From today's Gartman Letter...... (10-23)

"Turning to the precious metals, we remain bullish of gold in terms of US dollars, EURs and Sterling, and we see no reason to change that opinion now. Clearly and in retrospect we might have done better to “swap’ out long gold in EUR and Sterling terms for gold simply predicated in US dollars, but the trade was established because all of the great bull markets in gold have been denominated in any and all different currencies. That is, when gold is “good” it is “good” relative to all currencies everywhere, and it is that “good-ness” that proves the merit of being long, ontological though that might seem.

As the chart at the bottom left of p1 of gold in US dollar terms in hourly periods suggests, gold has been consolidating for the past ten trading sessions. It is gold’s history to advance, then consolidate; then advance again; then consolidate and then advance again. Like an army marching, rest is needed before the enemy is engaged. Consolidations are gold’s bivouac periods, and we are in one at the present. It shall take a move upward through $1065-$1068 to prove that this consolidation has ended and that a new leg higher has begun. At the moment, it appears that the resistance at that level is formidable enough to keep gold from pushing upward through there, at least for now. We are sufficiently long of gold to argue against buying more, but we will be happier to see gold trade through that resistance.

Finally, our friends at Thebulliondesk.com report that the Russian state agency Gokhran is considering selling up to 45 tonnes of gold in London before the month’s end. If this is true, then this shall be the very first large scale sale of gold from Russia’s reserves since the end of the Soviet era. Further, if true, this shall be the equivalent of approximately 5 weeks of sales that are “permitted” of the signatories to the Washington Agreement on gold sales.

We find this report rather odd, nonetheless for all of the talk heretofore has been of Russian gold buying for their reserves rather than selling. Has the Russian Central Bank suddenly become a gold trader rather than a reserve accumulator? We’ve no way of knowing at the moment, but the rumours persist and may be nothing more than that… rumours, and rumours of rumours. Ah, but this is the gold market; it is prone to such things."