In Case You Missed It.

In Case You Missed it Week Ended September 26 2015.

Stories from the week ended September 26, 2015.

The week began with the markets digesting the Federal Reserve’s FOMC meeting decision last Thursday not to raise interest rates. The Fed decided due to “global uncertainty”, not to raise rates. During the past week, however, a few Fed Presidents made the rounds taking a more hawkish tone and indicating that they favored raising rates at the last meeting and are still looking to do so this year.

Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen added to the rate hike chorus on Thursday evening during a speech where she personally endorsed a rate hike as approriate this year, then promptly fell sick.

The results of the Smaulgld rate hike poll to date:

Will The Fed Raise Interest Rates? If So When

Yes, in October – 1.82%
Yes, In December – 10.91%
Yes, sometime in 2016 – 5.45%
Maybe sometime this decade – 30.91%
Are you kidding me?, Never 47.27%
Other – 3.6%

You can vote in the poll (top right hand side of Smaulgld.com) up until the October Fed meeting. After that meeting, we will reset the poll.

Here are the stories we followed, covered or commented on during the week ended September 26, 2015.

September 25, 2015

A “recovering” Janet Yellen spoke citing dehydration, not the prospects of rate hikes, was the cause of her illness the night before.

Yellen Says She Feels Fine, Remarks ‘I Look Good Now, Don’t I?’

House Speaker John Boehner Announces His Resignation

GOP Lawmakers: House Speaker John Boehner to Resign

U.S. GDP in the Second Quarter Reported as “Robust”

US final Q2 gross domestic product 3.9% vs 3.7% expected

From Smaulgld.com

We reported on the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) and Hong Kong Kilo bar withdrawals for the prior reported weeks. The volume continues to remain high on the SGE and significantly ahead of last year and 2013’s record volume.

Shanghai Gold Exchange Withdrawals – Week Ended September 18, 2015

September 24, 2015

The U.S. Mint had a small sales report today:

US Mint sold 500 American God Eagles today/no American Silver Eagles MTD sales 89,000 Gold Eagles; 2,804,500 Silver Eagles

The only stand out in the report was the continued surge in the sales of one tenth ounce American Gold Eagle coins. We updated the one tenth ounce American Gold Eagle charts here and reported the same on twitter:

1/10 ounce American Gold Eagle coin sales surge

Janet Yellen Speaks About Rate Hikes Being Appropriate Later This Year, Falls Ill

Yellen gives hour long speech, says rate hike appropriate in 2015, stammers, coughs, seeks medical attention after the speech, secret service says she is fine

Video of Ms. Yellen’s Speech

Pretense for her resignation?

There were some qualified positive mentions in the mainstream media re gold:

Fear is back! Gold glitters as stocks tank

Believe it or not, gold miners are starting to glitter

China’s Selling Hundreds of Billions of U.S. Treasuries – But Not to Worry – It’s Not a National Security Risk

We found this story curious. Who, other than those in the alternative media, ever said heavy selling of U.S. Treasury Bonds or decreased demand for U.S. Treasuries was a national security risk?

We found this story curious because of where it was reported (CNN) and the source – former “disgraced” U.S. General David Petraeus who claimed China dumping U.S. Bonds was not a national security risk.

The Official Denial: Petraeus: Don’t freak out over China dumping U.S. debt

The “Solid” U.S. Economy wasn’t on display with August’s durable goods report that showed a decrease of 2%.

Durable Goods Orders in U.S. Decreased 2% in August

US weekly jobless claims total 267,000 vs 271,000 estimate consistent with SOLID job growth!

From Smaulgld.com

We added information about the new Perth Mint Silver Kangaroo bullion coin to our series of government silver coin bullion offerings that include information and purchase information regarding American Silver Eagle coins , Austrian Silver Philharmonic coins, Mexican Silver Libertad coins,British Silver Britannia coins , Canadian Silver Maple Leaf coins or Chinese Silver Panda coins.

On these pages you can learn about these coins and compare prices and shipping charges from a variety of trusted bullion dealers.

Perth Mint Silver Kangaroo Coins For Sale

September 23, 2015

ECB President Mario Draghi weighed in on the European economy and its monetary policy:

Draghi Says Time Needed to Judge If More Stimulus Necessary

More chatter/blather by another Fed President:

Fed’s Lockhart says policymakers ‘burned’ by crisis now cautious

Gold Up on Haven Demand, Platinum Pressured By Volkswagen Scandal

India and Gold

Gold imports and buying continue unbated in India:

Gold Buying in India Seen Rising 15% as Festivals Aid Demand

From Smaulgld.com

We reported on the Indian’s government plan to get its citizens to turn over its gold in exchange of interest paying bonds.

India’s Plan to Monetize its Citizens Gold

September 22, 2015

The U.S. Mint released its first sales figures of the week that reflected Amerian Silver Eagle sales on even further reduced allocations to its Authorized Purchasers.

US Mint sold 12K American God Eagles today and 750K American Silver Eagles MTD sales 88,500 Gold Eagles; 2,804,500 Silver Eagles

Update 9/22/2015: Sales of 1/10 ounce American Gold Eagle Coins continue to surge (CHARTS)

Platinum Sags to Six-Year Low as China Woes Spurs Metals Selloff

September 21, 2015

Gold Silver and The Fed

More gold and silver bashing today by the mainstream media and rate hike chatter by another Fed President:

Today’s CNBC Gold Bash Gold’s Going Back to its Lows

Fed’s Lockhart Favors Interest-Rate Liftoff Later This Year

Demand High Price Low for Silver

Gold struggles for direction, but hangs onto last week’s gain- UBS suggests it’s ‘time to warm up’ to the yellow metal

Dollar Climbs Shrugs off “Dovish” Fed

September 20, 2015

Warren Buffet, a known crony capitalist, beneficiary of the bailouts of the financial crisis of 2008/09 and gold basher weighed in again on gold:

Warren Buffet’s STERN WARNING on gold and silver

Fed Presidents Speak re their No Rate Hike Decision:

San Francisco John Williams, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker Make Case for 2015 Liftoff After September Hold

James Bullard: I was for more QE and a rate hike!?

St. Louis Fed’s Bullard says argued for rate hike at meeting

September 19, 2015

Gold’s Reaction to the Fed No Rate Hike Decision

While gold responded positively to yet another delay by the Federal Reserve in hiking rates, the usual media bashing resumed:

Gold gets “saved” by no rate hike

CNBC: Gold Rally Set to Fizzle : EXPERT

The Wall Street Journal was less harsh:

Gold’s Safe-Haven Appeal Gets a Polish After Fed Comments

The Fed trotted out a regional President for some more color on their decision not to raise rates

Fed’s Lacker says economy strong enough for higher rates

Treasury Bond Market Manipulated? Perhaps – But Never the Gold or Silver Markets

A Bloomberg writer entertains the possibility that banks manipulated Treasury Bonds. Manipulation of Gold or Silver however, is never considered a possibility:

Bloomberg: Maybe Banks Manipulated Treasury Bonds, they rigged Libor foreign exchange fixes

From Smaulgld.com

We reported on the Great Silver Shortage of 2015:

In this piece we struggle to explain why the price of silver is not rising in light of the tightness in physical silver supply.

Is there a Silver Shortage?