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Gold prices have been on a tear in recent months, with the precious metal reaching new all-time highs amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty. The price of gold has surged by over 10% this year, with investors piling into safe-haven assets as global risks continue to mount. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the factors driving the rally in gold prices and what it could mean for investors

Economic Factors and Geopolitical Risk Fuel Gold Rally

The federal reserve has increased interest rates to the highest levels in many years during 2023. The recent increase in gold price is related to geopolitical un-certainty created due to the Israeli Middle East War, anticipation that the Federal Reserve Bank has reached the top of the current rate hiking cycle and a recent selloff in value of the USD relative to a basket of G7 currencies.

In addition, the US government has been adding $1trillion to the deficit every 100 days. This is the fastest rate of expansion of United States government debt levels ever. The government is spending ~$870billion per year in interest payments to sustain these enormous debt levels.  Inflationary forces are still driving prices higher for businesses and citizens.  All these factors are helping gold prices rise.

Gold’s unique feature as a store of value and protection against USD currency debasement is beginning to shine.

Expectations of the first interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve Bank have been pushed out to the middle 2024. Recent inflation measures have remained somewhat elevated and not falling as quickly as they expected.

Within the investment community expectations of the first interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve Bank have been moved up to earlier in the year to March 2024 from June 2024 with 80% probability by various investment bank research departments.  This is due to recent inflation measures seen to be improving further confirm the interest rate hikes have been effective in cooling inflation.

How Can I Take Advantage of Record Gold Prices?

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According to Saxony police, the suspects damaged a power box near the Augustus bridge, causing a power outage that disabled the museum’s security alarms as well as all the street lamps in the castle’s vicinity. They then broke into the Green Vault by cutting through the iron bars on one of the windows and used a hand axe to smash three display cases.

Since the CCTV cameras were still functioning, unarmed security guards were able to alert the police right away. Although the suspects were believed to have fled in an Audi A6, a vehicle matching that description was later found on fire in an underground parking lot.

Police have offered a €500,000 reward for information that could lead to the capture of the perpetrators.

Statements by museum personnel and officials from the State of Saxony say that the historical and cultural significance of the stolen items makes their value impossible to quantify. Yet, some reports have estimated the heist’s value to exceed 1 billion euros. A few of the more noteworthy items include:

• A hat clasp with a 16-carat diamond, 103 smaller diamonds, and 14 other large gemstones
• A silver and gold sword with a hilt containing 9 large and 770 smaller diamonds
• The 49.71 carat Dresden White Diamond (worth €9–10 million)

According to Marion Ackermann, director of Dresden’s State Art Collection, the items were not insured, which is standard for artifacts owned by the state.

This heist comes two years after another German museum was broken into. In March 2017, thieves stole a 220-pound solid gold coin worth an estimated $4.3 million from the Bode Museum in Berlin. Four suspects in that case went on trial in January 2019 in a process that is still ongoing.

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The gem is a D color, Type 11A, which is the highest color and quality rating possible. It’s also the fifth largest gem-quality diamond that’s ever been discovered, according to Diamond District Monthly.

Experts estimate that it could produce 10 to 30 high-quality, smaller diamonds of varying sizes.

The diamond has been nicknamed the “Lesotho Legend” after its country of origin.

Many large diamonds have been found there, including the “Lesotho Promise,” which was 603 carats and sold for $12.4 million.

It was cut down to 26 smaller diamonds, each one as flawless as the next.

Source:

Diamond District Monthly, May 2018
USA Today

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The midtown Manhattan hotel’s “Bear Extraordinaire” sundae, which is served inside a keepsake crystal bear, is now the most expensive ice cream in the country.



Inside the bear, you’ll find rare ingredients, including house-made vanilla ice cream made with vanilla beans imported from Madagascar. It’s covered in a white chocolate shell that you have to break to eat it, which is part of the fun. That shell is then hand-painted with colored cocoa butter. The ice cream sphere sits atop three grams of black truffle crumble. 



But the truffles aren’t chocolate — no, that would be expected. They’re of the mushroom variety, costing roughly $95 an ounce. The truffle crumble is also made from Manjari dark chocolate from Madagascar and Valrhona Gold cocoa nibs. 



Drizzled on top, you’ll find a hibiscus champagne sauce and citrus meringue. And if all of that wasn’t enough to impress you, it’s decorated with fondant butterflies, thin strands of sugar, and a smidgen of edible gold and silver leaf. 


Pastry chef, Rosario Wakabayashi, is the mastermind behind the luxe dessert, which was inspired by the Baccarat crystal butterflies in the Grand Salon of the hotel. 

Not ready to shell out $1,500 for an ice cream with gold just yet?

You can order it without the keepsake bear for only $300.

Sweet!

Source: CNBC

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According to reports, the scammers have been successful – not because of the quality of their counterfeits – but because of psychology. Maryland’s Montgomery County Police say that the scammers are targeting those of Chinese descent by “building trust with victims based on shared affiliations and characteristics such as age, race, religion, occupation, etc.” – a strategy known as “affinity fraud.”

Scammers cold call potential victims using a phone number appears as a Chinese number on caller ID. The scammer tells the victim they need their help – saying they want to sell gold they found during a construction job and use the money to return to China, or help their family in China. Victims who agree to meet the scammers and buy the “gold” have lost up to $20,000 in cash. 

As time goes on, the scammers are likely to change their stories and target different victims. Luckily, there are many ways to spot a scam. When buying or selling precious metals, remember to always be careful and do your research.

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Use customer-friendly language

If your business requires a returns policy with lots of exclusions or fine print, that’s perfectly fine. However, you’ll want to avoid spelling out those exclusions in a punitive tone. Instead, use positive language that considers the customer’s point of view and makes them feel like their purchase is appreciated and protected, rather than threatened.

Give enough time

Shorter return periods can create a counterproductive sense of urgency. If you give customers a longer period of time to return something, they’re less likely to experience this pressure.

Cover replacement costs where you can

If your margins are enough to allow for it, or if the return meets certain requirements, keep your customers from paying additional return costs – like restocking or shipping fees. Showing that you are willing to cover those expenses can improve a customer’s confidence in their purchase decision.

The running theme here is: don’t penalize the customer who needs to return something. Most people check the return policy before committing to an expensive purchase, like jewelry. If it looks like they could be “punished” by the hassle created by your returns policy, there’s a greater chance they’ll look elsewhere.

The post Crafting a Marketable Return Policy appeared first on Manhattan Gold & Silver.

While searching for gold off the California coast, engineers Eric Stackpole and David Lang were disappointed when they couldn’t dive deep enough to explore an underwater cave. They wanted to use a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), but there was nothing affordable and accessible on the market. This inspired them to start their company, OpenROV, and sell an underwater drone of their own design. Since the company’s inception, OpenROV has sold more than 3,000 ROV kits that contain parts and open source software that customers can use to build a functioning underwater drone.

This year, OpenROV plans to launch the Trident – a prebuilt drone that is more affordable and simpler to use out-of-the-box. It goes on sale this summer for $1,499. Although the cost is much higher than most metal detectors, the Trident opens up a whole new frontier for prospectors to explore. We won’t be surprised to see an uptick in underwater gold discoveries peppering the news this year!

The post New Underwater Drone makes Gold Exploration more Accessible appeared first on Manhattan Gold & Silver.

The museum sits on the tip of a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the Spree River. The fourth side is the museum’s rear façade, which is adjacent to several lines of train tracks. Police believe that the thieves used a ladder that was found at the scene to access a second-story window on that side of the building. Once inside, the thieves headed straight for Maple Leaf, leaving all of the museum’s other coins and exhibits untouched. After smashing the coin’s bullet proof display case, they likely used a wheelbarrow to transport the transport the coin out of the museum and escape along the train tracks.

Beyond that working theory, police have not announced any additional details. As of this writing, the investigation is ongoing.

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• On April 27, an inspection of a refrigerator truck at the Huanggang checkpoint uncovered 66, 16kg plates of silver
• On May 22, agents at the Man Kam To checkpoint found nearly a ton of silver hidden on three in-bound trucks
• On June 28, authorities at a Shenzhen immigration control point seized 76kg of gold bars, resulting in 12 arrests
• On July 20, a woman was detained at the Shenzhen border for the Louhu District when authorities discovered that she was hiding 15, 1kg gold bars taped under her clothes
• On August 17, an inspection of a luxury vehicle at the Shenzhen Bay immigration control point uncovered 30, 1kg bars of gold

There are a few possible reasons for driving the increased smuggling activity. For starters, 2016 was a good year for precious metal prices. However, mainland-China has strict regulations and high taxes for precious metal exports (which includes goods crossing the border into Hong Kong). Since the entire Chinese market has a consistently high demand for gold, smuggling attempts that successfully avoided that red tape would have been very profitable.
   
Is the activity likely to continue into 2017? Well, gold prices started to trend downward as 2016 came to a close. This, combined with the increased success customs agents have had in catching smugglers, could indicate that the rate of incidences will go back down to previous levels.

The post Precious Metal Smuggling On the Rise, or Fall, in Hong Kong? appeared first on Manhattan Gold & Silver.

In reality, Southern Trust had no proof of ownership whatsoever for the bullion it was selling. Customer accounts were transferred to Loreley Overseas Corp., then through accounts in the U.K. The scheme ran from about July 2011 through May 2013 (during which demand was high and gold prices were booming) and collected more than $2.6 million from duped investors.

Even though the scheme ran years ago, there weren’t any repercussions until this year, when the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced in September that Escobio and his companies were prohibited from commodity trading and ordered to pay more than $2.1 million in restitution and penalties.

So as a PSA to our clients and blog readers, don’t jump into an investment “opportunity” without doing thorough research – no matter how hot gold prices are, or how pushy the other party is.

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