Market Watch: Emerging markets lift gold reserves, IMF says

SYDNEY--Central banks in several emerging-market countries continued to boost their gold reserves last month, exploiting a plunge in the price of the precious metal to its lowest level in almost three years.

Regular gold buyers Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were among those that added to their holdings in June, when many other central banks were also active in the market.

Not all were looking to buy, however. Germany and Guatemala both sold holdings, while Turkey's official reserves also fell, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.

Central banks, largely in developing economies, have increased their holdings of the precious metal over the past few years as sovereign-debt crises, like those in Europe, put pressure on reserve currencies such as the U.S. dollar and euro.

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The Motley Fool: Can Gold Keep Outpacing the Dow?

The stock market closed the week with modest gains, with the Dow Jones Industrials recovering from early losses to post a small gain and bring its total rise for the week to 15 points, or about 0.1%. Yet, in a reversal of trends over the past several months, gold and other precious metals rose much more substantially for the week, with the SPDR Gold ETF finishing with gains of almost 3%, and iShares Silver posting a better than 2% advance. Let's take a look at what influenced the gold market this week to get a sense of whether precious metals can keep climbing and outpace the soaring Dow.

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Economic Times: Gold down 1% but set for weekly gain

Gold dropped 1 per cent on Friday on pre-weekend profit taking, but bullion was still set to post a sharp weekly gain as wariness over the US Federal Reserve's message at next week's monetary policy meeting pushed the dollar down.

Bullion is on track for a 2 per cent weekly gain, set for its third consecutive weekly rise and its first three-week rise since March, prior to the two-day $225 selloff in mid April.

A rally to climb back over a key technical threshold at $1,300 an ounce earlier in the week prompted speculators fearing a reversal of the recent downward price trend to rush to buy back bearish bets.

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Forbes: METALS OUTLOOK: Gold Traders' Full Plate Next Week Includes FOMC, U.S. GDP, Payrolls, ECB

Gold Traders and investors in other markets have a full economic calendar to monitor next week.

“There’s no shortage of potential market movers,” said Nomura, listing a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, July U.S. employment report and second-quarter gross domestic product. On top of that, the Institute for Supply Management releases its manufacturing report, and the European Central Bank and Bank of England hold policy meetings.

In particular, market participants will be watching U.S. data and a policy statement after the FOMC for more signs on when tapering of quantitative easing might start, and the impact of this on Treasury yields.

“They (gold traders) will be keying off interest rates and the dollar,” said George Gero, vice president and precious-metals strategist with RBC Capital Markets Global Futures.

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Japan Times: Macau becomes a gold mine for U.S. casino companies

LAS VEGAS – Most people still think the U.S. gambling industry is anchored in Las Vegas, with its booming Strip and 24/7 action, a place where years of alluring marketing campaigns have helped scrub away the taint of past corruption.

Yet in just a decade, the center of gambling has migrated to the other side of the world, settling in a tiny Chinese territory an hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong. The gambling mecca of Macau now handles more wagers than all U.S.-based commercial casinos put together, and many of those bets end up swelling the balance sheets of U.S. corporations.

But as U.S. gambling companies have remade Macau, Macau has also remade them.

Chasing riches, these companies have been hit with allegations of improper conduct, prompting investigations and serious questions about how closely U.S. authorities are watching the corporations’ overseas dealings, and what, if any, real repercussions they could face. Could these corruption claims revive the specter of gambling’s bad old days, when Sin City casinos kept mobsters flush?

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Gizmodo: Some Olympic Gold Medalists Will Get a Russia Meteorite Medal Too

Winning a Gold Medal is one of the highest achievements in sports, the beautiful round medallion rewards years of hard work and confirms an athlete's status as the very best. Russia is going to sweeten the deal a bit in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics (no, they're not wrapping chocolate inside), extra medals that have pieces of the meteorite that crashed in Russia earlier this year will be given to the gold medal winners.

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Bloomberg: Russia, Kazakhstan Boost Gold Reserves as Turkey Cuts, IMF Says

Russia and Kazakhstan expanded their gold reserves for a ninth straight month in June as purchases slowed amid a price slump.

Russian holdings, the seventh-largest by country, climbed 0.3 metric tons to 996.4 tons, the smallest gain since reserves started to increase in October, International Monetary Fund data show. Kazakhstan’s hoard grew 1.4 tons to 130.9 tons, the smallest expansion since March, data on the website showed. Turkey’s holdings fell for the first time in a year.

Gold slumped 11 percent in June, the biggest monthly loss since September 2011. Prices dropped 23 percent in the second quarter, the worst such performance since at least 1920, as gold entered a bear market in April after investors sold metal from exchange-traded funds at a record pace. Prices are down 20 percent this year amid speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve may taper its bond-buying program that helped bullion cap a 12-year bull run in 2012.

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