oil moving to a fresh 3 ½ year high (WTI to $72.27 – Iran supply worries) were supportive of stocks.

At 8:30 AM, a worse than expected reading on US Jobless Claims (222k vs. exp. 215k) slightly overshadowed a stronger reading on the Philly Fed Index (34.4 vs.. exp. 21).

The US 10-year yield declined to 3.091%, and the dollar slipped to 93.38. Gold popped higher, but it was capped at $1291.50.

Later in the morning, US stocks turned higher (S&P +10 to 2732) after a weaker open, with the energy sector leading the gainers.

The 10-year bond yield climbed back to 3.115%, and the DX clawed back to a fresh high at 93.57. Gold was forced...

There seems to be a lot of misinformation being peddled on the internet about gold and bitcoin.  One major misconception is the notion that bitcoin will replace gold as a monetary instrument.  Some analysts, once stanch precious metals advocates now turned crypto aficionados, believe in such theories that there is too much gold in the world to be used as money or that it is now just a barbarous relic.  Just a year or so ago, these same supposed analysts were criticizing the Mainstream media financial network talking heads for calling gold as a barbarous relic, but now have jumped on the bandwagon.

Well, in one small way, who can blame them.  It has been frustrating holding onto gold and silver patiently waiting for their inevitable rise.  So, when Bitcoin and the crypto prices moved up exponentially last year, promising investors vast riches in the future, it was easy for many to drop the precious metals and move into the crypto market.  The mindset today is to make lots of money doing nothing.  Thus, it’s not surprising to see many fall into this delusion and way of thinking.

A few of the crypto aficionados tell their followers that gold can’t be a monetary asset because there are millions of tons of gold hidden in secret vaults or that there are billions of ounces locked away in the Grand Canyon.  While this may sound like quite an interesting conspiracy, there is no sound evidence to back it up.  To believe in these fanciful conspiracies defies all logic.  However, with the logic being in short supply currently, I am not surprised that many believe in these fairy tales.

One of these ex-precious metals, now a highly qualified cryptoanalyst, suggested in a recent video that the “Gold...

Moscow. May 17, 2018 – A representative of ALROSA, the world's largest diamond mining company, was elected as Vice Chair of Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) on May 17.

On May 17, Peter Karakchiev, ALROSA's Head of International Relations, was elected as RJC's Vice Chairman at its 2018 annual general meeting held in Moscow.

The RJC is an international standards setting and certification organization established in 2005 to promote customer confidence in the jewellery supply chain through certification against its Code of Practices (COP) standard.  RJC members commit to and are independently audited against the COP which addresses human rights, labour rights, environmental impact, mining practices, product disclosure and many more important topics in the jewellery supply chain.  ALROSA became a member of the RJC in 2016 and was granted a three-year COP certification in 2017 following a successful audit with an independent RJC accredited audit firm.

Today, the RJC comprises of over 1,100 member companies with over 9,000 facilities and over 460,000 employees covered under RJC certification worldwide.  As a full member of ISEAL, RJC is committed to developing credible and effective standards and continually improving its systems through regular standards review processes with its members and multi-stakeholders. Currently its COP is under review and the new version is expected to be launched early 2019. The RJC will be introducing several important changes including an expansion of its material scope to include coloured gemstones and silver.

"We welcome the decision of the RJC membership to elect Peter Karakchiev as Vice Chairman of the Council. ALROSA's representative in this position once again emphasizes ALROSA's commitment to promoting responsible business practices in the industry and its readiness to take on the leading role in resolving industry-wide problems. We share the RJC values and are ready...

There are only two reasons to refinance your house right now.

1. You’ve been in a coma for the past 10 years and were medically incapable of refinancing at near-zero rates, so you have to take what you can get now that they’re higher.
2. You need more borrowed money, now, to pay bills or keep spending like you want to. So you have to give back any equity you’ve built up, and strap on a fresh 30-year debt bag just to maintain your standard of living.

The chart says is it all. Almost two-thirds of all refi money is now cashed out. Those responsible for the remaining third? Let’s wish them well as they recover from 10-year comas.

Because the current de facto American solution is never to scale back consumption. Just go further into debt, press that leverage, and assume the mistakes you’ve made to get to this point will somehow be fixed by doing more of what you’ve done to get here in the first place.

It makes little sense to refi at these rising rates. But here we are. With mortgage rates rising, one would expect refi activity to slow.

And it has: Refi Applications are at an 8-Year Low^[1].

At these rates, refi activity should be in the low single digits. Yet, 36% of mortgage applications are refis. Are people pulling money out of their houses to pay bills?

That's how it appears, as Cash-Out Mortgage Refis are Back^[2].

What's Going On?...

1. People feel wealthy again and are willing to blow it on consumption
2. People pulling money out to invest in stocks or Bitcoin
3. People are further and