From today's Gartman Letter..... (8-19)

"Finally, regarding gold, we are long of gold but we are long of it only in EUR terms, and we are grateful for having adopted that position for gold, silver, et al are under pressure this morning as the dollar is rising and as the EUR is weak. The dollar gold bulls have had to come to grips this morning with the disappointing news that India's July gold imports fell rather precipitously to only 7.8 tonnes… this is nearly 70% less than that imported last year as high prices have had their effect upon demand in this the world's largest market for gold AND as the drought there is also keeping buying intentions… and buying actions… low.

The Monsoon… so inherently critical to the Indian economy… has been materially below average since the start of the season. Farm incomes will be down, and India’s need to import grains and other “ag” commodities shall be up. It is that simple. We needn’t make it more sophisticated than that. As the President of the Bombay Bullion Association, Mr. Suresh Hundia, said "People don't have money enough for essentials, why would they buy gold?" Mr. Hundia had previously forecast August gold imports to be 8-10 tonnes, but it seems obvious that that shall not happen.

Finally, the gold bulls are pinning their hopes upon the weekly ECB reports on gold sales by what we have always referred to as the “legacy” central banks of Europe, for those sales have been virtually nonexistent of late. The ECB’s latest weekly report showed no change in “gold and gold receivables,” and last week those same “receivable” had fallen 0.14 tonnes. The banks are out of the market, it seems. The gold bulls are enthusiastic; we, on the other hand, are only tepidly so... if at all. As we write, gold in EUR terms is trading €662.50, down for the week of course, but down rather materially less than gold prices in US dollars."