Les Jones

Barrick’s finishes paying out its gold hedges

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 | Blogging, E-commerce, Economics |

Ed Steers Gold and Silver Daily:

The big, and just about the only story in the gold world yesterday, was the news that the Darth Vader of gold companies, Barrick Gold, after 20 years of screwing its shareholders in particular… and the entire gold industry in general… has finally and at last [?] paid out the balance of its hedge book. To tell you the truth, you can never be sure if these guys are telling you the truth or not. I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them. If AngloGold Ashanti does the same thing in the next little while, the world’s gold hedge book will fall to only a few million ounces… which is basically nothing at all. Hedging is dead, dead, dead!!! Anyway, Barrick’s stock price was up a bunch yesterday, so the market certainly liked the news. Here’s the Reuters story about it headlined “Barrick closes hedge book early, stock soars”… and the link is here.

And now, dear reader, as I’ve mentioned before about Barrick and AngloGold Ashanti, the reason that they are both in such a hurry to close their hedge books is because the gold price is heading north… big time… and they already know that. JPMorgan is Barrick’s bullion bank… and JPMorgan [as the biggest gold and silver short on the planet] would know well in advance that the price management scheme is about to end and would certainly want Barrick out of harm’s way before it did.

There’s widespread belief in the goldbug community of gold price suppression, most notably by heavy shorting. Maybe so, maybe no, but the market is so bullish now that any attempts at suppression may be doomed to failure, potentially launching a dramatic upswing in gold prices. We’ll see.

There’s always a chance of a downward correction in gold prices, but it’s limited. The reason I’m in gold is that the upside seems to me to be much, much greater than the downside.

Previously

• Barrick’s issues more stock to pay off gold hedges
• High gold prices force Barrick out of its gold hedges

Tags: gold

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