Tag: COMEX

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Basel III and Its Impact on Bullion Pricing

There has been much commentary recently in the precious metals arena about Basel III bank regulations proposed by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS”) that are now in the process of being implemented and their potential impact on the price of gold and silver.

The Bank of International Settlements is a supranational organization based in Basel, Switzerland whose mission is to support central banks’ objective of monetary and financial stability through international cooperation.  It provides a forum for dialogue and cooperation to develop a common understanding and plans for common actions.  The BIS has proposed Basel III rules as a set of voluntary international financial standards agreed upon by BIS members in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

The Basel III regulations make a distinction between allocated and unallocated bullion accounts.  Allocated bullion accounts represent title and ownership of specific bars, with the dealer acting as custodian on the client’s behalf.  Similar to the contents of deposit boxes, allocated bullion deposits do not appear on a bank’s balance sheet.

Most bullion in London is traded and settled on an unallocated basis, where the customer does not own specific bars but has a paper claim to an amount of metal.  Thus, such contracts are often referred to as “paper gold.”  Unallocated gold obligations appear as a liability on a bank’s balance sheet.  The origin of all unallocated gold accounts is not the depositing of gold, but credit creation by banks.

Basel III regulations will classify banks’ actual physical gold holdings (allocated and held in their own vault) as safe, tier 1 assets along with cash.  Unallocated gold contracts will be classified as tier 3 assets against which greater reserves are required.  The new requirements became effective on June 28 for European banks.  US banks are required to comply effective July 1 and UK banks will begin compliance on January 1, 2022.  UK banks dominate bullion trading at the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), so much of the impact may be delayed until later this year and early 2022.

The unallocated gold market in London is huge in comparison to the physical gold that is traded.  Approximately 600 metric tonnes of gold derivatives (unallocated gold) are traded daily between LBMA members.  This does not include trading between members and non-members or intraday turnover.

Alisdair Macleod, Head of Research at Goldmoney, and others believe that the introduction of Basel III regulations will have a significant impact on bullion trading by large banks and consequently the price of gold and silver.  Macleod writes:

The LBMA’s problem with Basel III becomes obvious. Unallocated gold liabilities cannot be used for funding the bank’s assets, and unallocated gold assets take a valuation haircut of 15% of market value as well. In the future, the former cannot be simply offset against the latter, but bullion banks in London naturally run unallocated positions on both sides of their balance sheets. Whether the bank owns vaulted allocated gold to offset some of the price risk is immaterial. If this Basel 3 proposal goes through without modification, it will effectively be the end of the LBMA’s forward settlement business, and the end of arbitrage and hedging between LBMA members and the CME’s Comex futures contracts.

Macleod argues that Comex futures for gold and silver will also be impacted.

The Swaps category on Comex (the bullion bank trading desks) is currently net short of about $24bn in the GC gold futures contract and $1.6bn in silver futures. Pressure to pare back ownership of these positions to a few genuine market makers and American bank trading desks is bound to increase, because the short positions held by European bullion banks would have to be covered…  And in London, all LBMA banking members will similarly reduce their unallocated activities because unbalanced books would be heavily penalized by the rule changes when they come in for the UK as well. That would make Comex gold and silver contracts entirely dependent on producer hedging.

Price manipulation in the gold and silver market has been frequent and obvious in the past as banks were able to create more precious metals derivatives out of nowhere.  That will be more difficult in the future as the role of derivatives declines and there is a greater reliance on physical gold and silver.

The likely result of the Basel III regulations is:

  • A reduction in open contracts at the LBMA and Comex for gold and silver bullion.
  • For those investors who want to retain price exposure to gold and silver, a shift from unallocated bullion contracts to physical bullion in a vault.
  • Higher prices for physical gold and silver bullion.

I wish all of you a Happy July 4th weekend.  If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.

Robert G. Kahl
CFA, CPA, MBA

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Bonds, the Dollar, and Leverage – 4/6/2021

In the title of his latest commentary, Ray Dalio, Founder of Bridgewater Associates, asks “Why in the World Would You Own Dollar Debt?”  He argues that the current dynamic is “typical of the late stage of the long-term debt cycle.”

The world is a) substantially overweighted in bonds (and other financial assets, especially US bonds) at the same time that b) governments (especially the US) are producing enormous amounts more debt and bonds and other debt assets. This is particularly true for US bonds. US bond holdings are over a third of global bond holdings held by central banks, sovereign wealth funds, and international investors with the next largest country/currency bond being euro bonds at only roughly 60% of US bond holdings.  Their overweighted position in US bonds is largely because of the “exorbitant privilege” the US has had being the world’s leading reserve currency, which has allowed the US to overborrow for decades.  The cycle of becoming a reserve currency, overborrowing, and being overindebted threatening the reserve currency status is classic.

Some international investors are shifting a portion of their fixed income allocation from US$ bonds to Chinese bonds, which now account for about 6% of global portfolios.  Given the low interest rates in many countries, investors have also been willing to invest more in common stocks and precious metals.  However, bonds still have a place in portfolios for now, given valuation levels in the stock market that have already priced in a strong recovery.

The recent disclosure of some large bank losses due to business with Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital raises some questions about derivatives and capital markets.  A record level of margin debt has contributed to higher prices in the stock market, but derivatives have added another source of leverage for speculators.

Bloomberg estimates that derivative contracts with Archegos caused the forced liquidation of more than $20 billion in holdings.  Much of the leverage used by Archegos was provided by Nomura Holdings Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG via equity swaps and a type of derivative contract called contracts for difference.  Archegos may never actually have owned most of the underlying securities, preferring to bet on the highly levered derivatives contracts instead.  Among the stocks impacted by the forced liquidations was ViacomCBS which has dropped nearly 60% since March 22.  The prime brokerage losses have not been fully disclosed yet, but Credit Suisse has reported a loss of $4.7 billion so far due to their business relationship with Archegos.  Total losses for all banks are likely to exceed $10 billion.

Some of the large banks also have exposure in the precious metals markets with large short positions in silver, platinum, and gold.  Futures contracts for these three metals have a higher level of contractual open interest relative to global production than other commodities.  The short positions are highly concentrated among among eight large bank trading groups.  For example, the eight largest traders are net short silver an amount that would require 180 days of global mine production.  They are also net short platinum by 117 days and gold by 86 days of global mine production.

Investment demand for bullion and coins has picked up considerably from prior years.  Sprott Asset Management compared the total demand for coins and bars at three government mints: the US Mint, Perth (Australia) Mint, and Royal Canadian Mint.  For 2020, sales of gold coins and bars at the three mints was 157% higher than 2019, while the sale of silver coins and bars was 54% higher.  Gold and silver bullion ETFs have increased their inventories of bars.  Buyers of COMEX contracts are also requiring delivery of physical metal at higher levels than they did in past years.  Given government and central bank policies around the world, investment demand for precious metals is likely to continue or rise from current levels.  Higher prices should follow.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.

Robert G. Kahl
CFA, CPA, MBA

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Financial Markets Commentary – July 4, 2020

Time to Re-open the Economy?

As the economy began to re-open, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) began to report an increase in COVID-19 cases.  In response, state and local governments began to shut down or restrict business and social activities again.

According to the CDC, one month ago, the number of daily new cases for COVID-19 was in the 15,000 to 25,000 range.  During the last week, the number of daily new cases was in the 35,000 to 55,000 range.  However, the number of weekly total deaths from all causes in the US has fallen by over 20,000 from its peak that occurred during the week ending April 11.  The dichotomy is most likely due to the increase in testing and the nature of testing for COVID-19.  Since testing has increased, more people are receiving results that indicate they have/had the virus.

There are now more than 30 different test kit providers for COVID-19.  There are two basic types of tests.  Some tests are designed to test for antigens – a specific virus, bacteria or other foreign substance that results in an immune response.  Antigen tests indicate a current infection.  Serology (or antibody) tests are designed to detect antibodies in blood serum which are proteins that can fight off infections.  Serology tests indicate that there has been an immune response in the past but the virus itself may be absent.  Some doctors have been critical of the CDC testing data that conflates the two types of tests and treats them equally.

The CDC is currently conducting surveillance of US serology testing by commercial laboratories.  The surveillance should allow the CDC to develop a better understanding of 1) how much of the US population has been infected with COVID-19; 2) how it has been changing over time; and 3) how many people experienced mild illness or were asymptomatic.  At the present time, the CDC is unable to predict to what extent the presence of antibodies will provide immunity to prevent future illness from the virus.

Given the increased testing and nature of the serology tests, the potential for illness is not as scary as some of the media reports would indicate.  However, the policy response of various government entities has been to assume the worst interpretation of the data.

 

Investors Are Fed Dependent

While the global economy is struggling to recover from the impact of COVID-19 and recent social strife, the financial markets have reacted to the negative developments with aplomb.  Corporations will start reporting financial results for the second calendar quarter soon and there will likely be some negative surprises.

On Thursday, Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, had an interview with Bloomberg.  While his comments reflect the thinking of many professional investors, Dalio speaks his mind a little more freely than most.  Some of his comments:

  • “The capital markets are not free markets allocating resources in the traditional ways.”
  • “The economy and the markets are driven by the central banks in coordination with the central government.”
  • Unlike the 2008 financial crisis, now “the whole economy is systemically important. If they don’t go out and lend to companies… we would lose large parts of the economy.”
  • Regarding stock market valuation levels: “Multiples shouldn’t be used in the traditional way of a frame of reference.”
  • “You are going to see central banks’ balance sheets explode.”
  • If a compelling alternative to the dollar emerges, “it would be probably the biggest disruptor not only to the markets but to the whole world geopolitical system.”

Nick Panigirtzoglou is an analyst at JP Morgan who writes their “Flows and Liquidity Report.”  He estimates that the US Treasury will have net issuance of $4.1 trillion in new debt this year and the Federal Reserve will purchase $2.5 trillion of this new debt.  That would leave $1.6 trillion of debt to be purchased by the public.  The problem is that the purchase of this much debt by the public would require higher interest rates as an inducement to sell other assets (like stocks or certificates of deposit) to use them as a source of funds for the purchases.

Panigirtzoglou believes that the financial markets are already signaling the need for further monetary and/or fiscal policy stimulus.  The writers at ZeroHedge opined: “Unless the Fed wants another market meltdown on its hands, it better pre-emptively stimulate and do so to the tune of trillions.”  Indeed, that appears to be the path of least resistance for the Fed.

 

Precious Metals Update

COVID-19 has had an impact on mine production worldwide.  The two countries with the largest silver mine production in the world are Mexico and Peru.  Due to COVID-19 related mine closures, their combined production declined from 822 metric tons in February to 386 metric tons in April.  Information for gold mining production was unavailable.

Craig Hemke, analyst with Sprott Inc., has written about the increased physical demand on the COMEX for both gold and silver.  In the past, most COMEX contracts were closed prior to the contract’s expiration and there was no physical delivery of metal.  In past years, an average delivery month for COMEX gold had 6,000 – 10,000 contracts (100 ounces each) that resulted in delivery of physical gold.  In June 2020, there were 55,102 contracts (equal to 5,510,200 ounces or about 171 metric tonnes) that required delivery.  Hemke writes, “the physical delivery crisis continues unabated and it appears that COMEX will be under delivery distress for the foreseeable future.”

According to Hemke, the story is very similar for COMEX silver.  In the past, a typical delivery month had about 3,000 – 4,000 contracts (5,000 ounces per contract) that required delivery.  May and June 2020 had 9,044 and 16,834 contracts, respectively, that required delivery.  The amount of deliveries for the July contract on the first day of the month was 11,458, so there will likely be a new record amount requiring delivery for the month.  Hemke writes, “The weight of all this delivery demand may eventually lead to a force majeure-style failure, but that’s very likely not coming this month or next.”  He believes that the CME, LBMA, and bullion banks will work to protect the pricing scheme as long as they can.  Given the reduced mining supply and higher level of demand for physical delivery of gold and silver, I expect higher prices during the remainder of the year.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.  Happy 4th of July!

Robert G. Kahl
CFA, CPA, MBA