Further significant outflows from the gold ETFs

Gold ETFs saw renewed outflows yesterday, 6.3 tons were withdrawn this time, putting total outflows since the start of the month at nearly 40 tons. Holdings in the gold ETFs tracked by Bloomberg have dipped below 50 million ounces for the first time since March 2009. 

That said, sales of US gold coins in June and July combined equate merely to yesterday's daily outflow from the ETFs, which puts their significance for or influence on the gold price into context. 

"This is a period of low demand in India, after all, and the low prices will soon be regarded as presenting an attractive opportunity to buy", says Commerzbank. 

The CFTC's statistics on the positioning of speculative market participants, due to be published this evening, will show if the sharp fall in the price of gold at the beginning of the week was driven by speculation. Anything but a marked rise in speculative (net) short positions would come as quite a surprise.