For this installment of Fun on Friday, I was planning on telling you all about a $9,000 ball of yarn. But this morning, I found something even better.
The amount of gold used in the technology sector grew for the fourth consecutive quarter, according to the latest demand report by the World Gold Council.
Tech industries consumed 67.3 tons of gold in Q3, a 3% increase year-on-year. Demand for memory chips served as a primary driver for increased industrial gold consumption.
If you’ve perused the mainstream headlines today, you’ve probably read that overall gold demand fell to an 8-year low last quarter. This was primarily due to a steep drop in inflows into gold ETFs compared to last year, and sagging jewelry demand in India after the implementation of a new tax scheme. But despite the gloomy-sounding headlines, investors are still buying physical gold.
Investment demand for physical gold grew in the third quarter by 17%, according to a report released by the World Gold Council.
Turkey is buying gold.
The question is: why?
According to a Bloomberg report, the Turkish central bank added 3.8 million ounces of gold worth almost $5 billion to its reserves this year.
Gold exports from Australia surged from August to September, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Non-monetary gold exports rose 17% in the period, an increase of $217 million in seasonally adjusted terms.
The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
A few weeks ago, I told you about a company that is offering a 22-karat gold version of the iPhone. Yes. for a mere $69,995, you can strut about town with a gold phone pressed against your ear.
Well apparently, the folks at Apple want to get in on this action. Maybe they are worried the profit margin isn’t going to big enough on the $1,000 iPhone X. Whatever the reason, the company has reportedly filed a patent for making “enclosures for electronic devices” out of hardened gold. According to the CNBC report, the process will create a stronger metal suitable for enclosing Apple gadgets.
During the Denver Gold Forum last September, the chairman of the World Gold Council said he thinks the world may have reached peak gold. That is the point where the amount of gold mined out of the earth will begin to shrink every year, rather than increase, as it has done pretty consistently since the 1970s.
Randall Oliphant is not the only high-profile person in the gold industry expressing concern about gold supply over the long-term. Franco-Nevada chairman Pierre Lassonde also expects a significant dip in gold production in the coming years. During a recent interview with the German financial newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft, Lassonde said we’re seeing a significant slowdown in the number of large deposits being discovered. The big question is how will the industry replace the massive gold mines that have produced large amounts of the yellow metal over the last 130 years or so?
The Chinese are buying gold again after a slump in consumer demand last year.
Meanwhile, Chinese gold production is falling.
According to data released by the China Gold Association, gold demand rose 15.5% through the first three quarters of 2017. Demand totaled 815.9 tons, pushed upward by a resurgent jewelry market.
Financial guru Jim Rickards weighed in on the Bitcoin vs. gold debate and came down firmly on the side of the yellow metal. In fact, he’s said there really shouldn’t be a debate. Bitcoin and gold are two totally different things.
Rickards responded to a recent note published by Goldman Sachs declaring that Bitcoin is not the new gold in a column published at the Daily Reckoning. He said he doesn’t really like talking about Bitcoin and doesn’t think there is any real comparison between the cryptocurrency and gold.
