The most-read non-Tom article this week is by Chris Bailey, Gold: you're indestructible (even if the price goes down sometimes)  at No 6 or No 14 including Bearcasts.

Merry Christmas Share Folks. Being a believer in God is a bit like buying shares. You know in your heart your choice will shine, but you can't be sure.  But if you don't buy the shares then you can’t benefit if your company hits the big time. This old punter admires the confidence and courage of atheists. Because if they’ve got it wrong, they’ll have missed out on the jackpot of eternal bliss. Quite some loss to suffer, don't you think?

Gold finished the week at $1798, having been as high at $1803 – nicely up on last week’s $1756. Gold mining stocks too headed further up as the recovery since the September low continued, as can be seen on my chart of Gold versus the Gold mining ETFs GDX (major), GDXJ (juniors) and GOEX (explorers):

Diego Parrilla is an author, engineer and economist and a gold bug.

Ariana Resources (AAU) has announced “a tremendous enhancement for Tavsan, as construction continues on site” as this project is further progressed as a second 23.5% interest gold mining operation here.

Gold finished the week at $1756, up a tiny smidgeon on last week’s $1751 but essentially unchanged in a week of little US economic data. Gold equities fared a little better and put in another new recent high to continue the run since late September.

Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV) has issued an update after a management trip to South Korea and having also further progressed local partner negotiations in the Philippines.

Asset manager Michael Gayed discusses how insane this year has been and how this is the only year in history where treasuries have lost more money than stocks. The only period it can be compared with is 1931. We’re in very abnormal territory. 1931 was a pretty terrible time too, yet too many folks think this is business as usual.

In September 2015 with its shares at 53p Condor Gold (CNR), backed by my old pal Jim Mellon, announced that to maximise shareholder value it was putting itself up for sale. But with no takers by January 2016 and with its shares back at 20p it called the process off. Today: guess what? It is up for sale again! The shares are now 24p! So much progress in almost seven years!

The great lie pushed by those supporters of bitcoin and other crypto currencies was that supply of bitcoin was limited by the halving formula. So, we were assured that while promoters of shares or funds or any other asset would always match demand with new supply, bitcoin was different. Of course, that was just misleading.

Gold finished the week at $1751, down a notch from last week’s $1771 but still well up on recent lows, having put in a high point of $1785 on Wednesday. US economic data offered little to cheer about, and the US treasury market continues to ring all manner of alarm bells. Despite that, US equity markets finished the week on a bit of a high – but for how long?

Centamin (CEY) has announced what it emphasises as “a significant step towards delivering on our commitment to consistently produce 500,000 ounces per annum from the Sukari Gold Mine”.

We’ve recently noted we’re looking for depressed precious and related metals sector sentiment to turn as the production returns still being generated at current prices become clearer and US dollar strength and interest rate hikes expectations prospectively ease. Meanwhile, Anglo Asian Mining (AAZ) recently announced “production figures remain robust, with total production of 14,309 gold equivalent ounces in the quarter” and that it “is making excellent progress on the development of its future new mines”. We see significant further recovery potential, more than 33%, from a current 88p offer price.

One of the few serious financial podcasters who swears more than me is Chris Irons, aka Quoth the raven. His latest soundings on gold and shitcoins are music to my ears.

Kefi Gold & Copper (LSE:KEFI), a gold and copper mine developer with projects in Ethiopia and Saudi Arabia is a company whose shares we think could double by Christmas and here is why.

Ariana Resources (AAU) has issued an update on the work programmes in Turkey it has interests in, emphasising that it is “highly encouraged by the simultaneous and substantial progress being made” on the projects by its 23.5%-owned joint venture.

Gold closed the week at $1771 – strongly up on last week’s $1683 and way better that the recent low around $1620 notched up at the beginning of the month. The US$ has slipped off its perch too: is it (at last) all change?

Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) has announced that it “is extremely pleased to note the announcement of a permanent end to hostilities in Northern Ethiopia and expresses its determination to do whatever is possible within its business mandate to contribute to the economic recovery plans set by the Ethiopian Government”. We suggest the news bodes very well for near-term progress of the Tulu Kapi gold project for the company.

On Friday we wrote an article HERE on 4 shares we thought could double by Christmas. One of the four is Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV) at a 1.8p offer.

Gold closed the week at $1683, up nicely from last week’s $1646 and back above the apparently all-important $1675 mark. But perhaps the real surprise is that it rose at all, given that the Fed again hiked interest rates by another 0.75% to 3.75-4% and warned of more pain to come. Normally, that would see the yellow stuff weaken, given that the yield on Gold is zero. But instead, someone lit the blue touch-paper.

Francis Hunt, Founder of “The Market Sniper”  Francis, discusses how demand for physical metal appears to be increasing significantly in the United Kingdom. He says that a lot of interest is coming from those in the financial industry and some of those customers have expressed concerns about their employer’s stability. He says that self-directed pensions in the U.K. are also seeing a move away from equities and into custodial backed physical metals.

Author and political risk analyst Larry McDonald says that he is concerned about the impacts of rate hikes in Japan and around the world. Central banks are very nervous because they can’t assess the damage inflicted by their policies for many months.

Hello Share Seekers. Some financial analysts seem to have given up tipping shares altogether, unless they’re recommending shorting them. This old punter rarely suggests you sell shares, so I find it rather hard to find companies to bring before you in these dangerous days. But let’s try a gold miner I rather like the look of.

I prepare for Halloween with pumpkin carving and soup today. Photos tomorrow.  Sohail says he has given up on gold "experts". I discuss this and then onto another area where there are a lot of "experts" who all talk their own book and it is the same one. I discuss house prices, volumes and stocks who I reckon will have a bad time includfing Purplebricks (PURP) which I expect to go bust in 2024, or possibly sooner

Fully-listed (mainly) Gold investor, Golden Prospect (GPM) released its interims to June 2022 last week. With the Gold price slipping over the period and Gold miners underperforming the metal, the numbers were not good – hardly a surprise, given that Golden Prospect’s shares outperform in both directions – but reader Goobs spotted what looked at first sight like it might be a bit of a problemo. I made a few enquiries……

Gold finished this week at $1646 per oz, marginally down on last week’s $1658 and almost back to the $1645 of the week before. Gold is going nowhere fast, although the Gold mining ETFs I have been keeping an eye on are still gaining modest strength, as can be seen from the chart below (courtesy of ADVFN).

Previously delayed production and a recent discounted placing are not typically good starting places for a value opportunity. However, in this case, the material fundraise at only a tiny discount in the current extremely challenging stock market conditions and the production it is set to enable with the on-the-ground progress that has been made, suggests a compelling opportunity from a current 37p offer price, prospective £97.3 million market cap.

I have been an uber-bear on sub-Standard and TSXV-listed Pure Gold (PUR and TXSV:PGM) ever since first writing about it in April of this year – and that from a Gold-bull. This morning we had news that has me racing for the Ouzo cupboard for my breakfast.

Gold finished the week at $1658 – marginally up on last week’s $1645 but essentially unchanged. However, as gold hovers around its recent low, Gold miners have picked up a smidgeon, as can be seen from my chart of Gold vs GDX (Gold majors ETF), GDXJ (Gold juniors) and GOEX (Gold explorers). I discussed a potential M&A frenzy HERE in the wake of three potential bids for AIM-listed Shanta Gold (SHG) and wonder if that might be showing up in the chart.

Gold producer in the Philippines, Metals Exploration (MTL) has announced third quarter of 2022 results and that “full access to mine plan Stage 3 was achieved during Q3 2022 and higher grade Stage 3 ore will be accessed during Q4”. How encouraging is this from a current 0.85p offer share price?

Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) has issued a “Significant Progress in Ethiopia”-titled announcement and the shares have currently responded up to 0.62p. They have not responded further higher (yet) since there are some short-term negatives in the announcement too, but overall there is still progress towards what we consider will be significant share price catalysts in the near-term.

Shares in AIM-listed Shanta Gold (SHG) shot higher yesterday after the company announced that it had received approaches regarding the potential takeover of the company. Could this be the start of a bidding frenzy in the bombed out Gold mining sector?

Shares in Amaroq Minerals (AMRQ), formerly AEX Gold (AEXG), were above 40p in August before recently falling back to below 35p. They’re now back above 35p and we look for further recovery on upcoming news flow and sentiment improving.

Gold finished the week at $1645 per oz, down from last week’s $1695 and back below the apparently all-important $1675 line. So we have had a false breakdown, then a false beak-up and we are back in the doldrums. But in view of what else is going on (even higher interest rates, anybody?), I would suggest the yellow stuff is actually doing just fine.

Asset manager Tavi Costa believes that we are witnessing an unprecedented economic environment, one with massive withdrawal of liquidity from central banks and developed economies. He says that interest rates and bonds are collapsing across the entire curve and that the dollar’s move up has also been relentless. What is occurring is unsustainable. Tavi discusses how the world’s economies have fallen into three different categories.

It remains an interesting macro world when people who are not that naturally interested in the financial markets become obsessed with what the 10-year gilt yield is. It is a bit like when Barbra Streisand described herself as a day trader in late 1999, changes are upcoming soon. Despite the best efforts of the chancellor the UK is not going to go bust, your corporate pension won’t disappear and it remains very stupid to have a massive amount of cash in your back garden.

Ronald-Peter Stoerferle, author of the  "In Gold We Trust" reports is a cheery fellow. He  believes that recession concerns will be the focus in the United States instead of inflation. This may provide the Fed some leeway as the public will be distracted by the economy. Europe will be more concerned with sticky inflation issues as energy problems continue. He says that Europe is definitely in a recession, and it’s quite likely the United States is now as well.

These are the most-read articles and most listened-to Bearcasts of the week. The most read non-Tom non Darren article is “The View From The Montana Log-Cabin As Gold Continues To Struggle And Cash From Ariana Arrives Tomorrow” by Nigel Somerville at number two or number seven if you include Bearcasts.

Gold closed the week at $1695 – nicely up from last week’s $1661 and comfortably above the apparently all-important $1675 level. But the bigger news from Gold was the rise to almost $1730, which prompted the most bearish Gold-bull, Jordan Roy-Byrne of TheDailyGold.com, to suggest that we may have finally seen the bottom, and that this means that the (downward) break of $1675 was a false breakdown. On the face of it, after last weekend’s depression (the darkest hour is always before the dawn!) things are looking more hopeful.

David Haggith, the publisher of “The Great Recession Blog” is a cheery fellow. He started his website twelve years ago, shortly after the housing bubble. He invented the term the epocalypse, which stands for ‘economic apocalypse’ that will be epic in scope. You could also call it the second great depression. He says, “For the last two years I’ve been extremely accurate.” The corona crisis brought massive amounts of money printing. The Fed can no longer print enough to support the equity markets. We’re going to have plenty of economic breakdowns and damage. It’s hard for people to grasp the rate of change that is occurring.

Gold asset manager Jaime Carrasco of Canaccord Genuity reckons that for gold bulls like him the goood rimes really are abnout to start soon as the world goes to hell in a hand cart. Jaime says, “I’ve been preparing for this storm for a long time, and it’s here. I don’t think we can hide from the global volatility. In 2008, they bailed out the banks, but now the question is who will bail out the governments."

Some folks said that I did not give them enough notice about ShareStock 2022 so they were on holiday, could not find anywhere to stay or had accepted a prior engagement. So for 2023 I am giving you almost a year’s notice of an even more unusual event! We start with some amazing new speakers:

Gold closed the week at $1661 per oz – up from last week’s $1645, but still below the apparently all-important $1675 mark. It is all a bit depressing, but with incoming cash from the latest AIM-listed Ariana (AAU) dividend of 0.175p per share due tomorrow, the Gold price in Sterling terms within £100 of its all-time high and equity markets in another bear-run, its not so bad.

Ariana Resources (AAU) has announced results for the first half of 2022, noting increased profit of £2.5 million from its 23.5% interest in the Kiziltepe mine in Turkey and emphasising significant activity across its various projects and investments.

Tertiary Minerals (TYM) has always been one of those companies that has promised a lot based on the potential of its resources in the ground, yet never seems to make much progress towards actually extracting any of them, whilst burning through cash and having to raise more at regular intervals.

I am not sure that I agree with this, certainly from a UK perspective I really do disagree as I note HERE. But Larry Williams has been trading for 60 years so experience is on his side not mine.  Larry discusses how bad news sells and everyone has a cognitive bearish bias. If you focus on the bad too much, then reality gets in your way. We saw capitulation in this market back in June. This is typically an excellent point to enter markets.

Gold closed the week at a sickly looking $1645, down from last week’s $1676. There was to be no bounce at around $1675. But in a week when the Fed again raised interest rates by 0.75% - the third such hike in succession – you could be forgiven for wondering why Gold has not headed even lower. Inflation remains on the rampage in the US, and until that reverses the Fed is likely to continue hiking…..or until something in the economy breaks, as it continues to gaze into the rear view mirror. Over here, however, the big news was the crunching of sterling in the face of Friday’s non-budget budget. Whilst Gold has been struggling against the US dollar, it raced towards of its year high against sterling and is now just £57 off the all-time high as markets took fright at Truss-onomics.

Gold closed the week at $1676, down from last week’s $1717. I had hoped that we might have seen the end of this particular bear by now, but on the back of still uncomfortable US inflation figures, as US Government Bond yields headed higher in expectation of more rate-rises, Gold headed south. The one glimmer of hope is that Gold closed the week almost bang on the recent lows right on Jordan Roy-Byrne’s line in the sand at $1675. Will it bounce from here?

Gold ended the week at $1717 – hardly moved from last week’s $1713. I, on the other hand, took a trip to Wales – by 30 yards – to attend ShareStock 2022 courtesy of ShareProphets’ esteemed leader Tom Winnifrith. It was an interesting affair - especially as Tom Winnifrith threatened to hurl Optibiotix' (OPTI) head honcho into the river Dee!

We’ve noted recent ramptastic proclamations on Wishbone Gold (WSBN) – and it now also emphasises “significant copper and gold grades from drilling in Queensland, Australia”. However, that comes with a discounted placing.

Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV) has announced it has opened discussions with potential partners to develop its high grade Batangas gold project in the Philippines and that it is in South Korea this week to finalise the plan to fulfil qualifying spend in accordance with 20-year mining licence terms there. These are encouraging from a current 2.15p share price, below £14 million market capitalisation, here.

Gold closed the week at $1713 – down from last week’s $1739. However, in Sterling terms it closed at £1488 – up from last week’s £1481, reflecting the weakness of the pound and a reminder of the usefulness of Gold as an insurance policy. The Fed (and the Bank of England under the useless Andrew Bailey) are still talking tough in the face of sinking economies, in the face of rampant inflation. To my mind, they are either bluffing or are heading for massive self-inflicted recessions. In either case, holding Gold is a great insurance.

There is an old fable amongst musicologists described in two questions: a) what is it that we try to learn from the great masters and b) why do we fail. The answers are a) how to get out of a hole and b) because they don’t get into one in the first place. This week the economic masters of our time got into a hole – Jackson’s Hole – and are wondering how to get out. The problem is that the economy is itself in a hole – squillions of unpayable debt and acre upon acre of magic money trees – and there is no way out. The solution, of course, would have been not to sink into such debt, financed by printing money, in the first place – but they dare not admit it.

This will be music to the ears of Nigel Somerville. Alasdair Macleod predicts that the world is going to hell in a hand cart within months and that we should all buy gold as a result. But then, asd the Head of Research for GoldMoney, this has been his message for a while.

Gold finished the week at a sickly $1748, down from last week’s more hopeful $1804. Gold stocks have again gone into reverse and the Fed is talking about hiking rates further. It is all grim for Gold bulls…..or is it?

Hello Share Mashers. As my grandpappy used to say, it ain’t what you win on shares that makes you a millionaire. It’s what you avoid losing. That’s why it’s so important to listen to bear raiders. The brave souls who speculate not that companies will succeed, but that they will fail. This is so difficult. Much harder than picking the winners I try to do. 

There was encouraging news this morning from AIM-listed Gold producer Ariana (AAU) in the form of news from 50%-owned investee Venus Minerals. Venus is supposed to be joining the AIM Casino, and as part of the deal has a conditional 50:50 joint venture ownership agreement with regard to the Apliki copper project in Cyprus, and the Mineral Resource Estimate has been upped to 17 million tonnes of measured, indicated and Inferred Resource at an average grade of 0.34% copper.

Gold finished the week at $1804 per oz – a useful gain from last week’s $1777 and back through the $1800 barrier. As the economic storm clouds continue to gather, things are looking up for the yellow metal, even if the Fed continues to play hard-ball with now declining inflation as it talks up its capacity to continue raising interest rates into a recession.

Analyst and writer Kevin Muir  says that investors seem to be having problems understanding the current economy and inflation: those in charge are arguing that this past month had no inflation. The reality is that month over month figures may be indicating that inflation has peaked.  Kevin says that this may cause the Fed may to be less hawkish than most investors are expecting.

Analyst Michael Oliver pulls no punches.

Gold producer in the Philippines, Metals Exploration (MTL) has issued a second quarter update including that it “is well positioned for a strong second half of 2022 as the grade in the mine improves once the higher grade ore in Stage 3 is accessed”.

Ariana Resources (AAU) has announced half-year production was circa 7% above forecast and that construction operations are underway at Tavsan. What do these mean in relation to a 3.05p share price?

Gold ended the week at $1777, up from $1767 last week, and held up well in the face of a surprisingly strong jobs report in the US last week. That jobs report was good news, supposedly, but following the previous week’s bad news on US GDP which was taken as good news, this week’s positive jobs report was taken as bad news and market fell, with the exception of the Dow Jones index. Hmph!

Centamin (CEY) has announced its Sukari mine in Egypt delivered a half-year financial and operating performance in-line with plans with gold production of 203,898 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,446/oz sold and that “despite cost pressures, the company remains on track to achieve its annual cost and production guidance for 2022”.

The only financial podcaster who swears as much as me ( perhaps more) and is almost as outspoken as me is Chris Irons, aka Quoth the Raven. In his latest podcast with Palisade Capital he does not hold back.

Fully-listed Egyptian Gold miner Centamin (CEY) offered up its half year report to June 2022 this morning, along with an interim dividend declaration. The report seems to have gone down well in the market, with the shares marked up by 2.4% in early trading, and the dividend – 2.5 US cents (just over 2p), to be paid on 7^th October – was at the upper end of my expectations, leaving room for a higher full year payout than currently expected, if all goes according to plan.

AIM-listed junior Gold producer Ariana Resources (AAU) released its half-year production results this morning, which made for a good read. But the bigger news for me was that construction at Ariana’s second Gold mine at Tavsan has formally started and is expected to be in operation in around 12 months. Hooray!

Standard-listed Panther Metals (PALM) announced a conditional placing this morning, to raise £1.14 million at just 5.5p per share, with one warrant attached for each new share at 8.5p. Given that the shares have been up as high as 14p in the past year, the issue price is a big disappointment ro shareholders like myself – even if the discount to the prevailing price is only 12%. I must apologise for some of my prior enthusism on these pages, but...

I am reminded of the words attributed to Prime Minister Jim Callaghan during the Winter of Discontent by The Sun. Callaghan denied having said “Crisis? What Crisis?” and today it seems that President Biden is having the same difficulty understanding the word “recession”. He tells us that this doesn’t look like a recession to him – but the standard definition being of two quarters of negative growth says otherwise: US GDP fell by 0.9% in Q2, following on from a 1.6% drop in Q1. That should be ringing alarm bells, rather than being the cue to try to challenge our intelligence.

AIM-listed Gold producer Ariana (AAU) has announced the approval of a new exploration licence to  75%-owned Western Tethyan Resources (WTR). This is, of course, good news – even if it is not the news I really want to see.

Gold miner in Egypt, Centamin (CEY) has announced that it “delivered the planned increase in production during Q2” and notes various upcoming targets and milestones.

I indicated a week or so ago that I was bored by gold’s failure to run higher. Maybe that was a buy signal, as it has, since then, gone up! Is gold a barbarous relic or will it zoom as chaos descends on the West? Peter Hambro has been involved in gold for 50 years - if anyone knows, he knows.

Gold ended the week at $1728 – up (at last!) from last week’s $1709. It may not be much, but bearing in mind what happened in between times, I wonder if this may be the start of a rebound. Gold has had few friends for weeks and even Tom Winnifrith, a Gold bull (if a bit less madly so than me) was expressing doubts. If even he is having doubts, have we reached capitulation and finally turned the corner?

I end with a few thoughts onb your fires back in Blighty and the relative lack of fires here in Greece and what it says about the global warming scam some folks are pushing. Then dividends, ADVFN (AFN) and Royal Mail Group (RMG). Then Morses Club (MCL) and Optibiotix (OPTI). And I admit to being bored with gold. What does that tell you as I am a real gold bull?

Fully listed Gold producer Centamin (CEY) updated the market this morning with its quarterly report covering the second quarter of the year (April to June). There were good bits (increased production), some not so good bits (costs nearer the top of estimates) and some bad bits (a cash outflow) but reading between the lines, I am optimistic.

Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) has announced the award of two additional exploration licences on initial five year terms through its 30% joint venture in Saudi Arabia and that “positive progress has been made in discussions with the Deputy Minister for Mineral Resources relating to the Jibal Qutman project - anticipated resolution in the current quarter”, as well as a quarterly 'operational update'. What of the shares having responded up to 0.65p to buy?

Standard-listed Panther Metals (PALM) shares have been struggling of late – nobody wants Gold shares. As a natural contrarian, this is music to my ears even if the value of my handful of shares has been on the slide for some time. Last week brought some news – and the market, largely, ignored it.

Gold finished the week at $1709, down (again) on last week’s $1743. This all seems a bit odd, as inflation figures from the US showed it was still on the rise and Gold is supposed to be the great inflation hedge. If only it were that simple.

Hello Share Fans. With the Footsie still in a poorly state and inflation attacking the world, it might be a good idea to look more seriously at gold. A miner you may not have come across before is Serabi Gold (SRB). This lot operate producing mines in Brazil.

Analyst, Lawrence Lepard, kicks off with a major mining fraud.

Gold ended the week at $1743 – a nasty drop from the $1813 clocked up last week, and according to ShareProphets’ favourite technical analyst, Jordan Roy-Byrne of TheDailyGold.com, down through support at $1780 and $1750. So is it time to give up my hermit existence and return to normal life? Not a chance!

H&T Group (HAT), the UK's largest pawnbroker and a leading retailer of new and pre-owned jewellery and watches, has announced a half-year trading update and an acquisition.

If you think that the worst for shares is over, think again, says analyst Chase Taylor

Straws blowing in the wind are often said to presage great tempests and I believe that this chart shows just such a straw.

Jaime Carrasco predicted inflation, as the marginal usefulness of excessive debt declined. There is plenty of evidence that a currency reset is coming; Governments' taking on the debts of banks proved this. Global trade patterns are rapidly shifting, and gold is part of that equation.

Hello Share Seekers. You might think gold companies share prices would be doing better than they are given the pressure on currencies caused by the Ukraine war, Covid and inflation. But maybe the rise has just been delayed and will soon bear fruit. Which brings me to AEX Gold (AEXG), of which Tom and Steve are fans. Devotees of that great Danish political thriller, Borgen, will be interested to know that AEX searches for gold in Greenland.

Another week, another slip in the Gold price: it closed this week at $1813, down from $1827 last week. But as real yields rise, Jordan Roy Byrne of TheDailyGold.com comments that one might have expected Gold to show rather more weakness than it has – especially with the US Dollar still on the rise. That it has not fallen off a cliff suggests that the market is already sensing an abrupt reversal of course by central banks.

AIM-listed Ariana Resources (AAU) has released its FY21 numbers this morning – and not a day too late! The highlight for me is the cashpile of £16.4 million at year-end: no funding worries here, then, and the final tranche of the special dividend arising from the part sale of Ariana’s Turkish assets is due on 3 October. But there is much more than that!

Gold finished the week at $1827 – down a little from $1840 a week ago as the divergence from the general stock market continues. Of course, I view stock market strength as…..ahem……transitory, to coin a phrase, so if Gold is diverging that is good news for Gold Bulls. If only this final roll-over would hurry up!

Ariana Resources (AAU) has announced significant progress across its projects, “most notably" the construction of Tavsan, with associated development activities being ramped up.

Bluebird Merchant Ventures (BMV) has announced that work has suggested ore inventory and future production may be larger than previously expected at its Kochang project.

Gold finished this week at $1840 – down from last week’s $1872, but a good recovery from the drop to test $1810 in the wake of the Fed’s rush of blood in raising interest rates this week by 0.75%, accompanied by the suggestion that we could be in for the same again at the next meeting. The Fed wants us all to know that it is taking inflation very seriously. Very seriously indeed.

Analyst, Charles Nenner, believes it is too late to make your portfolio defensive, as things will worsen across the board.

It continues to be interesting times for all financial market investors. You may have seen that the UK’s April GDP numbers were down, driven by reductions in the services, manufacturing and construction areas i.e. a bit of almost everything. All good fun then! Still, I read that general economic progress was apparently “partially offset by growth in car sales, which recovered from a significantly weaker than usual March”. How exciting (and how might that continue over the rest of this year?). And I bet you cannot guess what the Bank of England might do - for the fifth time in about six months - on Thursday.

AEX Gold (AEXG) has announced a new joint venture - in which it will have a 51% holding - for its 'strategic minerals' assets, which will see an £18 million (circa Canadian $28.5 million) cash injection. This leaves AEX's gold 100%-owned, and just refers to non-gold assets that most folks - ourselves included - had valued at SFA. Suddenly, they are worth £18-28 million. Game changer?

It has all gone quiet at AIM-listed Ariana Resources (AAU) but I fancy that things are about to hot up, which may make the shares a short-term buy in advance. Of course, I seem always to find a justification for buying Ariana shares and my target price is not far off double the current mark at 3.75p. But the company is pregnant with news, much of which is due by the end of this month.

Gold finished the week at $1872, nicely up from last week’s $1851, following a day of yet more bad US inflation numbers and a corresponding sell-off in both equities and bonds. Gold initially followed the market down, but then rallied. Is this a sign of a decoupling which would see the yellow metal head sharply north as equities head the other way?

From one foul-mouthed host to another. Chris Irons is Quoth the Raven, and never holds back; in fact, his language is far worse than mine.  

Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) has announced calendar year 2021 results and emphasises now a “focus on a sequential development path to build a mid-tier mining company with aggregate annual production of 365,000 ounces of gold and gold equivalent, in which KEFI will have a beneficial interest of 187,000 ounces of gold and gold equivalent”.

Asset manager David Brady believes another massive rally is coming for gold and that the Fed will reverse course. Countries never chose to default they always inflate their debts away. Markets today are centrally managed. What we have is not free-market capitalism.

Legendary mining investor, Rick Rule, pulls no punches. He critiques governments for being so corrupt, and why they prefer fiat systems. Then, he explains the difference between backing a currency, and pegging it to a commodity.

Gold ended the weeks at $1851 – almost unchanged on the previous $1854, but in between times headed down to $1830 and then up to $1870 before heading back to where it started the week. Pleasingly, Gold stocks did a little better by more-or-less continuing the recovery from a low ebb in May, but the underperformance against the yellow metal remains stark.

AEX Gold (AEXG) has announced first-quarter results, emphasising that its strategy remains to bring the Nalunaq gold project back into production, and use it as a platform for strategic mineral assets in Greenland.

Gold closed the week at $1854 – a small improvement on last week’s $1847, but not yet enough to cure the sell-off in Gold stocks (although they did improve this week). So when are we going to see the great explosion I have been looking for since the start of the Covid crisis? I don’t think it will be long.

Asiamet Resources (ARS) is a great example of what happens to a share that the market has totally lost confidence in and how a major, company-making piece of news is likely to be needed in order to bring about any sort of change in sentiment.

Miner in Azerbaijan, Anglo Asian Mining (AAZ) states that it “is pleased to announce its final audited results for the year ended 31 December 2021”. However, the shares are down to 85p to buy in response.

Gold has had a pretty terrible few weeks: back in late February it spiked to $2050 and then hung around in the mid-$1900s until the end of April. Now it has been challenging $1800 from above and closed the week at $1847. Of course, in the context of being just $1200 for years ago the yellow metal has done well, but given all that money-printing and rampant inflation one might have expected more of late.

Analyst, Chris Puplava, argues that Fed rate hikes don’t always result in recessions. He believes there is no spare capacity to compensate for a slowdown and, therefore, the Fed is limited in its ability to control inflation. The November elections are always a factor, and he doesn't expect the Fed will tighten aggressively into the fall. Mortgage rate hikes, he argues, are already impacting the housing markets, as the interest rate pain threshold has been more pronounced with every debt cycle.

Gold miner in Kazakhstan, AltynGold (ALTN) states that it “is pleased to announce its 1Q22 production update” and the shares have moved up to 130p, so what’s the latest?...

Kefi Gold & Copper (KEFI) has announced recent advancement toward multi-party financing, as well as further development of the Tulu Kapi gold project in Ethiopia.

AEX Gold (AEXG) is pleased to announce its addition of mineral exploration licences No. 2020-41 and 2021-11, covering areas in South Greenland.

I can’t say I’ve followed the affairs of ASX-listed (and formerly of the AIM parish) Medusa Mining (ASX:MML) since it departed our shores. But on Monday – for anyone still holding – the company is changing its name to “Ten Sixty Four”, ticker X64. So apart from the silly new name, what’s going on?

I read in the Sunday press that West End landlords Capco (CAPC) and Shaftesbury (SHB) are in talks about a £3.5 billion merger. Of course many will highlight some combination of their discounts to book value and how exciting it would be to bring together the owners of “landmarks including Covent Garden and Carnaby Street”. My personal view is that if I never see Covent Garden or Carnaby Street ever again that will be no great loss, but maybe lots of other people have a different view. 

That was a rip-roaring week! One might be tempted to suggest that equity markets do not know what they want: they were sliding ahead of the Fed’s rate decision in fear of a rate hike. When they got it (a half point rise) they went up. And when the dust settled they went down again. Gold and Bonds did much the same.

Biy do I like economist Steve Hanke.  He concludes this interview with a claim that 95% of what appears in the Mainstream Media is wrong or irrelevant. As I work on my next Ukraine podcast, how right the good Professor is.

Red Rock Resources (RRR) has announced results for its half-year ended 31^st December 2021, with Chairman Andrew Bell emphasising “there will be a strong focus on cash generation and creating opportunities for value crystallization”. Time for action, not words though Andrew!

Standard-listed Panther Metals plc (PALM)  released its full-year numbers to December 2021 last week, and this bank holiday morning we had drilling news from its 37%-owned sister company in Australia, Panther Metals Ltd (ASX:PNT).

Everything is going down: shares, precious metals, bonds – it is all one way traffic south. The Nasdaq is now officially in a bear market, and has seen all of last year’s gains wiped out. The Dow is down from almost 37,000 at the turn of the year to 32,977 and all the US indexes slumped into yeserday’s close. But Bonds are also falling, and Gold had a poor week too – perhaps no surprise, given the general sell-off.

Gold miner in the Philippines, Metals Exploration (MTL) has announced an update on the first quarter of the year and that it is “well set to continue to deliver our planned strategy for the coming year”.

At one time I quite liked the look of Hummingbird Resources (HUM) and its gold mining operations, but unfortunately, like so many AIM listed resource stocks, its potential looked better than what it hasactually turned out to be!

That was quite a week – having started in risk-on mode, all the major indices were slapped down on Friday, US treasuries fell away yet again and gold and silver slumped as the week drew to a close. Gold ended the week at $1,932, down from $1,974 a week ago, having bounced off resistance at $2,000. Meanwhile the Dow closed down 2.8% on Friday, alongside a 2.6% drop on the Nasdaq and a 1.4% fall from the FTSE100. The 10-year US Treasuries closed the week on a yield of 2.9% whilst 2-year hit 2.67%. The reason for the end-of-week squall was the Fed.

Having posted my thoughts on sub-Standard-listed Pure Gold (PUR) - dual listed in Toronto (TSXV: PGM) - over the bank holiday weekend, today we had an update from the company. And it was not good - my conclusion at the weekend was that it was more a case of Fool’s Gold than Pure Gold and this morning I was totally vindicated. Is it time for an Ouzo already?

Centamin (CEY) has announced a quarterly update including “as planned, Q1 2022 production reflected the successful transition to owner mining in the underground… reiterates its 2022 full-year guidance”, so what of a share price response currently down closer to 90p?