The short-term path of gold is still unclear says David Galland. But its a good sign that demand for physical gold soars when prices tip towards $750 an ounce. And this threshold is likely to creep upwards as the US dollar loses its worth, and foreign governments convert currency reserves for the precious metal.

This from Money Morning:

Of late, I have read a number of analysts, Jim Rogers even, who have expressed the view that gold could dip to the mid- to low $600 level.

It could happen, but I think not. Already, buyers of physical gold are finding anything near $700 to be cheap and are helping to build a floor under the monetary metal. On that topic, a friend sent this item along recently:

(Gulf News, Nov. 12) Riyadh: There has been an unprecedented demand for gold in the Saudi market recently, with over 13 billion Saudi riyals ($3.47

...

While China may blame the rest of the world for its dramatic decline in exports, Beijing has no one else to blame but itself for the steep drop in dairy exports.

An article in today’s China Daily reported that the country’s dairy exports “have ground to a halt” in the wake of the tainted-milk scandal.

The latest numbers from China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed that only 1,036 tons of dairy products were exported in October 2008, down 92% year-on-year. From January to September, the monthly average export of dairy products was 12,000 tons.

Once again, China is looking to the U.S. to rescue another of its exports. With the US-China Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) on economic, trade and food safety issues slated to begin on Thursday, China is hoping it would pave the way for the Federal Drug Administration to accept the results of a Chinese agency that tests food safety.

If

...

By David Galland Editor, The Casey Report Of late, I have read a number of analysts, Jim Rogers even, who have expressed the view that gold could dip to the mid- to low $600 level. It could happen, but I think not. Already, buyers of physical gold are finding anything near $700 to be cheap and are helping to build a floor under the monetary metal. On that topic, a friend sent this item along recently: (Gulf News, Nov. 12) Riyadh: There has been an unprecedented demand for gold in the Saudi market recently, with over 13 billion Saudi riyals ($3.47 billion) being spent on the yellow metal during the prior two weeks. Demand is expected to rise still higher as more investors turn to gold as a safe haven in the midst of the global financial crisis, according to market sources. Sami Al Mohna, an ...

Is an RMB (yuan) depreciation in the offing?  Michael Pettis, a professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, where he specializes in Chinese financial markets, noted Monday that President Hu Jintao’s speech at this past weekend’s Politburo meeting leaves some wondering. According to today’s People’s Daily, besides warning “that the global financial turmoil will make it harder for China to maintain the pace of its economic development in the near future”, [Hu] said, in a widely noted comment, that “with the spread of the global financial crisis, China is losing its competitive edge in the world market as international demand is reduced.” What exactly does this mean? It is worth noting that this has come in the context of recent RMB weakness. According to a Bloomberg piece today, “China’s yuan fell by the most in seven weeks, three days ...

Homemart, a building supplies retail chain owned by Bailian Group, has suspended the operation of its two Beijing outlets, Xisanqi store and Sijiqing Bridge store. When asked why operations had been suspended a representative of the company denied that it was due to operating loss. The spokesperson said the two stores were merely closed for business [...]

The Japan-based TV maker Sharp has signed a CNY1 billion LCD TV supply and marketing contract with Chinese Electrical Appliance retailer Gome at the retailer's headquarters in Beijing. Liu Wei, vice general manager of Sharp, said Sharp would continue to supply Gome. He said that Sharp's LCD TV sets were the biggest seller in the Chinese [...]

The base metals were mostly mired in negative territory on Friday. Copper fell from the pre-dawn hours to mid-morning, then rallied back, finishing at $1.6414/lb., up a half-cent from Tuesday.

Nickel declined until nearly mid-morning, then rose, but not enough to take it back to break-even as it closed at $4.449/lb., down 9 cents. Zinc mirrored nickel’s performance, also ending down in the red at $0.5337/lb., down 2 2/3 cents. Aluminum had another weak day, giving up just over 2 cents to $0.7725/lb., while lead, despite a strong rally late, dropped 3½ cents, to $0.4946/lb.

Copper was little changed, but wound up November down 9.8% for the month. It was the fifth straight month of declines for the metal, marking the longest such streak since early 1999.

“Markets are under pressure on account of the bearish macro backdrop, which is directly manifesting itself through rising LME stock levels,” said Edward

...

Chinese electric appliances retailer Gome has published a notice stating the company has appointed its president Chen Xiao as acting chairman. Gome says it received a formal notice from the Beijing police on November 27, 2008 that confirms Gome's chairman Huang Guangyu is under investigation for economic crimes. In addition, according to information from Gome, its [...]

The weight of the global economy rests on the American consumer, says J. Christoph Amberger. That’s who all these government bailouts are trying to reach. And unless shoppers throw caution to the wind this Christmas, we could be in for a rough ride.

This from Today’s Financial News:

The U.S. dollar dropped against the euro as the Commerce Department reduced Q3 GDP growth to -0.5% and the Fed announced that it was getting ready to throw another $800 billion into the fiery furnace of this fine financial mess.

Why did the greenback drop? I think it is more of a reflexive move. Investors still think in bi-polar terms: If things look bad for the States, the grass must be greener in Europe.

Of course, it isn’t. It never was.

If anything, Europe is worse off than the United States. The EU economy has turned recessive a full quarter before the U.S. economy. While

...

While China made headlines with a historic interest rate cut this week, the World Bank weighed in with a gloomy prediction about China that received scant coverage. For emerging-market investors who missed the story, the World Bank’s assessment of China’s economic performance in 2009 could reshape their strategy for portfolio allocation.

That said, China’s economy is still on track to post impressive growth during a global financial crisis. Unfortunately, this growth won’t meet initial forecasts.

In its latest quarterly report, the World Bank revised China’s growth downward to 7.5% from an earlier projection of 9.2%. The change reflects the World Bank’s view that Beijing isn’t doing enough to shift the country’s reliance away from waning exports to more robust domestic growth.

The Chinese economy grew by 11.9% 2007, in what appears to be the peak in double-digit expansion since 2002. Now facing single-digit prospects in 2009, China’s slower-than-expected advance call into question the

...