"The history of Eureka lies in its future." - Lambert Molinelli, 1878

DISCLOSURE

The author/editor of the Eureka Miner owns common shares of local mining stocks, McEwen Mining (MUX) and General Moly (GMO). Please do your own research, markets can turn on you faster than a feral cat.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Gold & Miners Get Some Giddy-Up-Go!


Tonkin Ranch, Eureka County, Nevada

*** GENERAL MOLY NEWS ***

General Moly to Attend the John Tumazos Very Independent Research Metals & Mining Conference (10/10/2013)
General Moly Announces Implementation of Cost Reduction Program While Actively Pursuing Mt. Hope Financing (9/09/2013)

The latest General Moly briefing on the status of the Mt. Hope molybdenum project (with Webcast): General Moly - John Tumazos Very Independent Independent  Research Conference (10/16/2013)

See earlier March 22 and March 29 reports for a full chronology of the $665 million Hanlong loan suspension.

Latest Nevada Gas Prices (click this link)

My latest Kitco commentary:  Copper & Gold – The Long Ride from Lehman Brothers (Part II) (10/28/2013)
Paintings by Mariana Titus, The Three Anas & The Three Moon Anas, are presently at Lafitte Guest House & Gallery, New Orleans

Friday's AM prices used for this morning's analysis: 


COMEX Gold price = $1,342.9/oz (December contract most active)
COMEX Silver = $22.365/oz (December)
COMEX Copper = $3.2420/lb (
December)
NYMEX WTI crude = $97.29/bbl (
December)
ICE Brent crude = $106.76/bbl (December)



Eureka Miner’s Gold Value Index© (GVI) = 86.79 (gold value is trading at a premium to oil and copper)
Value Adjusted Gold Price© (VAGP) = $1,292.9/oz
COMEX - VAGP = +$49.97/oz; gold is trading at a premium to key commodities.


General Moly (GMO) = $1.66 down 2.35%
Barrick Gold (ABX) = $19.77 down 1.49%
Newmont Mining (NEM) = $27.62 down 0.11%

S&P 500 = 1.755.4 up 0.19%




Morning Miners!

Gold surprised almost everyone this week keeping pace with U.S. stock markets that made new highs and gaining significant value compared to global commodities oil and copper. This cannot all be explained by a weaker U.S. dollar which is revisiting the lows this January - a return of safe haven status?  The weak dollar certainly didn't help oil and the red metal which experienced wicked reversals to the downside - Western Intermediate Crude tumbled from its $100 per barrel perch on building inventories and copper has fallen below $3.25 per pound as a warning flag is raised in China (see Miners Rally).

Comex gold touched $1,352.3 per ounce Thursday and is presently trading at $1,342.9. As I explain in my input to the Weekly Kitco Gold Survey (below), gold should revisit the $1,350-level again next week.




Miners Rally

Today there's is some profit taking ahead of the weekend for the mining sector. However, the miners have had a good run from the time when the outcome of the latest U.S.debt crisis was all but clear. The President's meeting at the White house with Congressional Leaders on Oct. 9 marked a low point in the month for many miners. Copper giant and bellwether miner Freeport-McMorRan (FCX) is a good example. Since Oct.. 9, FCX has enjoyed an amazing 11 consecutive market-days of up-up and away with some consolidation of gains this morning:

Freeport-McMorRan (FCX) $37.41 down 0.03% (today); up 14.7% since 10/9

I like Freeport because it produces considerable quantities of gold and molybdenum in addition to copper - all three of this report's favorite metals. The recent rally in the yellow metal has also lifted the gold miners:

Barrick (ABX) $19.77 down 1.49% (today); up 15.1% since 10/9
Newmont (NEM) $27.62 down 0.11% (today); up 7.0% since 10/9

Benchmark moly miner Thompson Creek (TC) has had a good run too as General Moly (GMO) remains stuck in a trading range until new financing for Mt. Hope is secured:

Thompson Creek (TC) $3.38 up 0.59% (today); up 11.6% since 10/9
General Moly (GMO) $1.66 down 2.35%; up 4.4% since 10/9

A big cloud on the horizon for copper and moly miners is the unfolding money market credit crunch in China. A surge in short-term borrowing rates is a fallout from sky rocketing property values and a less than transparent shadow banking system that is showing signs of stress. On the positive, China manufacturing numbers were better than expected this week scoring an upbeat 50.9 versus 50.4 consensus. The startling reversal in copper prices this week is not a good sign going forward.

A Journey in Space and Time

In September, we wrapped up an eight-part summer series on Mt. Hope. You can access the series with the links in the column to your right. We'll be back with a second series on Mt. Hope later this year or next. The second  road trip is longer (110 miles) and will include ranches of early settlers, a second portion of the Pony Express Trail and a challenging section of the old Eureka-Palisade Railroad. The photos today are from the Tonkin Ranch - one of the many early Damele family ranches we will visit.

Loop # 1 (65 miles) was a fun trip - I hope you enjoyed the Mt. Hope journey in space and time and look forward to the next trip too!

Molybdenum Prices

Spot moly oxide prices remain stabilized above the $9 per pound-level. Here are the latest numbers compliments of moly benchmark miner  Thompson Creek (TC):

Metals Week Weekly Average: US$9.51 as of October 18, 2013 (updated weekly)

Ryan's Notes Average: US$9.60 as of October 22, 2013 (updated twice weekly)

The London Metal Exchange (LME) futures contracts are just below spot prices on the 3-month contract. Remember that this is a thinly traded futures market and contract prices may reflect developments in Europe more than the global spot price averages above.

3-month seller's contract $20,750 per metric ton ($9.412 per pound)

15-month seller's contract $21,705 per metric ton ($9.866 per pound)




The Colonel's Gold, Silver & Copper Prices for Next Week

Here is my weekly input to the Kitco Weekly Gold Survey:

10/25/2013 (10:40 AM CT)

Q. Where do you see gold’s price headed next week, up, down or unchanged?

A. Up. My target price is $1,350 per ounce.

Q. Why?

Gold demonstrated surprising strength this week moving up not only in dollar price but gaining considerable value relative to global commodities oil and copper. It also held its ground with equities as the S&P 500 continued to make new highs. The U.S. dollar index has fallen to levels not seen since January, helping to boost gold but doing little to mitigate key reversals to the downside for both oil and copper.

A credit crunch developing in China and a strengthening yen have put a damper on Asian markets which may give gold more room to run next week. The expectation that tapering QE3 has now been pushed out to sometime in the first half of next year is also bullish for gold, at least from the low interest rate point of view.

My gold target for next week of $1,350 per ounce suggesting that gold should be able to trade near this week’s high ($1,352.3).

For $1,350 per ounce gold we can expect to see silver in a statistically bounded range* of $21.9-$23.1 per ounce; and copper in a range of $3.25-$3.51 per pound. Silver is expected to have a negative bias with respect to a range mean of $22.504 per ounce; copper, a negative bias with respect to a range mean of $3.3821 per pound.

Copper presently trading below this range at $3.24 per pound is bearish for the red metal and could be signaling a more accelerated depreciation relative to the yellow metal (bullish gold). This is a dramatic reversal in fortunes for these two metals.

 (* +/- 2-standard deviations, 1-month basis)

The S&P 500 continued to make new records this week and gold held its own against equities rising slightly in value from last week’s close. The relation between the two is illustrated by a plot of the gold-to-S&P 500 ratio, or AUSP:



The ratio had been in a descending channel beginning mid-November as money rotated away from gold assets into the U.S. stock market. This trend bottomed July 5 although a slightly lower low was set on Oct. 16: a loss of 41.6% of value relative to equities from the November peak (AUSP=1.2710). The relation is presently in a sideways channel (dashed lines). Today shows a gradual trend higher from October’s low (0.7645 vs. 0.7418) - breaking the lower boundary of this channel would be very bearish for gold; breaking out of the channel to the upside would improve gold’s price outlook considerably.

This week, Comex gold is up 2.2% for the week but still 6.4% below August’s high ($1,434.0). The yellow metal gained significant value relative to oil and copper; oil lost value to copper. The chart below is a week-over-week valuation matrix. The first row is the current commodity price in the given currency. For all other rows, read “1 unit of row A buys X units of column B”; for example, “1 ounce of gold buys 414.2 pounds of copper.” Percentages are deltas over one week.



Since last November, gold has experienced bearish value destruction not only in U.S. dollar terms but value relative to oil and copper.




As measured by the Eureka Miner’s Gold Value Index (GVI, Ref 1), the value of gold relative to global commodities copper and oil and companion metal silver is 86.79, below the key-100 level but above 1-month moving average of 84.12. The 2012 high was 103.73 on Nov. 13. The value adjusted price of gold is $1,292.9 or a $49.97 discount to actual gold price (i.e. gold is trading at a premium to key commodities).

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Photos by Mariana Titus

Please checkout bayoutales.com for books and book orders


Paintings by Mariana Titus, The Three Anas, are presently at Lafitte Guest House & Gallery, New Orleans
 

Write Colonel Possum at colonelpossum@gmail.com for answers to your questions or to request e-mail updates on the market


Friday, October 18, 2013

Gold Bounce, Gartman's Gold & Miners Rally


Tonkin Resevoir, Eureka County, Nevada

*** GENERAL MOLY NEWS ***

General Moly to Attend the John Tumazos Very Independent Research Metals & Mining Conference (10/10/2013)
General Moly Announces Implementation of Cost Reduction Program While Actively Pursuing Mt. Hope Financing (9/09/2013)

The latest General Moly briefing on the status of the Mt. Hope molybdenum project (with Webcast): General Moly - John Tumazos Very Independent Independent  Research Conference (10/16/2013)

See earlier March 22 and March 29 reports for a full chronology of the $665 million Hanlong loan suspension.

Latest Nevada Gas Prices (click this link)

My latest Kitco commentary:  Copper & Gold – The Long Ride from Lehman Brothers (10/08/2013)
Paintings by Mariana Titus, The Three Anas & The Three Moon Anas, are presently at Lafitte Guest House & Gallery, New Orleans

Friday's AM prices used for this morning's analysis: 


COMEX Gold price = $1,315.4/oz (December contract most active)
COMEX Silver = $21.945/oz (December)
COMEX Copper = $3.3035/lb (
December)
NYMEX WTI crude = $101.07/bbl (
October)
ICE Brent crude = $109.52/bbl (
November)


Eureka Miner’s Gold Value Index© (GVI) = 84.10 (gold value is trading at a small premium to oil and copper)
Value Adjusted Gold Price© (VAGP) = $1,306.9/oz
COMEX - VAGP = +$8.46/oz; gold is trading at a premium to key commodities.


General Moly (GMO) = $1.75 up 2.94%
Barrick Gold (ABX) = $18.50 unchanged
Newmont Mining (NEM) = $26.95 down 0.41%

S&P 500 = 1.739.6 up 0.37%




Morning Miners!

What a week! Last minute resolution of the recent U.S. debt debacle Wednesday has brought equities to new all-time highs and given gold a much needed bounce above $1,300 per ounce. Gold strength and U.S. dollar weakness may very well reflect that a second round of calamitous political wrangling awaits us early next year - stock markets appear less concerned.

The devil is always in the details. Although gold is presently trading 4% above last Friday's closing price, on Wednesday it had its weakest performance relative to the S&P 500 since July. The yellow metal fared better against key commodities, recovering lost ground to both oil and copper but is still in deep bear country in terms of the U.S. dollar price and relative valuations (see my input to the weekly Kitco Gold Survey below).

As explained in the survey input, gold rallies are probably capped around the $1,380 per ounce level and the yellow metal could go a lot lower from here. A pickup in Asia gold buying should put a floor in somewhere below $1,300 per ounce but I see more downside next year possibly testing the June low.

The Gartman Gold Bet

On July 22, Dennis Gartman of the renowned Gartman Letter accepted this wager from the ole Colonel:

I'll bet you a chunk of gold-bearing slag from Eureka's 1890s mining heydays (photo attached) for a cup of Virginia Beach sand that gold will test June's low ($1,179.4) before breaking May's high ($1,488.5)

Here's a picture of Mr. Gartman's prize if he wins:


By the way, don't get too excited about that 150,000 tons of slag at the north end of town - my gold content estimate is an average less than 0.0004 troy ounce per ton. Most of the gold from the Eureka smelters probably left town as trace quantities in lead and silver bullion many, many moons ago.

It's hard to bet against the Commodity King and for the sake of our local economy I hope I'm wrong - it's just hard to argue with the data! My latest Kitco commentary,  Copper & Gold – The Long Ride from Lehman Brothers, is a 5-year retrospective on copper and gold prices which both saw record highs and punishing lows during that turbulent time. It appears we are entering a time of less volatile metal prices that should return to the good old laws of supply and demand as global monetary easing begins to pull back next year. So far the red metal has proved resilient but gold may need to see $1,100 per ounce territory before sustainable price recovery is possible.

Miners Rally

Aside from gold's travails, miners have been enjoying better times lately. Copper giant and bellwether miner Freeport-McMoran (FCX) has enjoyed a 7-market-day rally, heading to higher prices even through the darkest days of the debt ceiling debate. This is an important miner to watch because Freeport produces prodigious quantities of gold and molybdenum in addition to the red metal. Even though gold may have its challenges, many market experts (including Dennis Gartman) are predicting a pickup ion the steel industry which should favor higher moly prices.

This morning, General Moly (GMO) is up 2.9%  to $1.75 per share; Barrick (ABX) is trading unchanged from yeaterday's close at $18.50 and Newmont (NEM) is down 0.4% at $26.95 per share.

A Journey in Space and Time

In September, we wrapped up an eight-part summer series on Mt. Hope. You can access the series with the links in the column to your right. We'll be back with a second series on Mt. Hope later this year or next. The second  road trip is longer (110 miles) and will include ranches of early settlers, a second portion of the Pony Express Trail and a challenging section of the old Eureka-Palisade Railroad. The photos today are from near the Tonkin Ranch - one of the many early Damele family ranches we will visit.

Loop # 1 (65 miles) was a fun trip - I hope you enjoyed the Mt. Hope journey in space and time and look forward to the next trip too!

Molybdenum Prices

Spot moly oxide prices remain stabilized above the $9 per pound-level. Here are the latest numbers compliments of moly benchmark miner  Thompson Creek (TC):

Metals Week Weekly Average: US$9.42 as of October 11, 2013 (updated weekly)

Ryan's Notes Average: US$9.50 as of October 15, 2013 (updated twice weekly)

The London Metal Exchange (LME) futures contracts are just below spot prices on the 3-month contract. Remember that this is a thinly traded futures market and contract prices may reflect developments in Europe more than the global spot price averages above.

3-month seller's contract $20,700 per metric ton ($9.389 per pound)

15-month seller's contract $21,500 per metric ton ($9.7523 per pound)




The Colonel's Gold, Silver & Copper Prices for Next Week

Here is my weekly input to the Kitco Weekly Gold Survey:

10/18/2013 (10:30 AM CT)

Q. Where do you see gold’s price headed next week, up, down or unchanged?

A. Down. My target price is $1,294 per ounce.

Q. Why?

Gold got a welcome bounce this week upon resolution of debt ceiling crisis and a falling U.S. dollar, presently trading nearly 4% up from last Friday’s close (see first table below). Stronger gold and weaker dollar are evidence that some investors fear a second debt debacle could resurface early next year. U.S. equities appear less concerned bullishly setting new record highs. As a consequence, gold registered a new value low relative to the S&P 500 Wednesday (see chart). Such is the give-and-take across gold, currency and equity markets.

The expectation that tapering QE3 has now been pushed out to sometime in the first half of next year will maintain low interest rates which is bullish for gold. However as QE3 carries on, oil and copper will get more lift from easy money, so gold value erosion relative to “real things” will continue. This puts a cap on future rallies - I don't believe the yellow metal will move above $1,380 per ounce in the intermediate term and could see a lot more downside next year as explained in my commentaries, Gold Trapped in a Value Wedge and Copper & Gold – The Long Ride from Lehman Brothers.

Based on prior quantitative easing cycles, this trend must reverse, “before a serious recovery in gold price is possible – typically, after or near the end of each QE program.”

My gold target for next week of $1,294 per ounce is the geometric mean of October’s high ($1,337.8) and this week’s low ($1,251.0) suggesting a near-term equilibrium between bullish and bearish influences on price.

For $1,294 per ounce gold we can expect to see silver in a statistically bounded range* of $20.9-$22.0 per ounce; and copper in a range of $3.13-$3.30 per pound. Silver is expected to have a positive bias with respect to a range mean of $21.466 per ounce; copper, a positive bias with respect to a range mean of $3.2158 per pound.

Copper presently trading at the top of this range at $3.30 per pound is bullish for the red metal and could be signaling a more accelerated appreciation relative to the yellow metal (bearish gold).

(* +/- 2-standard deviations, 1-month basis)

The S&P 500 has set new records this week upon resolution of the debt ceiling crisis; gold gained too but at a slower pace. The relation between the two is illustrated by a plot of the gold-to-S&P 500 ratio, or AUSP:



The ratio was in a descending channel since mid-November as money rotated away from gold assets into the U.S. stock market. This trend bottomed July 5 although a slightly lower low was set this week on Wednesday: a loss of 41.6% of value relative to equities from the November peak (AUSP=1.2710). The relation is presently in a sideways channel (dashed lines). Today shows some relief from Wednesday’s low (0.7562 vs. 0.7418); breaking the lower boundary of this channel would be very bearish for gold.

This week, Comex gold is up 3.7% for the week but still 8% below August’s high ($1,434.0). The yellow metal gained value relative to oil and copper; oil also lost to copper. The chart below is a week-over-week valuation matrix. The first row is the current commodity price in the given currency. For all other rows, read “1 unit of row A buys X units of column B”; for example, “1 ounce of gold buys 398.2 pounds of copper.” Percentages are deltas over one week.



Since last November, gold has experienced bearish value destruction not only in U.S. dollar terms but value relative to oil and copper.




As measured by the Eureka Miner’s Gold Value Index (GVI, Ref 1), the value of gold relative to global commodities copper and oil and companion metal silver is 84.10, below the key-100 level but above 1-month moving average of 83.91. The 2012 high was 103.73 on Nov. 13. The value adjusted price of gold is $1,306.9 or an $8.46 discount below actual gold price (i.e. gold is trading at a slight premium to key commodities).

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Photos by Mariana Titus

Please checkout bayoutales.com for books and book orders


Paintings by Mariana Titus, The Three Anas, are presently at Lafitte Guest House & Gallery, New Orleans
 

Write Colonel Possum at colonelpossum@gmail.com for answers to your questions or to request e-mail updates on the market


Friday, October 11, 2013

Gold Plunges, Copper Resilient, Stocks Rise


Three Bars Road, Eureka County, Nevada

*** GENERAL MOLY NEWS ***

General Moly to Attend the John Tumazos Very Independent Research Metals & Mining Conference (10/10/2013)
General Moly Announces Implementation of Cost Reduction Program While Actively Pursuing Mt. Hope Financing (9/09/2013)

The latest General Moly briefing on the status of the Mt. Hope molybdenum project: Bank of America Merrill Lynch Canada Mining Conference Presentation

See earlier March 22 and March 29 reports for a full chronology of the $665 million Hanlong loan suspension.

Latest Nevada Gas Prices (click this link)

My latest Kitco commentary:  Copper & Gold – The Long Ride from Lehman Brothers (10/08/2013)
Paintings by Mariana Titus, The Three Anas & The Three Moon Anas, are presently at Lafitte Guest House & Gallery, New Orleans

Friday's morning's prices used for this morning's analysis: 


COMEX Gold price = $1,268.9/oz (December contract most active)
COMEX Silver = $21.280/oz (December)
COMEX Copper = $3.2400/lb (
December)
NYMEX WTI crude = $101.26/bbl (
October)
ICE Brent crude = $111.06/bbl (
November)


Eureka Miner’s Gold Value Index© (GVI) = 82.60 (gold value is trading at a discount to oil and copper)
Value Adjusted Gold Price© (VAGP) = $1,283.6/oz
COMEX - VAGP = -$14.69/oz; gold is trading at a discount to key commodities.


General Moly (GMO) = $1.65 down 1.79%
Barrick Gold (ABX) = $17.27 down 3.20%
Newmont Mining (NEM) = $25.84 down 1.75%

S&P 500 = 1,701.73 up 0.54%




Morning Miners!

With market sentiment running high for some positive resolution to the government shutdown and debt ceiling debacle, investors are moving back into equity markets leaving gold the unloved safe-haven without a catalyst. Comex gold plunged all the way to $1,259.6 peer ounce earlier this morning (see my input to the weekly Kitco Gold Survey below).

I wish the ole Colonel could be more bullish about gold prices going forward but it could be a rough road for the yellow metal. My latest Kitco commentary,  Copper & Gold – The Long Ride from Lehman Brothers, is a 5-year retrospective on copper and gold prices which both saw record highs and punishing lows during that turbulent time. It appears we are entering a time of less volatile metal prices that should return to the good old laws of supply and demand as global monetary easing begins to pull back next year. So far the red metal has proved resilient but gold may need to see $1,100 per ounce territory before sustainable price recovery is possible - a tough time for gold miners indeed.

Miners got little help from rising stock markets today. With the S&P back above 1,700, General Moly (GMO) is down 1.79%  to $1.65 per share. Gold miners are down on plunging gold price: Barrick (ABX), $17.27 and Newmont (NEM), $25.84 per share.

Several weeks ago, we wrapped up an eight-part summer series on Mt. Hope. You can access the series with the links in the column to your right. We'll be back with a second series on Mt. Hope later this year or next. The second  road trip is longer (110 miles) and will include ranches of early settlers, a second portion of the Pony Express Trail and a challenging section of the old Eureka-Palisade Railroad. The photos today are from Three Bars Road which passes by the historic Three Bar Ranch - one of the many early Damele family ranches we will visit.

Loop # 1 (65 miles) was a fun trip - I hope you enjoyed the Mt. Hope journey in space and time and look forward to the next trip too!

Molybdenum Prices

Spot moly oxide prices remain stabilized above the $9 per pound-level. Here are the latest numbers compliments of moly benchmark miner  Thompson Creek (TC):

Metals Week Weekly Average: US$9.35 as of October 7, 2013 (updated weekly)

Ryan's Notes Average: US$9.425 as of October 4, 2013 (updated twice weekly)

The London Metal Exchange (LME) futures contracts are above spot prices on the 3-month contract. Remember that this is a thinly traded futures market and contract prices may reflect developments in Europe more than the global spot price averages above.

3-month seller's contract $21,000 per metric ton ($9.526 per pound)

15-month seller's contract $21,725 per metric ton ($9.854 per pound)




The Colonel's Gold, Silver & Copper Prices for Next Week

Here is my weekly input to the weekly Kitco Weekly Gold Survey:

10/11/2013 (10:50 AM CT)

Q. Where do you see gold’s price headed next week, up, down or unchanged?

A. Down. My target price is $1,260 per ounce.

Q. Why?

It has been a poor week for global commodities copper and oil but much worse for gold. This morning, Comex gold gapped down to $1,259.6 per ounce before recovering some but is still more than 3% down from last Friday’s close (see first table below).

With market sentiment running high for some positive resolution to the government shutdown and debt ceiling debacle, investors are moving back into equity markets leaving gold the unloved safe-haven without a catalyst.

I believe as QE3 carries on, oil and copper will get more lift from easy money than gold so gold value erosion relative to “real things” will continue. This morning gold is already trading at a $14.7 discount relative to a commodity basket of oil, copper & silver. I don't think the yellow metal will move above $1,380 per ounce in the intermediate term and could see a lot more downside as explained in my commentaries, Gold Trapped in a Value Wedge and Copper & Gold – The Long Ride from Lehman Brothers.

The yellow metal trading at a discount to key commodities limits future advances and may presage a return to much lower prices later this year or by Q1 2014. Based on prior quantitative easing cycles, this trend must reverse, “before a serious recovery in gold price is possible – typically, after or near the end of each QE program.”

For $1,260 per ounce gold we can expect to see silver in a statistically bounded range* of $20.3-$21.5 per ounce; and copper in a range of $3.05-$3.21 per pound. Silver is expected to have a positive bias with respect to a range mean of $20.902 per ounce; copper, a positive bias with respect to a mean of $3.1300 per pound.

Copper presently trading outside this range at $3.24 per pound is bullish for the red metal and could be signaling a more accelerated appreciation relative to the yellow metal (i.e. bearish gold).

 (* +/- 2-standard deviations, 1-month basis)

The S&P 500 has reversed this week on upbeat sentiment as gold price has tumbled. The relation between the two is illustrated by a plot of the gold-to-S&P 500 ratio, or AUSP:



The ratio was in a descending channel since mid-November as money rotated away from gold assets into the U.S. stock market. This trend bottomed July 5 with gold losing 41.5% of value relative to equities from the November peak (AUSP=1.2710). Since then, the relation has moved in a sideways channel (dashed lines). Today comes closer to the July low (0.7564 vs. 0.7431); breaking the lower boundary of this channel would be very bearish for gold.

This week, Comex gold is down 3.1% for the week and over 11% from August’s high ($1,434.0). The yellow metal lost value relative to oil and copper; oil also lost to copper making the latter the strongest of the three. The chart below is a week-over-week valuation matrix. The first row is the current commodity price in the given currency. For all other rows, read “1 unit of row A buys X units of column B”; for example, “1 ounce of gold buys 391.6 pounds of copper.” Percentages are deltas over one week.



Since last November, gold has experienced bearish value destruction not only in U.S. dollar terms but value relative to oil and copper.




As measured by the Eureka Miner’s Gold Value Index (GVI, Ref 1), the value of gold relative to global commodities copper and oil and companion metal silver is 82.6, below the key-100 level and the 1-month moving average of 84.04. The 2012 high was 103.73 on Nov. 13. The value adjusted price of gold is $1,283.6 or a $14.7 premium above actual gold price (i.e. gold is trading at a discount to key commodities).

Cheers,

Colonel Possum

Photos by Mariana Titus

Please checkout bayoutales.com for books and book orders


Paintings by Mariana Titus, The Three Anas, are presently at Lafitte Guest House & Gallery, New Orleans
 

Write Colonel Possum at colonelpossum@gmail.com for answers to your questions or to request e-mail updates on the market