Thin Holiday Market & Gold Thefts In Ukraine
With thin trading, the gold price continues to experience weakness, offering a great time to buy. Unless you’re buying fake gold, like what happened to the Ukraine central bank…
Gold fell over 1 percent and silver fell 3 percent on Monday. The market is thin pre-holiday dealing which can lead to declining prices. Oil prices moved once more towards $55 per barrel.
The spot price of gold fell overall 1.3% of $1,180.05 an ounce. It lost about 2 percent last week on a strong dollar and expectations or rising US interest rates.
Oil prices also moved down on Monday, despite that the dollar was flat against a basket of currencies, as the euro strengthened.
China led some early morning buying but quickly that was erased in terms of price gains.
“I remain very bearish for 2015 … If you have a sentiment of positive risk appetite and at the same time for a higher dollar and higher interest rates, gold will not be able to move higher,” ABN Amro analyst Georgette Boele said.
Big news, though, has indeed hit the wires in terms of gold.
The Ukraine Central Bank was conned in Odessa. The Bank bought $300,000 worth of gold which turned out to be lead daubed with gold paint.
“A criminal case has been opened and we are now carrying out an investigation to identify those involved in the crime,” Odessa police force is quoted as having said.
It is expected someone was working for the gang from within the bank and forged the paperwork needed to go through with the transaction. Security measures also left something to be desired.
The National Bank has ceased buying precious metals over the counter, according to the First Deputy Head of the National Bank of Ukraine.
The cashier involved in the transaction apparently fled to Crimea.