·        Weekly Markets

·        Precious Metals - Strong Physical Demand in Asia. Historical Gold Prices

·        Oil - Yuan revaluation to boost demand in Asia

·        Commodities - Yuan revaluation to boost demand

·        Currencies - Chinese revalue yuan

·        Bonds - Interest rates heading higher

·        Stocks - Historical DOW/GOLD Chart

·        Property - House Prices/ Average Earnings

Weekly Commentary

Bogus Government Figures

The Debt Debate –

Fintan O'Toole V's Dan McLaughlin

Opinions
Robert Rubin, Brendan Keenan, Cliff Taylor

David Smith, Gary Duncan, Bill Bonner, Stephen Roach, Charles MacKay, George Soros

Performance ( % Change)

Peter Bernstein, the best selling author of 'Against the Gods - The Remarkable Story of Risk' and publisher of the highly regarded institutional newsletter, Economics and Portfolio Strategy is worried about world economic conditions and believes that a little hedging is in order. Bernstein says "I never thought I'd recommend a position in gold." He recommends putting some money in gold to insure against hyperinflation and deflation.

Weekly Markets

Precious metals were up for the week.

Oil was up and commodities were mixed but largely down.

Stock markets were up for the week.

Bond markets sold off with a consequent rise in yields.

Precious Metals

Gold was higher by $3.90 or some 0.9% for the week; from $420.50 to $424.40.

Gold in EUR terms was up more than 1% closing at EUR352.11; back above the psychologically important EUR350 mark.

Silver was higher by $0.09 or some 1.5% for the week; from $6.94 to $7.05

Platinum settled at $889 from $865. It was up some 2.8% for the week.

Reuters reported on continuing strong physical demand from Asia: "Premiums for gold bars rose to 30 to 50 U.S. cents an ounce to the London spot price in Hong Kong, compared with zero to 20 U.S. cents last week, helped by buying interest from mainland China, Japan and South Korea. "There's high demand, and also there's not much physical supply around," said Ellison Chu, senior manager at Standard Bank London in Hong Kong, a key bullion trading city in East Asia. Premiums for gold bars were steady between 50 to 70 U.S. cents an ounce in Singapore, which is Southeast Asia's biggest bullion trading centre."

The Economic Times of India reported on the continuing massive demand for gold bullion in India. The article was entitled It's official: Indian's simply love Gold: "India's share of global gold demand is about one and a half times that of the US, though its GDP is only 1/20th that of the US. "With its high rate of gold consumption, India accounts for 18% of the annual global gold demand, while its share of global GDP on nominal dollar GDP is only 1.6%."

As per World Gold Council (WGC) estimates, Indian households own about 15,000 tonnes of gold, accounting for about 10% of the world-wide stock. At current market values, gold accounts for 10-15% of the Indian household balance sheet. After rising by 63% in '04, India's gold consumption (excluding gold used for jewellery exports) rose by 57% in FY05. In fact, during the quarter ended March '05, gold consumption shot up 88%. Cumulatively, India now holds gold stock of about $200bn (29% of GDP), according to estimates.

The Gartman Newsletter remains bullish in gold particularly in terms of the Euro: "EUR350 had been strong resistance for several years, and when that resistance was broken, Gold/EUR rushed to 367 amidst near panic enthusiasm. Now it has corrected, back to the break-out point. Our enthusiasm for the trade is thus greater than ever."

Gold Rises in N.Y. as Greenspan Says Market `Excesses' Possible - Bloomberg
China Should Become the Largest Consumer of Gold in the World - Red Nova
Precious metals firm in Asia after yuan move - Reuters
More Mayhem for London Marks Gains for Gold - Resource Investor
Russian gold production down - Business News India
Glistening gold prices tipped for gains into 2006 - Reuters
Expected New SEC Boss is Long Gold - Resource Investor
Gold Rush 21 Is Sold Out: Gata Hits Pay Dirt - Business Wire
China - World's 4th Consumer of Gold - Australasian Investment Review
The future's bright, the future's silver - The Independent
Trading Gold Volatility - Hamilton, Safe Haven
The Gold/Silver Ratio & the Case for Silver - Sanders, Gold Eagle
Grandich on gold, silver, platinum, palladium, base metals and oil - Resource Investor
Gartman says Gold in Euro is back in vogue - Australasian Investment Review
GOLDEN moment - China Daily

In order to read the complete newsletter please click here or for previous editions of the newsletter click here.

Gold Investments were featured in the July/August edition of The Investor Magazine in an article entitled 'A Golden Opportunity'.

We were also featured in the July Edition of the 'Irish Broker', the official journal of the Irish Brokers Association, in an article entitled 'The Case for having an allocation to Gold Bullion in an Investment Portfolio.'

By : Mark O’Byrne

Gold.ie

Gold Investments will provide further information or contact details on any of the options listed above to interested parties. Questions and comments are welcome to mark.obyrne@gold.ie . Gold Investments do not endorse any of the offshore bullion storage options listed (except for the PMCP and VIA MAT) and investors should do their own due diligence on all providers. 

Mark O'Byrne is the Managing Director of Gold and Silver Investments Limited, Ireland's Asset Diversification and Wealth Preservation Specialist ( www.gold.ie ). He is regularly quoted and writes in the financial media and was awarded Ireland’s prestigious Money Mate and Investor Magazine Financial Analyst of 2006.