By: Adrian_Ash
The WHOLESALE gold price bounced from a 4-session low at $1552 per ounce Wednesday morning in London, rallying with the Euro currency as world stock markets slumped.
The Athens stock market hit a fresh 22-year low, and Wall Street futures pointed 0.7% down, while US Treasuries rose sharply together with Japanese, German and UK bonds.
The Brazilian Real continued to weaken, hitting new 3-year lows on the forex market despite the Banco Central do Brasil selling some $2.8 billion in US Dollars via currency swaps over the last 3 trading days in a bid to stem the slide.
As recently as March, Brazil's government accused the United States of under-pricing the Dollar, cutting its own interest rates to try and devalue the Real in what ministers repeatedly called a "currency war" threatening the country's exports and attracting inflows of "hot money" to its strong natural resources sector.
Commodity prices today fell to a 5-month low on Standard & Poor's GSCI index.
Silver prices held over $1 below last week's finish, trading at $27.75 per ounce as the start of New York dealing approached.
"There was no real dip buying" overnight as the gold price bottomed, says one wholesale dealer in a note, although Hong Kong premiums over benchmark London prices held firm between $1.00-1.50 per ounce Wednesday.
"Gold is acting more as a risky asset," Robin Bhar of Société Générale is quoted by Thomson Reuters, "and everything is tumbling this morning ahead of the informal [Eurozone] finance ministers meeting [tonight], where nothing good is really expected."
"Gold has pulled back to test support at $1550-1500," says a note from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch technical analysts Mary Ann Bartels and Stephen Suttmeier, quoted by BusinessWeek.
"This support is holding, which sets up gold for a rally.
"Our longer-term view remains that gold is in a secular bull market with upside potential to $2000-2300 to as high as $3000 in coming years."
In Athens on Wednesday, former prime minister Lukas Papademos sought to "clarify" comments quoted by Dow Jones Newswires yesterday in which he said "It cannot be excluded preparations are being made to contain the potential consequences of a Greek Euro exit."
Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt of Sweden – like the UK, a European Union member still outside the Eurozone currency bloc – today repeated last week's comments from finance minister Anders Borg that the Greek situation was "very close to the end of the road."
Germany meantime sold Germany sold €4.5bn of two-year government bonds Wednesday morning at an all-time record-low of 0.07% in annual yield, dispensing with a formal interest coupon altogether.
"There is no way of introducing [pan-Eurozone government bonds] under the current treaties," said an un-named official in Berlin today, rejecting an idea widely mooted as a way of using Germany's strong credit rating to finance weaker states' deficits.
"Indeed, there is an explicit ban on them. That's a firm conviction which will not change in June."
Citigroup analysts said in a new report that the odds of a Eurozone break-up are now at 19% according to financial markets.
"In the event that the implied probability of a break-up increases further," Citi believes, "then [2-year German bond] yields could fall to minus 0.75%" as more capital pours into 'safe haven' debt, driving the price higher.
Thomson Reuters' latest poll of portfolio managers says they're now holding more cash than any time since the 8-year high hit in January.
"Our Sentiment Indicator dropped to almost zero one week ago, and has failed to pick up," says Société Générale's cross-asset quant analysis research.
"The extent and consistency of this move suggest taking this signal seriously, and staying away from long risk positions for the moment."
Tuesday saw the $68 billion SPDR Gold Trust ETF shed 17.5 tonnes from the gold backing its shares, the sharpest 1-day redemption since August.
"Event risk is stacked towards the tail end of the week," says a note from Japanese conglomerate Mitsui.
"After new home sales [today], on Thursday we have a slew of European PMI's, US goods orders and jobless claims plus Comex option expiry, where a considerable chunk of open interest is situated at $1600."
Data from Thomson Reuters showed a marked rise in put options, with speculators looking to sell gold futures at $1550 and $1575 per ounce in particular.
Meantime in India, where the government in New Delhi has acted to curb gold imports in 2012, "Scrap gold sales have picked up by 30% in the span of just one week as gold prices in local terms surged," says bullion market-maker HSBC.
If consumer selling continues, "India may require lower gold imports," says the bank. But "weak bullion import demand may present headwinds to any near-term gold rally."
By Adrian Ash
BullionVault.com
Gold price chart, no delay | Buy gold online at live prices
Formerly City correspondent for The Daily Reckoning in London and a regular contributor to MoneyWeek magazine, Adrian Ash is the editor of Gold News and head of research at www.BullionVault.com , giving you direct access to investment gold, vaulted in Zurich , on $3 spreads and 0.8% dealing fees.
(c) BullionVault 2012
Please Note: This article is to inform your thinking, not lead it. Only you can decide the best place for your money, and any decision you make will put your money at risk. Information or data included here may have already been overtaken by events – and must be verified elsewhere – should you choose to act on it.
© 2005-2012 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.
Comments
MD Wholesale settles sexual discrimination suit - Kuam News 8
Fantasicakes Offers Wholesale Bakery Goods and Pastries to Businesses across America - YAHOO!
Fantasicakes offers its gourmet pastries and bakery goods at wholesale prices for nationwide buyers across America.
(PRWEB) May 23, 2012
Fantasicakes has been offering its full product line to its local wholesale customers in Los Angeles area for years. These include country clubs, high end catering companies and restaurants, retailers, cafes, food markets, banquet hall facilities, corporate cafeterias, and coffee shops. Fantasicakes is now offering its wholesale bakery goods to nationwide buyers and wholesale customers.Our gourmet Coffee Cakes, Bundt cakes, and Tarts are currently available for nationwide delivery. There is a variety of great flavors to choose from. Our coffee cakes come in seven flavors: Cinnamon, Cinnamon Walnut, Pecan Cinnamon, Apple Cinnamon, Chocolate Chip, Marble, and Chocolate Mocha. We offer our Bundt Cakes in eight different varieties: Triple Chocolate, Red Velvet, Rum, Chocolate Rum, Lemon, Orange, Blueberry, and Walnut Raisin. Our Tarts come in five flavors: Apple, Apricot, Blueberry, Cherry, and Raspberry. All our products are available for mail order online at Fantasicakes.com. Our cakes and tarts are made fresh everyday with only the finest gourmet ingredients available in the market. The result is the most flavorful Bundt cakes, coffee cakes, and tarts you will ever have the pleasure of tasting. Visit fantasicakes.com today to view all of our wholesale pastries and bakery goods.
"Our products are very well suited for bulk purchase by culinary distributors, gourmet food online stores, online marketplaces, wholesale clubs, and membership clubs." Van Keshish, owner of Fantasicakes, said. "We can drop ship our cakes and tarts for our wholesale customers, or we can do private label and ship them to their retail customers in individual packages, therefore eliminating the need for storing, wrapping, packing, and shipping hundreds or even thousands of items. Based on the order volume we offer special discounted prices for our wholesale customers."
About Fantasicakes:
Founded by Van Keshish, Fantasicakes began as a pastry shop in the Los Angeles area, supplying pastries and bakery shop goods to corporate and celebrity events, as well as local restaurants. Fantasicakes pastries are individually and carefully handcrafted using the finest gourmet ingredients. The fascinating designs and exquisite flavors of Fantasicakes creations enhance the quality and beauty of the events they are served at, leaving a lasting impression. "When I began Fantasicakes, we started out by catering corporate and celebrity events, as well as supplying local restaurants with our distinguished selection of pastries," Van Keshish, owner of FantasiCakes, said. As the bakery business grew, Keshish looked for new ways to expand. Finding the offerings of other online pastry shops lacking, Keshish brought Fantasicakes online for everyone to enjoy their mail order cakes and tarts anywhere in the United States. Fantasicakes is now offering its wholesale bakery goods to nationwide buyers and wholesale customers. Visit our website and simply fill out the wholesale request form for more information regarding wholesale prices and free product samples shipped to your store!
For more information, visit http://www.fantasicakes.com
Or click here to view our wholesale product request form
Van Keshish
Fantasicakes, Inc.
818-361-2171
Email Information
Wayward Shopping Carts: A KMPH News Investigation - KMPH.com
L.A. Bans Plastic Supermarket Shopping Bags - Consumerist.com
The movement against plastic shopping bags gained a lot of momentum today after the Los Angeles City Council voted 13-1 to phase out the use of plastic shopping bags at supermarkets.
This decision makes L.A. the largest city to issue a ban on the bags. According to the L.A. Times, it will impact around 7,500 stores.
Following a four-month environmental review, larger stores will then have six months to get rid of their stock of the bags, while smaller stores will be given a year.
While the City Council did not pass a proposed ban on paper shopping bags, this new law will eventually require retailers to charge $.10/bag for paper bags given to customers. Those in favor of the paper bag ban hope that the fee will curb the use of paper bags enough so that a ban is not needed down the road.
In 2010, some state legislators had hoped to push through a statewide ban on plastic bags, which some say are an environmental nuisance that litter shorelines and streets. San Francisco and a handful of other municipalities have enacted their own bans on plastic bags in the absence of a state initiative.
"Let's get the message to Sacramento that it's time to go statewide," said Councilman Ed Reyes about L.A.'s measure.
Hawaii recently became the first state to go plastic-bag free. However, it was not through a statewide law but by each of Hawaii's counties enacting their own bans.
Ban on plastic bags at L.A. markets is approved [L.A. Times]
Nearly half of consumers to be ‘social shoppers’ by 2021 - femalefirst.co.uk
The next generation of ‘social shopper’ is expected to emerge as a force to be reckoned with by 2021 with 41 per cent of the UK’s consumer population expected to be influenced by or using social media to make a purchase, according to new research from Barclays.
Amongst 25 to 34 year olds this figure is much higher with nearly half (45 per cent) of this age group already engaging in s-commerce. By 2021, the figure will have jumped to 73 per cent.
Richard Lowe, Head of Retail & Wholesale at Barclays, said: “Shopping has always been a social activity right back to the days when people bartered rather than paid for goods. It wasn’t until the arrival of e-commerce that the social aspect of shopping was removed.
“For most consumers the social element is fundamental – shopping it is a leisure activity in the British psyche – so being able to reintroduce this aspect into the online purchasing process is a powerful tool for retailers”.
Around 70 per cent of online shoppers are already active users of social platforms but the number of social shoppers is set to grow further as social micro-blogging websites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest increasingly blur the boundaries between retail channels in the same way mobile technology has done.
Where social media is really coming in to its own is as an influencer and multi-channel integrator rather than a direct sales channel. Users are receptive to new ideas, suggestions and recommendations when on social networking sites but are not in an active state of mind to purchase. Translated into revenues, in the next five years influenced sales are expected to more than double from £1.4 billion to £3.3 billion. This contrasts with direct sales which are expected to rise from £210 million to £300 million.
The retailers enjoying the greatest uplift in sales as a result of social media’s increasing influence are fashion, footwear, music, film and grocers.
Richard Lowe continues: “When someone you know and trusts makes a recommendation it’s extremely powerful and we’ve seen that the social shopper isn’t afraid to express online how much they want, love or dislike a product or service.
“This in turn creates a feedback loop on a product or brand. As more people post reviews, more people read them and, in turn, they give their own feedback which is picked up by a new group of consumers. Retailers should be exploring ways to tap into these communities in order to create more personalised shopping experiences”.
No comments:
Post a Comment