Yellow Gold Stirs While Digital Gold Stays Quiescent – Week In Review

Bitcoin traded flat this week while everything else went up. Gold posted its best week since January, gold miners went vertical with GDX up 21.3% for its best week since 2008, and the S&P 500 broke out to a new all-time high on a 3.6% weekly gain, its best since April. Cooling July CPI did most of the work, easing fears the Warsh Fed might hike in September.

The gold bugs are getting giddy again, so it is worth dwelling on the yellow rock. Just on price, Milton Berg, who sold the gold top back in January, is still convinced that we are in a long-term bear market in gold.

Michael Kao argues the chart everyone posts, the one implying central banks are structurally rotating out of Treasuries into gold, is mostly just the gold price rising. Michael Nicoletos explicitly addresses China’s gold rush away from America:

“The uncomfortable truth is that China’s gold-buying frenzy isn’t a vote of no confidence in America. It’s a desperate hedge against something far more alarming: the potential implosion of China’s own economic system.”

Martin Armstrong lands nearby, arguing China is preparing for a world where reserves can be frozen and payment systems weaponized, not a theatrical dollar collapse.
Luke Gromen thinks Scott Bessent must let gold rise a lot more, or push it there by buying to prevent bond yields from soaring. Senator Rand Paul confirmed that all approximately 147 million ounces really are sitting in Fort Knox. Many were suspicious of Mr. Paul’s claim, prompting Brent Johnson to wonder why Russia and China somehow are more trusted on their reserve numbers.