‘Money Printing’
“Equities continue to be the only game in town,” said Jeff Sica, who helps oversee more than $1 billion of assets as president of Sica Wealth Management in Morristown, New Jersey. “Why would you want to hold gold and see the value depreciate when you can buy equities and see your money grow?”
Lower prices are attracting some buyers and may boost ETP holdings in 2014, said Nick Moore, a London-based managing director and commodity strategist at BlackRock. He declined to provide a forecast.
Peter Sorrentino, who helps manage about $14.8 billion at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati, said 5 percent of its natural resources fund was allocated to gold and he wants to double that, citing prospects for faster inflation, limited supply and strengthening demand in Asia.
“At some juncture, all the money-printing will come home to roost, and at that point the value of currencies will drop,” said Sorrentino. “Lots of metal has been migrating from west to the east.”
Smaller Bars
Consumption in China, poised to overtake India as the biggest buyer this year, may increase 29 percent to 1,000 tons in 2013, the WGC estimates. Gold in Europe is being refined from larger bars suitable for local users into smaller sizes favored in Asia, while Deutsche Bank AG and UBS AG are among banks that opened vaults to store metal in the region this year.
Bullion demand in Asia will keep rising as inflation speeds up, HSBC Holdings Plc economists including Frederic Neumann said in a report Oct. 18. Asia and the Middle East accounted for 68 percent of demand in the 12 months to September compared with 8.3 percent for Europe, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The pace of ETP outflows has slowed to about 40.7 tons a month on average since June, compared with 97.7 tons a month in the first half, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Holdings fell 28.3 tons this month. The amount held in ETPs reached a record 2,632.52 tons on Dec. 20 last year.
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