If the Fed holds its course this autumn then a day of reckoning is coming both for stocks and bonds. For stocks basically the money will run out, the QE lifeline is cut. For bonds higher interest rates are toxic

In such circumstances can the precious metals really fail to rally as safe haven options? This is not 2008-9 when interest rates fell through the floor and boosted bonds to the immediate detriment of gold and silver.

Toxic interest rates

….continue reading this article posted Sept. 24th HERE

Gold and silver end correction as US stocks tumble

posted Sept. 26th

Gold and silver prices enjoyed a sudden surge yesterday as US stocks fell in their worst single day for two months. Is this the end of the precious metal correction and the start of something nasty for stocks?

Gold prices spiked to $1,228 and silver to $17.72 an ounce giving the precious metals respite from a summer correction. Both metals were looking very oversold and an obvious buy from a contrarian perspective with negative market sentiment at a peak.

Correction over?

….continue reading HERE

With 50 Tonnes Of Gold Smuggled In 10 Days, India’s Physical Gold Premiums Set To Double – with headlines like this I thought this article below might help reveal the worlds perspective on gold right now – Rob Editor Moneytalks.net

Warning: 3 Billion People Covet Your Gold

It has been said gold goes where it is best appreciated.  Rapidly rising wealth across Asia has Easterners in Turkey, Iran, Vietnam and China buying gold, saving gold, and using gold as money.  

But for most Americans and many Europeans, gold is no big deal.  What’s the explanation for the East’s love of gold and the West’s nonchalance?  Importantly, what does this mean to you?  

The answer is found in the histories of failed governments, shifting borders, changing flags, and collapsed currencies.   As governments crumbled over the centuries and currencies became worthless, confidence in gold and silver as true wealth was always the last man standing.  The descendants of those destroyed societies understand gold as no others can.

The United States and China are standout examples of polar opposite views toward gold. 

The United States, a nation existing for only 238 years, has not suffered centuries of calamities.  Our history has often been violent and divisive, but we’ve held onto our borders, our flag, and our form of government.  And, we still call our money the dollar, although it’s no longer backed by gold.  In fact, there are allegations ofU.S. government manipulation to keep gold prices suppressed.

China is one of the oldest civilizations, with 3,000 years of brutal, tribal conflict, as feudal dynasties fiercely outfought and outlasted each other for a couple of hundred years here and there. 

China Invented Paper Money, But Are Super Wary Today

Chinese monetary history includes copper, gold, silver, and one curious innovation.  Over a thousand years ago, China was the first civilization to print money.  The adventurer Marco Polo carried Chinese paper money home to Europe, which in turn introduced hundreds of years of inflationary disasters and currency failures throughout the world.   

When the Communists came to power in 1949, they forbade private gold ownership.  Only in 2003 did China lift that ban, for keen economic and political reasons.  China feared America’s failing dollar, while studying America’s sleepwalking ignorance and disparagement of gold and silver. 

The Chinese government had seized an opportunity no other nation on Earth recognized.  It very quietly began fortifying its economic empire with gold.

Everyday Chinese shopping habits and evolving customs reveal the modern differences in East and West.

Banks invite customers to buy gold, sell gold, and use gold as collateral for loans. Government sponsored advertising plays across China, encouraging citizens to buy and hold gold and silver.  News programs update gold and silver prices and alert listeners to bargains in premiums.   

Citizens get regular reminders that taking gold and silver out of the country without permission is illegal, reminding smugglers to think twice before losing their heads. 

Gold dealers are plentiful, from mom and pop kiosks to big city jewelers.  Upscale shops resembling night clubs stay open until the wee hours.   Hostesses carrying trays of hors d’oeuvres, drinks, and sample bars and coins circulate among customers lounging on overstuffed leather. 

The most important of the holiday gift-giving seasons is the Chinese New Year. Gift shopping is easy.  No kitchen gadgets for mom or ugly ties for dad – parents and children alike want, and get, gold and silver.  Analysts say purchasing for that holiday is so heavy it influences international supply and pricing.  

Asian buyers instinctively rush to stock up whenever prices fall.  They “buy the dip,” and they shop for bargains.  Long waiting lines to buy gold are not uncommon. 

Eleven years ago, Chinese could not legally own gold.  Today they openly discuss news and regulations regarding gold and silver. 

Chinese workers don’t have IRAs.  Instead, jewels, gold, and silver are customary stores of wealth.

And they are perfect for showing off.  Fashion shows feature Asian supermodels in gold-laced dresses and lingerie.  Last July, China hosted The International Gold & Jewelry Beauty Queens pageant.  Yes, there was even a swimsuit event!

The U.S. and China, like all nations, are secretive about their official gold dealings.  The last credible audit of America’s gold was in 1953, despite recent political and public pressure to open the books.  Critics want answers to two questions: how much is there and who really owns it? 

The last official notice of China’s gold holdings astounded the financial world.  In April 2009, China announced it held 1,054 tons, almost double what was previously known.  That lifted China into fifth place among nations holding gold. That headline helped boost gold prices in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008.    

Gold Is Flowing Out of the West and into Asian Vaults

China’s announcement was a shock wave to other central bankers, who were known to be selling gold.  Most of the world’s central bankers took the hint, quickly reversed course, and became buyers also.  Nervous governments (such as Germany) began asking the U.S. to return their gold.

Besides importing mountains of gold, China is a major mining producer, buys gold and silver mines around the world, and builds massive vaults to hold it all.  It pays with gobs of unwanted dollars. China developed the largest physical gold market in the world, the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE). In fact, the SGE opened for international trading last week with a ceremony led by China’s central bank chief who raved about the importance of gold ownership. China has made it clear it wants control of the world’s physical gold market.

Gold watchers today make two important comparisons: China is known to be buying gold, while the U.S. is strongly suspected of selling its gold. And the U.S. is widely thought to have much less than it claims, while China is fully believed to have much more than it admits.

China now seems wary of the paper money it invented over a thousand years ago.

Yes, gold goes where it is best loved and most appreciated.  That means China has backed up the truck.  If you worry who might ever buy your gold and silver, talk to the folks with thousands of years more experience with failed governments and failed currencies than we Americans have.  Be assured half the world’s population, over three billion customers, happily stand in line to buy your gold and silver with their unwanted dollars.  But don’t necessarily expect to get those precious metals back!

MoneyMetals.com columnist Guy Christopher is a veteran writer living on the Gulf Coast.  A retired investigative journalist, published author, and former stockbroker, Christopher has taught college as an adjunct professor and is a veteran of the 101^st Airborne in Vietnam.

Gold stayed under pressure this month. And the third quarter is shaping up to be a negative one. So what’s going on?

This past month, we’ve seen the U.S. economy improve, which has kept investors running to the stock market.

It’s also fueling beliefs that higher U.S. interest rates are coming sooner than expected. This has been pushing up the U.S. dollar. And with Europe also needing to continue their stimulus and keep interest rates low, it’s adding even more fuel to the stronger dollar. That in turn is keeping downward pressure on gold. And it’s causing a decline in the demand for gold.

Global tensions kept gold from falling more. And as you can see on Chart 1, the dollar index has risen more than gold has declined.

Nevertheless, money managers are trimming their bullish gold positions: Open interest in NY futures and options is near its lowest in 5 years.

Uncertainties are abundant

But with so many uncertainties in the world today, we could see the markets turn on a dime.

Yellen continues to reiterate that lower rates are here to stay until we see better jobs figures. She insists there is still slack in the labor market.

Plus, considering the faltering world economy, global tensions, the monster debt problem and unprecedented liquidity….. anything is possible. The U.S. bombing in Syria is just the latest example.

All this means is we have to be prepared for change, and go with it when it happens.

This is why we place importance on our charts. They help to see changes or subtleties upcoming. They also tell you when to stay with a trend.

Many have compared gold’s current three year bear market with several major declines of the past.

The bear market of the 1980s-90s was the worst one. Its loss was not so much of a price loss than it was in the seemingly forever lackluster market.

Notice the comparison between the last three years since the September 2011 peak to the start of the major bear market in 1980 (see Chart 2). As you can see, the loss is less today but the movement is similar.

The point here is, will gold soon resume a bull market in the upcoming years, or will it be similar to that lackluster period when gold essentially moved into a sideways band? Back then, gold stayed near or above the June 1982 lows with a cap at $500 for more than another decade.

We think this is unlikely in today’s world, but it’s always good to play devil’s advocate.

For now, the December lows will tell the story and that’s what we’re watching.

If gold can stay above $1193, the December low, it’ll continue building a huge bottom, which will likely be a springboard for higher prices.

If the December lows are broken, however, it’ll be a very bearish sign.

Oodles of readers want my head for turning temporarily bearish on gold again. They say I flip-flop too much.

They say I don’t know whether I’m coming or going. They think I’ve always been dead wrong on gold.

But the bottom line is this: I have nailed every major turn in the price of gold and other precious metals, including …

– The high at $850 in January 1980 and gold’s subsequent 20-year bear market.

– The precise bottom in September 2000 at $260 an ounce, just five dollars above the final bear market low at $255.

– The initial blast off that carried gold to over $1,000 an ounce by 2008.

– The 2008/2009 meltdown in all markets, when I told my subscribers to increase their allocation to gold from 15 percent to 25 percent, when gold fell below $700 …

– And they enjoyed gold’s next huge move up, which saw it explode higher all the way to $1,921 in September 2011.

And if that’s not good enough …

– On Sept. 18, 2011, I screamed from the rooftops that gold’s bull market was temporarily over, and that a three-year bear market would set in.

I told my subscribers to get out of gold, or hedge. Two weeks later, I told my subscribers to exit all mining shares.

Fact is, I don’t know a single soul that has a better track record than I do in the precious metals and miners.

Yes, I did believe gold bottomed late last year at $1,180 an ounce. Yes, I did tell my followers to start getting their toes wet this past June. And I did believe that miners too had bottomed.

I was wrong. Though gold and mining shares did rally a tad, they essentially went nowhere. If you had acted on my forecasts and more importantly, traded lightly, you shouldn’t have suffered any major losses, and indeed, may have even made a little money.

Now, here are some more facts:

Fact #1: As I said last week, regardless of what the near term may bring, the long-term outlook for gold has not changed.

It’s still subject to powerfully bullish forces that will ultimately drive it to $5,000 an ounce and beyond — a massive flight to quality from investors around the world, due to the madness of bankrupt governments, rising geo-political conflict and more.

Fact #2: The extension of the bear market in the precious metals also opens up profit opportunities – to profit as the precious metals and mining shares decline. More on this in a minute.

Fact #3: As the precious metals and mining shares decline into early next year to their final lows, you will have even more opportunities to profit …

As the die-hard bulls get washed out of the markets, allowing you to scoop up the many bargains that will become available.

So how should you handle a further decline in precious metals and mining shares?

First, don’t expect them to completely crash. It’s far more likely that you will soon see a rather large bounce, one that could take gold, for example, back up to $1,258.50, $1,280 and as high as $1,300 …

While silver could bounce back to the $19.28 level or even to $20.

Second, following any decent bounce, expect gold to move down to the $920 to $970 level early next year, and silver down to the $15 area, perhaps even a bit lower.

Third, use the upcoming bounce to hedge any precious metals holdings you do not want to shed, for whatever reason, by purchasing an inverse ETF, such as …

– ProShares Ultra Gold (GLL) or PowerShares DB Gold Double Short ETN (DZZ) for gold.

– ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) for silver.

For any mining shares you do not want to exit on a bounce, for whatever reason, I would hedge the holdings by purchasing shares in Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bear 3X ETF (DUST).

I can’t give you more specific hedge instructions, as I do for my Real Wealth Report members. But suffice it to say that I think it would be foolish not to hedge any holdings you don’t want to exit.

So watch the market closely and use any upcoming bounce to get some hedges in place via the above referenced inverse ETFs.

And most of all, don’t fret. Don’t worry. The long-term precious metals bull market is not in danger of going way. It’s intact. Gold is going to head well above $5,000 an ounce … silver to over $125 — my minimum targets …

And select good quality mining shares are going to double, then double again, and then double again, spinning off hundreds and even thousands of percentage gains in the years to come.

It’s virtually guaranteed. The world is a complete mess. Washington is bankrupt. Europe is even worse than bankrupt.

The rising war cycles are painting a very bleak picture going forward. Civil disobedience and war in Europe. Civil and international war in the Middle East.

War between Russia and Eastern Europe and the U.S.

War between China and Japan, also dragging the U.S. military into conflict in the Far East.

Rising civil discontent in virtually every form in our own United States.

All of these forces are etched in stone. They are coming. Revolutions. Rebellions. Social chaos within country borders and between country borders.

Between the rich and the poor. Between religions. Between capitalism and socialism. Between the public sector (government) and the private sector (citizens and private business).

Some astute observers, like Pope Francis, already know it’s here. He said that much in a speech in Italy a week and a half ago. “A piecemeal World War III,” he called it.

Thing is, right now it may seem piecemeal. In a year or two, max, it won’t be so piecemeal.

It will engulf every corner of the globe, every country, every market.

The world will be aflame.

Stay safe,

Larry