From today's Gartman Letter...... (10-12)

"Gold prices remain strong, and they are strong not only in US dollar terms, but in terms of Sterling, in terms of the EUR and clearly now in terms of the Yen too. As we write, gold is trading nicely above £650. To be precise, it is trading £665.50, new highs for the recent move and now putting the highs made earlier this year at £700 within sight. Too, gold is trading higher relative to the EUR, and why should it not as gold has become the third or fourth “reserve” currency of the world, behind the US$ and the EUR as disdain generally regarding the value of currencies is rising globally. Gold predicated in EURs is now tidily above €700 as it trades €713.50 as we write.

TheBulliondesk.com reported last week that there was active central bank buying of gold, and we cannot and will not dispute that claim. If it was, we suggest that it might well have been China on the buy side, for China’s holdings of gold as a percentage of its total reserves remain inordinately low compared to that of the Federal Reserve Bank, the ECB, the Bank of England et al. Morgan Stanley’s Central Bank Directory for last year reported that the ECB held 25.6% of its total reserves in gold. China, on the other hand, held 1.2% of its reserves in gold. That difference, we suspect, shall narrow... appreciably… over time."