Rapper Kanye West announces U.S. presidential bid on Twitter

American rapper Kanye West, a vocal supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, announced on Saturday that he would run for president in 2020 in an apparent challenge to Trump and his presumptive Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.

“e must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States,” West wrote in a Twitter post, adding an American flag emoji and the hashtag “#2020VISION”.

It was not immediately clear if West was serious about vying for the presidency four months before the Nov. 3 election or if he had filed any official paperwork to appear on state election ballots.

The deadline to add independent candidates to the ballot has not yet passed in many states.

West and his equally famous wife Kim Kardashian West have visited Trump in the White House.

At one meeting in October 2018, West delivered a rambling, profanity-laden speech in which he discussed alternative universes and his diagnosis of bipolar disorder, which he said was actually sleep deprivation.

Elon Musk, the chief executive of electric-car maker Tesla and another celebrity known for eccentric outbursts, endorsed West’s Twitter post: “You have my full support!” he wrote.

 

David

Gold and Silver prices today slashes in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kerala, Visakhapatnam,

Gold prices in India have fell in the Indian markets on Sunday following the international trends. Gold and silver prices today, 5 July 2020: Gold prices in India have fell in the Indian markets on Sunday following the international trends. On MCX, August gold futures were decreased by Rs. 100 to Rs. 49,750 per 10 gram while the Silver futures on MCX were flat at Rs. 48,500 per kg with a decrease of Rs. 50. If we look at the gold prices ar major centres in the country, here are the gold prices for the day. Also Read – Gold prices today sees a fall in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai on 5 July 2020 The gold prices in Bangalore have decreased by Rs. 50 per ten gram of 22 carat taking the price to Rs. 45,650 and Rs. 100 decreased to Rs. 49,750 per ten gram of 24 carat gold In Hyderabad, the gold prices have slashed by Rs. 40 per ten gram of 22 carat to Rs. 46,230. At the same time, the price of 24 carats remained at Rs. 50,840 with a fall of Rs. 40. While in Kerala, the gold prices have been decreased by Rs. 40 per ten grams of 22 carat taking the price to Rs. 44,910 and rate of ten gram of 24 carat fell by Rs. 20 to Rs. 49,000. Also Read – Gold prices today decreased in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai on 3 July 2020 The gold rates in Visakhapatnam have stood at Rs. 46,230 and Rs. 50,840 per ten gram of 22 carat and 24 carat with a fall of Rs. 40 respectively.

 

 

David

More desk-bound geologists could be a good thing
 

Taylor said health protocols in the field make it more cumbersome to carry out field work. Instead, juniors are spending more time with the data sets they already have on hand.

"You know, one of the things I've seen year after year in the industry–and even I'm guilty of it sometimes–is that you have a data set that you've collected and you've been too busy. You're drilling and you're exploring, and you don't have time to really sit down and think about some of the data that you have," said Taylor.

"I think more companies in the near term…are going to be doing that data analysis work."

Taylor said that the discoveries at the Dixie project with Great Bear were due to careful desktop work, evaluating historical data and re-working models.

Great Bear (TSX.V:GBR) is focused on the Red Lake District in Northwestern Ontario. The company controls over 300 km2 land package, with focus on the flagship Dixie project, and the Pakwash property, the Dedee property, and the Sobel property.

In the last year stock has traded up from under $5 to a close of $17.61 today.

 

By Michael McCrae
For Kitco News

 

David

Gold settles with a gain for the session and shorter week

Gold futures climbed on Thursday, also posting a gain for the holiday-shortened week, as concerns over the increase in COVID-19 cases in part of the world provided safe-haven support for the metal. Some of that support lacked in the U.S., where data showed better-than-expected jobs growth in June. "The employment numbers are spectacular but an 11% unemployment rate is still elevated," said Jeff Wright, executive vice president of GoldMining Inc. "COVID cases are back on rise and numerous states have slowed down reopen plans." August gold GCQ20, -0.18% rose $10.10, or 0.6%, to settle at $1,790 an ounce. There will be no regular trading for gold futures Friday, which marks the Independence Day holiday. Based on the most-active contract, prices were up about 0.5% from last Friday's settlement.

 

Myra P. Saefong

David

UK regulators take aim at Apple's search engine deal with Google

The payments by Alphabet Inc’s Google to Apple Inc to be the default search engine on Apple’s Safari web browser create “a significant barrier to entry and expansion” for Google’s rivals in the search engine market, the UK markets regulator said in a report released on Wednesday.

Apple received the “substantial majority” of the 1.2 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) that Google paid to be the default search engine on a variety of devices in the United Kingdom in 2019, according to the report.

The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, in its final report investigating online platforms and digital advertising, said the arrangements between Apple and Google create “a significant barrier to entry and expansion” for Google’s rivals in the search engine market. Those rivals include Microsoft Corp’s Bing, Verizon Communications Inc-owned Yahoo and independent search engine DuckDuckGo, all of which also make payments to Apple in exchange for being search engine options on its devices, the report said.

“Given the impact of preinstallations and defaults on mobile devices and Apple’s significant market share, it is our view that Apple’s existing arrangements with Google create a significant barrier to entry and expansion for rivals affecting competition between search engines on mobiles,” the regulators wrote in the report.

Apple and Google did not immediately return requests for comment.

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi earlier this year estimated that Apple generates about $9 billion per year globally from licensing arrangements, revenue with gross margins above 90% and with about 80% of the total coming from Google. Apple reports the revenue in its services segment, which investors are looking to for growth as consumers slow the pace of iPhone upgrades.

In the report, the U.K. regulators said enforcement authorities should be given a range of options to address the Apple-Google arrangement, including requiring “choice screens” in which users decide which search engine to set as a default during device setup or restricting Apple’s ability to monetize default positions.

Apple told the regulators that monetization restrictions would be “very costly,” according to the report.

 

Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco

David

Gold price today – Yellow metal rangebound; next target seen around Rs 49,000/10 gm

Experts are of the view that the trend in global and silver is likely to remain on the upside amid rising fears of COVID-19 related cases, and global recession.

India Gold August Futures trade in a range on July 1 after hitting record high in the previous session tracking positive trend in the international spot prices as a spike in COVID-19 infections in the United States push investors towards the safety of bullion.

Spot gold edged higher towards at $1,782.21 per ounce, after hitting its highest since early October 2012 at $1,785.46 in the previous session, said a Reuters report.

Experts are of the view that the trend in global gold and silver is likely to remain on the upside amid rising fears of COVID-19 related cases, and global recession. The yellow metal could face some resistance around 49050-49,230 levels.

On the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX), August gold contracts were trading higher by 0.04 percent at Rs 48,781 per 10 gram at 09:20 hours. July futures for silver were trading 0.35 percent higher at Rs 49,824 per kg.

Gold and silver prices gained on Tuesday amid rising coronavirus cases and worries on global growth. Gold prices gained around 1 percent and crossed $1800 per troy ounce at Comex division first-time in the last 8 years. Silver prices also gained around 2.50 percent and settled at $18.64 per troy ounce.

At MCX, gold prices reached to record highs of 48,825 and settled around 48,700 levels. Silver prices also crossed 50000 levels and settled around 50300 levels.

“U.S. Federal Reserve chairman is shows extraordinary uncertainty over economy due to pandemic. Viruses cases crossed 10 million in the world with death toll of 0.5 million. IMF already raised Red Flag on global growth with estimate of negative 4.9% growth in the year 2020,” Manoj Jain, Director (Head – Commodity & Currency Research) at Prithvi Finmart Pvt Ltd told Moneycontrol.

“Rising coronavirus cases, grimed outlook on global growth and geo-political tensions will continue to support safe haven buying in both the precious metals. Long term trend of both the precious metals remain bullish and every decline in the prices will be opportunity to buy,” he said.

Jain further added that Gold is having support at $1784 per troy ounce /INR 48330 on a closing basis, prices sustain above $1800 / INR 48700 could extend the gains towards $1814-1822/INR 48900-49050 levels.

 

Kshitij Anand

David

'Most violent' bull market is here: Gold looking at $5K, silver at $50 in just 3 years — Chancery Asset Management

The gold and silver bull market is in its early stages, and it is already looking to be one of the most volatile bull runs, according to Chancery Asset Management founder Thomas Puppendahl.

The COVID-19 outbreak was just “one snowflake that let the avalanche come down,” Puppendahl told Kitco News on the sidelines of the Mines and Money Online Connect virtual conference on Thursday.

The ingredients are all there for both gold and silver to begin an epic rise, and Puppendahl is not ruling out seeing gold at $5,000 an ounce and silver at $50 an ounce in just three years.

“We are still in the early stage of this next bull market, which is probably going to be the most violent and in percentage terms biggest bull market since it began in 1999-2000,” he said. “Medium term, I would expect $3,000-$5,000 gold in the next three years … Silver could go from $18 to $50 within the next three years.”

Another key prediction for the precious metals bulls is that silver will finally outperform gold, according to Puppendahl.

“Fundamentals are pretty much the same for gold and silver but silver moves in a much more volatile fashion. In a bull market, silver moves much more in percentage terms,” he said. “Ingredients are in place for silver to finally outperform gold.”

The reason why silver hasn’t done much up until now is because of the metal’s usual trading pattern at the beginning of a bull market, Puppendahl pointed out.

“In the early stages of the bull market, gold starts to move first and silver always lags behind but starts to move with certainty later. Once it moves, it really moves. We’ve seen it in 2010 when it went from $17 to $50 in the space on nine months,” he explained.

Longer term, Puppendahl is even more bullish on silver, expecting to eventually see triple digit prices for the precious metal. “It doesn’t take much to trigger a sharp move in silver because it is such a small market,” he said.

When it comes to gold, Puppendahl projects a vast acceleration in prices up to 2023, then some correction, and an ultimate climax around 2025.

“I’ve been bullish on gold for a long time. We are in the early stages of a third major bull market in this bigger cycle that will take gold to much higher levels,” he said. “It is not too much of a stretch to predict that gold will touch and maybe breach $1,900 this year or next year.”

So far, it has been a “stealth bull market,” said Puppendahl, meaning that it has gone largely unnoticed by the mainstream investors.

“The mainstream investors completely missed it so far because everyone looks at U.S. dollar gold price, which is still below its record high. But in every other currency gold is already at new highs,” he said.

But it is not too late to get in as Puppendahl sees prices heading much higher as inflation eventually picks up.

“Money printing has continued and accelerated. Gold needed a black swan event to launch the next bull market. Everything has come together now … We are seeing government going in hyper overdrive and printing even more money and central banks are calling on governments to implement fiscal stimulus because central baks are at the end of their tool box,” he said. “Government stimulus packages will finally trigger inflation in the real world. This is what triggered the gold bull run now. It is becoming clear that there will be real inflation in the real world.”

Money printing cannot go on forever and eventually something will need to change, Puppendahl added.

“Monetary system will need a reset to go back to something that is backed by some real asset like gold and silver,” he said. “The monetary system and money printing is way beyond the point where it could be repaired. That recent reset will involve higher gold price.”

Chancery Asset Management is based in Singapore. It is currently focused on developing its own gold assets in Brazil. The first is Faina Goldfields Inc. (“Faina”) located in the central Brazilian state of Goiás. The second project involves working with Valterra Resource Corp. to establish a presence in the Poconé-Cuiabá gold belt in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

 

By Anna Golubova

For Kitco News

David

After 'momentary correction' gold price is ready to attack $1,800 and higher – analysts

Gold is looking at another volatile week with an attempt at breaching the $1,800 an ounce level, according to analysts.

The yellow metal is wrapping up a very exciting trading week after seeing prices hit 7.5-year highs and climbing to $1,796.10 on Wednesday. After some consolidation, prices are back above $1,770 with August Comex futures last trading at $1,780.10, up 0.54% on the day.

The risk-off sentiment in the market has been helping gold maintain its bullish momentum, but higher U.S. dollar has been stealing some safe-haven attention from gold. “The U.S. dollar is making a comeback, which is affecting commodity prices,” said Gainesville Coins precious metals expert Everett Millman.

At the forefront of investors’ minds is the rising COVID-19 reinfection rate in the U.S. The number of new cases rose at least 39,818 on Thursday, which is the highest one-day increase in the U.S. to date.

Concerns around how this will impact the U.S. economic recovery has led to another major stock market selloff on Friday, dragging the Dow down 500 points after Texas Governor Greg Abbott rolled back some of the state’s reopening measures. “At this time, it is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars,” Abbott said in a release.

Risk-off sentiment is good for gold but a significant escalation in coronavirus cases could potentially hamper the gold rally because at the end of the day it all comes back to inflation expectations, TD Securities head of global strategy Bart Melek told Kitco News on Friday.

“What we are seeing is a counter-intuitive phenomenon happening. On Friday morning, gold dropped along with equity markets,” Melek said. “The yellow metal's third attempt to break out into the $1,800s was interrupted by renewed virus concerns, which have paused the rise in long-term inflation expectations that we have seen over the past few trading session.”

Also weighing on the financial markets is the Federal Reserve’s decision on Thursday to limit dividend payments and bar share repurchases until at least the fourth quarter following its annual stress test.

Presidential election vibes

The U.S. presidential election is the headlines more and more with the latest poll data starting to make an impact.

“Right now, we are getting close to the presidential election season. For the first time, I am starting to see movement in the markets in reaction to where the polls are. That could shake up the gold market a bit if people think there is going to be a change in office,” Millman said.

The latest data is showing Joe Biden polling ahead of incumbent President Donald Trump in the race to win November's Presidential election, said Capital Economics chief U.S. economist Paul Ashworth.

“Trump's approval ratings have taken a hit from his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic –including the recent surge in infections in the south and west of the country – and the wave of protests in response to the death of George Floyd,” Ashworth wrote on Friday.

But it is too early to read too much into Biden’s lead in the polls, he added. “The equity market could worry that a Biden victory, coupled with the Democrats winning control of the Senate, would lead to a significant rebound in corporate taxes. But even if the Democrats do win a majority, they will fall well short of a filibuster-proof super-majority in the Senate, which would make it much harder to push through big tax changes,” he noted.

Gold price direction as Q2 is wraps up

Aside from all the drivers on the surface, there is a lot happening behind the scenes due to the month of June ending and the second quarter wrapping up, said Afshin Nabavi, senior vice president at precious metals trader MKS SA.

“It is a difficult market. A lot of financial end-of-quarter, end-of-month squaring off is in order,” Nabavi said.

After testing new multi-year highs, gold always consolidates, which is a great time to buy the precious metal before it heads even higher, Nabavi said.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we continued this move on the downside momentarily. These are all opportunity to buy for cheap,” he noted. “There is a lot of pressure around the economic recovery in the U.S. … which points to a higher price for gold going forward. The $1,770 held to the upside. Next resistance is going to be $1,780 and eventually $1,800.”

Gold has bounced off the resistance and has gone back to the technical support level of $1,764 and will now consolidate around $1,800 and try to break through, said Melek.

“Much will depend on where the economy seems to be going,” he said. “The big concern for gold is that real interest rates may not go down because inflation may be slow to recover because we are getting re-infections in the U.S.”

A lot of the price moves next week will be determined by the macroeconomic numbers, added Melek. “Good news is going to be good for gold as well,” he said.

Data to watch

Despite being a short week in the U.S. with markets closed on Friday to celebrate the Independence day, there are a number of important data sets to watch.

The biggest market moving day is likely to be Thursday with the U.S. employment report for June and factory orders for May both being released.

“The obvious focus will be the jobs report, which will be published on Thursday due to 3 July being a national holiday. With all states now experiencing some form of reopening, we should see another sizeable pick-up in employment, as workers return to their jobs. We look for payrolls to rise by around 3.5 million, but we have to remember that millions more remain out of work, with Google Mobility data suggesting in many states, especially in populous ones like New York, New Jersey and California, consumer and business activity remains far from normal,” ING economists wrote on Friday.

Wednesday will see the FOMC meeting minutes from June, ADP nonfarm employment change for June, and the ISM manufacturing PMI for June.

“The minutes are likely to confirm the Fed’s accommodative policy. Don’t think we rally on anything here. Powell has already been as bullish as can be. It will be important to watch any nuanced view that the Fed may not be as aggressive as the markets are pricing in,” Melek said.

Other key releases to keep an eye on include May’s U.S. pending home sales scheduled for Monday and June’s CB consumer confidence to be released on Tuesday.

 

By Anna Golubova

David

The reasons behind all the Chinese M&A

Rapidly depleting resources and permission to build businesses at scale are some of the reasons Chinese miners are making so many acquisitions, said Scott Trebilcock, CEO of KORE Mining.

Tebilcock joined Kitco's Michael McCrae and Mining Journals' Paul Harris on Friday for a discussion of major mining news of the week.

In a research piece from last week Haywood noted that there have been four acquisitions backed by Chinese entities this year, and three within the last three months. Deal highlights are Zijin coming out on top to acquire Guyana Goldfields at $323 million. There is also Shandong attempting to buy TMAC for $230 million.

Trebilcock said Chinese miners are being driven to look for ounces outside China.

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"Many of the known deposits are being depleted," said Trebilcock.

"And then finally, we've seen reforms in the last five years in China that have allowed the larger companies to list their shares internationally and get out from under the centralized control. That's freed up this well-capitalized large group of companies driven by shareholder interest for growth."

 

By Michael McCrae
For Kitco News

 

David