Spot The Megamerger Leak, Kraft-Unilever Edition

As we detailed earlier, while the story was first leaked by the FT Alphaville blog, there was immediate speculation how widely this morning's megamerger was leaked first.

Sure enough, volume of bullish Unilever options rallied in the past two days.

As Bloomberg points out, on Unilever’s U.S. ticker, 10,909 calls traded on Feb. 15, the most since 2011 and compared with 232 puts; 5,186 bullish contracts changed hands on Feb. 16 versus 31 bearish bets. March $45 and $40 calls were the most active on Feb. 15; March and May $45 calls were the most traded on Feb. 16.  On the Dutch ticker, call volume jumped to 24,649 on Feb. 16, the most since September and more than double put trades. March EU40 calls were the most traded on Feb. 16.

Kraft also saw a surge in options activity…

 

Some 'lucky' trader just made a killing…

 

Uniliever has issued a statement on The FT 'leak'…

*  *  *

 

Dear SEC, get back to work…

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Snubbed By Harward, Trump Tweets “General Keith Kellogg Is Very Much In Play For NSA”

Hours after news broke that Lockheed senior executive Robart Harward had rejected Trump’s offer to become the next National Security Advisor as he was Harward is “conflicted between the call of duty and the obvious dysfunctionality”, moments ago Trump tweeted that General Keith Kellogg – the acting national security advisor –  “who I have known for a long time, is very much in play for NSA – as are three others.”

So as attention refocuses on Kellogg, here is a brief profile of the retired general, courtesy of the Guardian:

Retired General Keith Kellogg in the lobby of Trump Tower

Kellogg, 72, was born in Ohio and served 36 years in the military: in the army in Vietnam, as a special forces officer in Cambodia, and during the first Iraq war as chief of staff for the 82nd Airborne Division. Kellogg rose to command the airborne division from 1997 to 1998 and later came to national prominence when he served as chief operating officer for Baghdad’s provisional government through 2004 – a year of mistakes by the transitional administration that haunted Iraq through the next decade of war.

After his retirement, Kellogg joined a series of contracting firms including tech giant Oracle – the company gave him a leave of absence to help the Bush administration in Iraq. “I was given the opportunity to establish a homeland security business unit at Oracle,” he told the Washington Post in 2005, “based on the skills I developed in the military and on the value that information technology can bring to homeland security.”

Kellogg later joined another tech contractor, CACI, in 2005, and then left for a defense contractor, Cubic Defense, in 2009, where he was responsible for the firm’s “ground combat training business”. In March, after Kellogg joined Trump’s campaign as an adviser, the New York Times reported that the last defense contractor to employ the retired general “had no information on his whereabouts”.

The retired general has kept a low profile in the White House compared with his predecessor. He was granted a formal role in Trump’s transition team and later named chief of staff and executive secretary of the National Security Council, making him one military counterweight to an unusually prominent civilian on the council, Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon.

Although Trump may yet formalize Kellogg as his permanent adviser, rumors quickly began to spread on Monday night that another candidate was en route to the White House: retired general David Petraeus, the former CIA director who resigned in disgrace having admitted to giving classified information to his lover.

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Senator McCain Falls for Absurd Russian Prankster Pretending to be Ukrainian Prime Minister

How fucking stupid are our leaders? Fucking John McCain fell for this ridiculous prank by a group of famous Russian phone-fags. McCain said, to whom he thought was the Prime Minister of the Ukraine, “I cannot predict what this President (Trump) will do.”

Essentially, he’s talking foreign policy with them about wanting harsher sanctions on Russia — while those fuckheads are ringing bells in the background.

“We have pranked McCain, Lindsey Graham and the Republican Majority leader in Congress McConnell in the Congress Mitch McConnell on the issue of anti-Russian sanctions, however, we can not tell the details yet,” Kuznetsov said.

HE IS TALKING ABOUT OUR FOREIGN POLICY REGARDING RUSSIA WITH CLOWNS.

I did not believe this until it was verified by Sputnik.

Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com

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For BlackRock, This Is The Red Flag Among Record Low Volatility

With both volatility and asset correlations near all time lows…

… and complacency dominating across all global markets, one BlackRock money manager warns that investors should probably be a little more nervous.

Even as the recent stock surge and below-average volatility show investor optimism is near all time highs, markets are underpricing global political risks, said Russ Koesterich, who helps manage the $41 billion BlackRock Global Allocation Fund.

Why is Koesterich worried? The price of gold, which has failed to validate the prevailing calm, in fact just the contrary.  Bloomberg reports:

Looming elections in Europe and political uncertainty in the U.S. are among developments that could shift investor sentiment, Koesterich said. Adding to the threat is the potential impact of Britain’s exit from the European Union and a debt crisis in Greece. Such concerns have helped boost haven demand for gold, which has climbed almost 8 percent this year after posting the worst quarter since 2013.

“That hiding political risk is not reflected in markets,” Koesterich said in a telephone interview Thursday. “People are not that nervous, and there are things that could go wrong, particularly when you think about all of the political risks. That adds to the argument for having gold in a portfolio.”

As a result he recommends gold as insurance. Validating his point is the recent drfit higher in gold which has decoupled from VIX, and as of this morning was trading at three month highs, up 0.3% at $1,242

 

“Some of this rally has been based on the fact that investors expect some stimulus from Washington in the form of tax cuts and potentially fiscal stimulus as well,” Koesterich said. “What happens if it doesn’t come?” While “there will be some stimulus, the timing, the form and the magnitude are still very much uncertain.”

In the U.S., stocks this week posted the longest rally in three years, inflation indicators have risen and the labor market is strengthening. At the same time that a gauge of global economic policy uncertainty climbed to the highest on record in January, suggesting something has to snap.

“Some of this rally has been based on the fact that investors expect some stimulus from Washington in the form of tax cuts and potentially fiscal stimulus as well,” Koesterich said. “What happens if it doesn’t come?” While “there will be some stimulus, the timing, the form and the magnitude are still very much uncertain.”

Those who are buying gold – despite the recent jump in market-derived inflation indicators – already have their answer.

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3 Changes We Are Likely to See in Trump’s Revised Travel Ban

Instead of seeking a rehearing on the question of whether the temporary restraining order against his travel ban should be lifted, President Trump plans to issue a revised executive order next week that addresses the due process concerns raised by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. In a brief filed yesterday, Acting Solicitor General Noel Francisco and Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler say Trump will “rescind the Order,” which suspended the admission of refugees for 120 days and imposed a 90-day ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, and “replace it with a new, substantially revised Executive Order to eliminate what the [appeals court] panel erroneously thought were constitutional concerns.” At his press conference yesterday, Trump said he will issue the revised order “toward the beginning or middle” of next week. Here are three changes he is likely to make:

1. The new order will explicitly exclude lawful permanent residents from the travel ban. The Supreme Court has said green-card holders have a right to due process if the government tries to stop them from re-entering the country after traveling abroad. The Trump administration concedes that point but says the travel ban should not be interpreted as covering lawful permanent residents (LPRs), even though officials at the White House and the Department of Homeland Security initially said it did. “The principal basis of the panel’s decision was its conclusion that the Order applies to LPRs,” Francisco and Kneedler say. “The Order is ambiguous in this respect and, at the time it was issued, was reasonably interpreted to encompass LPRs. However, it is also reasonably interpreted to exclude LPRs, and the White House Counsel’s ‘[a]uthoritative guidance’ confirms that narrower interpretation.”

2. The new order probably will exclude people who do not have green cards but are already legally living in the United States. The Trump administration thinks the 9th Circuit was wrong to suggest that people from the seven banned countries who are legally working or studying in the U.S. on nonimmigrant visas have any due process rights when the government decides to revoke their visas. Francisco and Kneedler say “no court has adopted” that position, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has rejected it. But the visas of students and scholars at state universities are at the center of the case before the 9th Circuit, which was brought by Washington and Minnesota, so it seems likely that Trump’s revised order will leave them alone. “The Order’s principal focus is on aliens who have never entered this country and have no connection to it,” Francisco and Kneedler say. “The Supreme Court ‘has long held that an alien seeking initial admission to the United States requests a privilege and has no constitutional rights regarding his application.'” It sounds like Trump will narrow the order so that its scope is defined by this “principal focus.”

3. The new order will clarify that it has no impact on asylum applications. The 9th Circuit noted that refugees have a statutory right to seek asylum once they have arrived in the United States, meaning they have potential due process claims if they are summarily ejected from the country. Francisco and Kneedler say the 120-day ban on refugees “does not address the existing statutes or regulations for aliens who are physically present or arriving in the United States and are seeking asylum or similar protection.”

In declining to override the TRO against Trump’s order, the 9th Circuit also said the travel ban raises due process concerns insofar as it applies to foreign nationals “who have a relationship with a U.S. resident or an institution that might have rights of its own to assert.” The Supreme Court has neither accepted such third-party claims nor definitively ruled them out. In Kerry v. Din, a 2015 case involving a U.S. citizen whose Afghan husband was denied an immigration visa, three justices said she had no due process right to challenge that decision, two said that even if she did she had already received due process, and four agreed that her due process rights had been violated.

Francisco and Kneedler say Din proves the 9th Circuit “is wrong” to think LPRs or citizens could make due process claims in connection with aliens (such as employees or relatives) they have an interest in seeing admitted to the United States. It seems to me that Din does not resolve the issue either way. In any case, it is hard to see how Trump could address the 9th Circuit’s concern on this score without abandoning the travel ban, the very nature of which is to exclude people based on their country of origin, without regard to individual circumstances such as relationships with people in the U.S. In fact, Francisco and Kneedler argue that a blanket ban is immune from a due process challenge precisely because it “reflects a ‘general determination’ rather than one resting on ‘individual grounds.'”

The order does allow “case-by-case” waivers “in the national interest,” which could be used, for example, to let universities and other employers hire people from the banned countries. Perhaps the revised order will flesh out this provision by offering examples of which visitors may qualify.

“With the scope of the Order properly understood,” Francisco and Kneedler say, “the overwhelming majority of its applications give rise to no due process concerns whatsoever.” That is true only if you assume the admittedly “ambiguous” travel ban does not cover LPRs, who accounted for most of the people affected by Trump’s order as it was originally interpreted.

Based on green cards issued during the last decade, there could be as many as half a million LPRs from the seven banned countries (Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen). By comparison, 85,000 refugees were admitted to the United States in fiscal year 2016; the Obama adminstration thought 110,000 should be admitted this fiscal year, and Trump’s order reduces the cap to 50,000. Visitors from the seven banned countries with nonimmigrant visas (including tourists, business travelers, students, and temporary workers) totaled 86,000 in fiscal year 2015. There were also something like 26,000 new arrivals with immigrant visas. So even if half the people who received green cards in the last 10 years subsequently became citizens, LPRs would still outnumber all of the other people covered by the order.

At yesterday’s press conference, Trump claimed “we had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban,” “the rollout was perfect,” and judicial interference was “the only thing that was wrong with the travel ban.” Many Republicans, including members of Congress who think the vetting of visitors should be improved, disagree, and their main concern was the uncertainty about whether LPRs could return to their homes after traveling abroad. Trump’s failure to foresee that problem shows how little thought he put into an order that gratuitously upset the plans and expectations of thousands of innocent people.

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Frontrunning: February 17

  • ‘In Trump We Trust’ Is Market Mantra as Turmoil Besets White House (BBG)
  • World stocks lose momentum after record-breaking week (Reuters)
  • As Tax Debate Heats Up, Lawmakers Struggle to Think of a Plan B (WSJ)
  • Mnuchin Warned as G-20 Sees New Economic Order (BBG)
  • Deutsche Bank examined Donald Trump’s account for Russia links (Guardian)
  • Stop hurling insults and listen, Pope Francis tells politicians (Reuters)
  • Carney, Wrong on Brexit, May Have Called Consumer Collapse Right (BBG)
  • SCOTUS to frame Trump’s immigration plans (Reuters)
  • Trump Assails Critics as Russia Questions Mount (WSJ)
  • French Bonds Drop on Potential Left-Wing Candidacy Merger (BBG)
  • S&P downgrade warning sends Toshiba shares falling (Reuters)
  • Meet the Gold Rush Towns at Risk of Flooding From California Dam (BBG)
  • Kremlin says not disappointed by how U.S-Russia ties are developing (Reuters)
  • Kraft Heinz to pursue merger despite Unilever rejection (Reuters)
  • Hurdles Mount for Saudi Aramco’s IPO (WSJ)
  • Malaysia says needs kin’s DNA before releasing Kim Jong Nam’s body (Reuters)
  • Theranos Had $200 Million in Cash Left at Year-End (WSJ)
  • Congress Tests Trump Officials on Trade (WSJ)
  • Zuckerberg Lays Out Vision for Facebook in New Mission Statement (WSJ)
  • Pakistan crackdown after suicide attack claimed by Islamic State (Reuters)

Overnight Media Digest

FT

Allianz SE said it would launch a share buyback worth up to 3 billion euro, as Europe’s largest insurance group posted a 23 per cent rise in fourth-quarter profits.

Shares in UK aerospace and defence company Cobham Plc dropped almost 20 per cent after it issued its fifth profit warning in just over a year and said earnings could fall further next year.

Bruce Carnegie-Brown is set to be named as the new chairman of Lloyd’s, the London insurance market. The 58-year-old will replace John Nelson, who has held the post since 2011 and is due to step down later this year.

Stock in Samsung Electronics Co Ltd fell as much as 1.6 per cent at the open on Friday after the early-morning arrest of Lee Jae-yong, heir apparent of Samsung Group.

 

NYT

– UnitedHealth Group is accused in a scheme that allowed its subsidiaries and other insurers to improperly overcharge Medicare by “hundreds of millions — and likely billions — of dollars” according to a lawsuit made public on Thursday at the Justice Department’s request. http://nyti.ms/2lRKd9W

– In a 5,800-word letter posted publicly, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg expressed alarm that what was once considered normal — seeking global connection — was now seen by people and governments around the world as something undesirable. http://nyti.ms/2lRL2zz

– Jeffrey A. Zucker, the president of CNN, has been at the center of a media firestorm since President Trump started singling out the cable network as the country’s leading distributor of that favorite Trump phrase “fake news” http://nyti.ms/2lRN7vp

– The de facto leader of Samsung, Lee Jae-yong, was arrested Friday on bribery charges, a dramatic turn in South Korea’s decades-old struggle to end collusive ties between the government and powerful family-controlled conglomerates. http://nyti.ms/2lRIGAy

– Moving quickly after his first choice for labor secretary withdrew his nomination amid controversy, President Trump made a seemingly safe selection on Thursday in Alexander Acosta, a Florida law school dean and former assistant attorney general. http://nyti.ms/2lRyCaW

– Snap Inc disclosed on Thursday that it expected to be valued at as much as $22.2 billion in the sale. At the midpoint of the offering’s range of $14 to $16 per share, Snap would be worth nearly $20.9 billion. http://nyti.ms/2lRIguf

 

Britain

The Times

The volume of French bonds being traded has doubled this month to levels not seen since the eurozone crisis because of uncertainty about the outcome of the presidential election in late April. http://bit.ly/2lpyRJk

Britain has taken a step closer to relying on imported gas after Centrica Plc said that the country’s only sizeable storage facility may be out of action next year. http://bit.ly/2lpf8JD

The Guardian

The Competition and Markets Authority is to scrutinise Heineken NV’s planned 305 million pounds acquisition of 1,900 pubs from Punch Taverns Plc, a deal that will make the Dutch brewer the UK’s third-largest pub group. http://bit.ly/2lphKHi

The UK business secretary, Greg Clark, has said he has been reassured about the future of General Motor Co’s Vauxhall production operations in Britain, following a meeting with the U.S. carmaker’s chairman. http://bit.ly/2lpsJRg

The Telegraph

Bruce Carnegie-Brown will be announced as the new chairman of Lloyd’s of London next week as the former JP Morgan veteran secures one of the most prestigious posts in the City. http://bit.ly/2lpfUX3

The UK’s biggest banks have warned the government against launching a “significant” overhaul of the rules governing executive pay, the Daily Telegraph has learned. http://bit.ly/2lpqnBX

Sky News

Train drivers have voted to reject a deal that their union, ASLEF, had agreed with Southern Rail to end a long-running dispute. http://bit.ly/2lpCpuT

Thousands of Argos workers will share a 2.4 million pounds payout after it emerged they had been paid less than the national living wage. http://bit.ly/2lph9Wk

The Independent

Deutsche Bank AG, the troubled German lender that loaned hundreds of millions of dollars to Donald Trump, has performed a detailed investigation into the U.S. president’s personal accounts in a bid to determine whether he had any connections with Russia. http://ind.pn/2lpqs8q

 

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Movie Review: A Cure for Wellness: New at Reason

CureGore Verbinski’s A Cure for Wellness is a beautifully photographed nightmare that delivers powerful jolts of horror—some of them really horrific. But the movie doesn’t make even basic fright-flicky sense, and the director doesn’t seem to care. In the production notes, he invokes the term “dream logic” to justify the picture’s endless narrative bafflements; but that’s a handy out for a story that simply doesn’t add up. So what’s this lumbering oddity all about? I’m afraid it’s about two and a half hours long.

Our protagonist is a young Wall Street hustler named Lockhart (talented but pasty Dane DeHaan, looking like Leonardo DiCaprio if Leonardo DiCaprio had been dragged behind a truck). In a long introductory passage that cries out to be trimmed, we learn that the company where Lockhart is employed is in turmoil and that its CEO, Pembroke, has lit out for a mysterious health spa in the Swiss Alps. A farewell letter he has left behind says, “I will not return. Do not attempt to contact me again.” Lockhart is dispatched to find Pembroke and bring him back.

When Lockhart arrives in Switzerland, Verbinski, who still has a great eye, gives us a gorgeous shot of a gleaming train following a long curve of track into a mountain tunnel. Onboard, Lockhart notices a little boy drawing something in the condensation on a window. He’s drawing the devil. How come? No reason—the devil makes no appearance in this movie. The kid’s just setting a rote mood, writes Kurt Loder.

View this article.

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Unilever Shares Soar After Kraft Heinz Confirms £112BN Takeover Bid; Options Confirm Leak

Unilever shares soared this morning after food conglomerate Kraft-Heinz, backed by Warren Buffett and Brazil’s 3G, confirmed it made a £112bn takeover offer for Unilever, leading to a 11% surge in the shares of the London-listed Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, the biggest one day surge since 1987. Shares of Kraft Heinz rose over 4% premarket in New York.

In a statement issued shortly after the FT reported earlier on Friday that Kraft Heinz had made an approach to Unilever, Kraft said that Unilever declined its initial offer, but added “while Unilever has declined the proposal, we look forward to working to reach agreement on the terms of a transaction.”

The U.S. food and beverage maker said it is uncertain that any further formal proposal will be made to Unilever or that an offer will be made at all. It also said the terms of any such transaction are uncertain.

With Unilever’s market capitalization of £112bn, a potential takeover would be one of the largest in history. The company is the world’s fourth-largest consumer goods company by sales, with revenues last year of €52.7 billion. As the FT adds, “a deal would unite some of the biggest brands in the global consumer good industry, adding the likes of Dove and Knorr to the Kraft Heinz roster, which spans Philadelphia cream cheese, ketchup and Weight Watchers.”

Following the news, Mondelez dropped 5.2% pre-market, Kellogg -2% and General Mills -0.9%, after Kraft Heinz confirmed approached to Unilever, damping speculation that other packaged food companies could be targets for KHC.

While the story was first leaked by the FT Alphaville blog, there was immediate speculation how widely it was leaked first. Sure enough, volume of bullish Unilever options rallied in the past two days. As Bloomberg points out, on Unilever’s U.S. ticker, 10,909 calls traded on Feb. 15, the most since 2011 and compared with 232 puts; 5,186 bullish contracts changed hands on Feb. 16 versus 31 bearish bets. March $45 and $40 calls were the most active on Feb. 15; March and May $45 calls were the most traded on Feb. 16.  On the Dutch ticker, call volume jumped to 24,649 on Feb. 16, the most since September and more than double put trades. March EU40 calls were the most traded on Feb. 16.

The SEC will be busy tracking down just who leaked what.

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Every Citizen Should Own 3.5 Ounces of Gold Bullion – Central Bank

Every Citizen Should Own 3.5 Ounces of Gold Bullion – Central Bank

  • Central bank governor has “dream” for every citizen to own at least 100 grams of gold bullion
  • Governor of Central Bank of Kyrgyzstan said the central bank had sold around 140 kilos of gold bullion to the domestic population already
  • Central Asian country’s central bank continues to diversify into gold bullion
  • “Gold can be stored for a long time … doesn’t lose its value for the population as a means of savings”
  • “I’ll try to turn the dream into reality faster…”

The Governor of the Central bank of Kyrgyzstan has told Bloomberg News in an interview that it is his “dream” for every citizen in his country to own at least 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of gold as a way to protect their savings.

Diversifying one’s savings so that they are not solely held in fiat paper or electronic currencies in frequently vulnerable banks in a vulnerable banking and financial system is prudent advice in these uncertain times.

Indeed, there is a strong case to be made that the policies of most central banks in recent years have led to a massive debt bubble and the risk of another financial crisis, currency wars and currency debasement on a grand scale.

Hence, it was very refreshing to hear the actual governor of a central bank passionately advocate and proactively helping his fellow citizens to protect their savings by diversifying and having an allocation to physical gold.

From Bloomberg:

One of the first post-Soviet republics to adopt a new currency and let it trade freely, Kyrgyzstan’s central bank wants every citizen to diversify into gold. Governor Tolkunbek Abdygulov says his “dream” is for every one of the 6 million citizens to own at least 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of the precious metal, the Central Asian country’s biggest export.

“Gold can be stored for a long time and, despite the price fluctuations on international markets, it doesn’t lose its value for the population as a means of savings,” he said in an interview. “I’ll try to turn the dream into reality faster.”

In the two years that the central bank has offered bars directly to the population, about 140 kilograms of bullion have been sold, Abdygulov, 40, said by phone from the capital, Bishkek.

“We are hopeful that our country’s population will learn to diversify its savings into assets that are more liquid and — more importantly — capable of retaining their value,” he said. In rural areas, cattle is still the asset of choice for investors and savers, according to Abdygulov.

Kyrgyzstan has bucked a trend among central banks, the biggest owners of bullion, by stepping up buying even as its counterparts cut purchases in 2016 to a six-year low. Global combined bar and coin demand fell, according to the World Gold Council.

Across the emerging world, gold — often seen as the ultimate haven at times of upheaval — hardly needs any extra promotion. India, the world’s largest consumer after China, is in fact taking steps to curb imports of the precious metal by encouraging its citizens to deposit private gold holdings in banks.

In Turkey, where banks can use bullion as part of their reserve assets, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last year called on people to convert their foreign-currency savings into liras and gold.

What makes Kyrgyzstan unique is the central bank’s effort to win converts by providing infrastructure for safe-keeping and investment. The central bank produces bars of different sizes, varying in weight from 1 to 100 grams.

The central bank governor believes his plan is realistic, even though it means the population would own about 600 tons of gold, equivalent to 30 times the nation’s current annual output. Abdygulov declined to specify the timeframe for when his goal of 100 grams per person can be met.

The options available for storage include safe deposit boxes at commercial lenders or with the central bank, he said. Some people opt to keep gold at home or possibly even bury it in the ground, according to Abdygulov.

With Kyrgyzstan enduring upheaval from economic crises in the early 1990s to bank failures during the last decade, gold is seen as a far safer bet than securities, he said.

“For Kyrgyzstan, gold is an alternative instrument of investment,” Abdygulov said. “The National Bank has ensured liquidity for gold — we aren’t only selling, but also buying back gold bars that we produced and sold.”

As Abdygulov took the reins of the central bank in 2014, Kyrgyz policy makers decided to raise gold’s share in its own reserves, now keeping about 10 percent of its $2 billion holdings in bullion. After years of capping the amount at 2.6 tons, the stockpile surged by more than 70 percent since 2012 to 4.5 tons at the end of the third quarter in 2016, according to the latest data compiled by the London-based World Gold Council.

With Kyrgyzstan’s output at about 20 tons a year, the central bank uses the national currency, the som, to buy gold mined locally, which can then be sold abroad if needed, according to Abdygulov. The governor said he’s counting on higher output in the future.

Abdygulov, who has masters degrees from Nagoya University in Japan and the University of North Texas, may be a gold enthusiast, but he’s no advocate for dislodging the dollar completely. His advice is based on the “rule of three” — splitting up savings between the som, foreign currency and gold.

As for the metal’s prospects, he’s upbeat, even after it surged the most in five years in 2016 and continued to post gains in 2017. Bullion has rallied more than 7 percent this year as concerns that Donald Trump’s policies on trade and immigration could derail U.S. growth boosted speculation that the Federal Reserve would be slow to raise borrowing costs.
End>


“Common sense is not so common” as Voltaire said. Financial and monetary common sense regarding gold and the importance of diversifying ones savings and investments is even more uncommon.

As one of the larger gold bullion delivery and storage specialists in the world and a vested commercial interest, GoldCore would obviously greatly welcome the central bank governors of Ireland, UK, U.S. and all western nations to urge their citizens to diversify their savings and own a small amount of gold.

As a specialist in the logistics of delivery and storage of physical gold, we can of course work with them and help them in this regard and we look forward to hearing from them.

We have long been passionate advocates of owning physical gold and have spent a lot of time educating about gold’s safe haven characteristics. This has been seen clearly in history and during the recent global financial crisis and indeed in the large body of new academic and independent research on gold in recent years.

The Governor clearly understands gold’s value and is acting accordingly in the interests of his fellow citizens.

Bravo Governor and Happy Friday folks !

 

Gold and Silver Bullion – News and Commentary

Gold notches highest finish in more than 3 months (MarketWatch.com)

Gold prices consolidate, but have held up well and look robust (BullionDesk.com)

Stocks drop – Gold set for its seventh weekly gain in eight weeks (Bloomberg.com)

Candidate Trump Tries to Salvage an Embattled President Trump (Bloomberg.com)

French bond trading soars on fear of populist wave (FT.com)

BlackRock Backs Gold to Hedge Market Risk (Bloomberg.com)

Gold Up 7.3% YTD Is “Hinting” That Stock Market Is Overvalued (MarketWatch.com)

Declassified CIA Memos Reveal Probes Into Gold Market Manipulation (ZeroHedge.com)

Inflation could push 4 million more Britons below poverty line, study finds (TheGuardian.com)

Greece will run out of money in July and its creditors can’t agree on what to do (BusinessInsider.com)

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Gold Prices (LBMA AM)

17 Feb: USD 1,241.40, GBP 1000.57 & EUR 1,165.55 per ounce
16 Feb: USD 1,236.75, GBP 988.41 & EUR 1,163.29 per ounce
15 Feb: USD 1,225.15, GBP 985.27 & EUR 1,161.81 per ounce
14 Feb: USD 1,229.65, GBP 986.67 & EUR 1,157.84 per ounce
13 Feb: USD 1,229.40, GBP 982.04 & EUR 1,155.64 per ounce
10 Feb: USD 1,225.75, GBP 980.23 & EUR 1,151.35 per ounce
09 Feb: USD 1,241.75, GBP 988.18 & EUR 1,161.04 per ounce
08 Feb: USD 1,235.60, GBP 989.47 & EUR 1,160.10 per ounce
07 Feb: USD 1,231.00, GBP 995.14 & EUR 1,154.43 per ounce

Silver Prices (LBMA)

17 Feb: USD 18.00, GBP 14.50 & EUR 16.90 per ounce
16 Feb: USD 18.10, GBP 14.49 & EUR 17.02 per ounce
15 Feb: USD 17.88, GBP 14.38 & EUR 16.93 per ounce
14 Feb: USD 17.91, GBP 14.37 & EUR 16.85 per ounce
13 Feb: USD 17.97, GBP 14.34 & EUR 16.89 per ounce
10 Feb: USD 17.62, GBP 14.15 & EUR 16.55 per ounce
09 Feb: USD 17.71, GBP 14.10 & EUR 16.58 per ounce
08 Feb: USD 17.74, GBP 14.20 & EUR 16.66 per ounce
07 Feb: USD 17.60, GBP 14.21 & EUR 16.49 per ounce


Recent Market Updates

– Silver Price To Surge As “Investors and Users Fighting Over Available Physical Supplies”
– Jim Rogers Buying Gold Bullion On Dips
– French Election Could See Euro Break Up – New Global Crisis
– Gold Prices Up 5.8% YTD – Trump ‘Honeymoon’ Ends
– Gold Buying Russia To Intensify Diversification On Trump ‘Unpredictability’?
– Gold Prices Rising Mean “Impending Market Volatility”
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Tony Blair Urges Brexit Opponents To “Rise Up” And Fight To Stay In The EU

In a fiery speech delivered in London aimed to show U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May that she won’t get everything her own way, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tony Blair urged opponents of Brexit to “rise up” and fight to change the British people’s minds about leaving the European Union. 

In his first major political intervention since the vote last June, Blair issued a rallying cry to opponents of Brexit, saying there was little clarity over what the vote meant when the referendum took place and that the government was set on “Brexit at any cost”.  

“The people voted without knowledge of the terms of Brexit. As these terms become clear, it is their right to change their mind. Our mission is to persuade them to do so,” he said quoted by Reuters in a speech to pro-European group Open Britain. Blair spoke at Bloomberg’s European headquarters in London, the same place where, in January 2013, former Prime Minister David Cameron announced his plan to call a referendum on EU membership, unwittingly setting Britain on course to leave.

“The debilitation of the Labour Party is the facilitator of Brexit,” Blair said. Last week, May won a series of votes on the legislation to allow her to begin departure talks. Blair’s aim is to rally those who want to stay inside the EU and get them to work together to change the terms of the debate.

 

“Our challenge is to expose relentlessly the actual cost, to show how this decision was based on imperfect knowledge, which will now become informed knowledge,” Blair said. “I don’t know if we can succeed. But I do know we will suffer a rancorous verdict from future generations if we do not try.”

“This is not the time for retreat, indifference or despair; but the time to rise up in defense of what we believe.”

Blair acknowledged there is little room in the public debate for talk of staying inside the EU. He said he wanted to reframe the questions before it was too late.

“The ideologues know that they have to get Brexit first, then tell us this is the only future which works,” he said. “We need to strengthen the hand of the members of Parliament who are with us and let those who are against know they have serious opposition to Brexit at any cost.’

The former PM also questioned May’s claim that she wants Britain to be a bridge to the U.S. “How to begin this worthy undertaking?” he asked. “To get out of Europe, thus leaving us with no locus on the terrain where this bridge must be constructed.” He said the break-up of the U.K. “is now back on the table, but this time with a context much more credible for the independence case.”

He warned that May’s administration will be unable to focus on anything beyond EU matters. “This government has bandwidth for only one thing: Brexit,” he said. “It is the waking thought, the daily grind, the meditation before sleep and the stuff of its dreams — or nightmares.”

He explicitly rejected May’s argument that her opponents are “citizens of nowhere.” “How hideously, in this debate, is the mantle of patriotism abused,” Blair said. “We do not argue for Britain in Europe because we are citizens of nowhere. We argue for it precisely because we are proud citizens of our country who believe that in the 21st century, we should maintain our partnership with the biggest political union and largest commercial market right on our doorstep.”

As Bloomberg adds, Blair, who ran the country from 1997 to 2007, explicitly set himself against May’s Conservative government, accusing it of being a “government for Brexit, of Brexit and dominated by Brexit.” Blair has criticized May and other members of the government, who had backed “remain” in the referendum campaign, for pledging to take Britain out of the single market for political reasons even after they had offered a staunch defense of its merits. “They’re not driving this bus. They’re being driven,” he said.

It is unknown if Blair’s remarks will have an impact: his reputation among the British public remains tarnished by the Iraq war, an issue which resurfaced last year when a long-awaited inquiry was critical of his role in the decision in join the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.  Still, he remains a loud voice in British politics and has sought to make targeted interventions in recent years: first to warn voters against electing Labour hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn and later to try and dissuade voters from backing Brexit. Neither intervention was successful.

While he retains the support of Labour Party moderates, he is reviled by many members who feel he betrayed the party’s socialist roots, and his old party has shifted far away from the pro-business center ground he once championed.

Theresa May has vowed to trigger Article 50 and start the process of leaving the European Union next month, and has said she envisions a clean break from the bloc, including leaving the single market. She has also warned politicians against disrupting the process.

Blair said that among the risks of Brexit, the issue of the break-up of the UK was now “back on the table” and the circumstances for nationalists were now “much more credible” than they were three years ago.

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