China is buying/importing gold like there is no tomorrow
Source: Willem Middelkoop
Gold Trading Volume in China has exploded to 5x the average in 2023...
Source: FT, Barchart
China has quietly accumulated large quantities of gold for 17 straight months – to the tune of 72.7 MILLION ounces (about 2,250 tonnes).
Despite its rise as an economic power, China’s vast reserves are predominantly in USD, an exposure it aims to minimize. To reduce this reliance, the People’s Bank of China is diversifying by increasing its gold holdings. Since 2011, China has decreased its dollar reserves by a third, down to approximately $800 billion. Meanwhile, China’s gold reserves have skyrocketed. China’s economic strategy involves diversifying away from the US dollar, which dominates global trade and commodity pricing. Source: Katusa Research
Gold rallied strongly again yesterday, disregarding entirely the significant reversal seen on Friday.
Meanwhile, the $GLD ETF is still facing significant outflows on a 2-year basis of nearly 45%. Source: Tavi Costa, Bloomberg
It's not just a Gold thing. It's a metals thing.
Copper hitting new 52-week highs. Source: J-C Parets
Bitcoin $BTC priced in grams of gold... (log chart)
Note that 1) $1,000 seems to be a key resistance; 2) Bitcoin hasn't made a new all-time high yet... Source: www.priceingold.com
The Paxos Gold token traded as high as $3,000/oz Saturday night...
"Each Pax Gold $PAXG token is backed by one fine troy ounce of gold, stored in LBMA vaults in London."
A number of Central Banks have begun to add gold to their reserves since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Chart from Alpine Macro. According to the IMF there is about $12 trillion of currency reserves held globally. That is nearly the market value of the gold stock, but according to Alpine Macro only about $3 trillion of gold is potentially available for central banks to purchase. While other factors need to be taken into account, Central banks buying is likely creating a supply/demand imbalance. Source: Crit Thomas, Alpine Macro
