From today's Gartman Letter...... (12-21)

"Regarding gold, we remain quite bullish of gold, but in terms of the EUR, and of Sterling and of Yen, comforted in knowing that gold in EUR terms closed Friday at €776.90, having trade upward through €780 ever so briefly here in N. America Friday morning. Too, we were heartened to see gold in Yen terms trade upward through and close here in N. America above ¥100,000, and important psychological level obviously, but also an important technical level.

Gold in EUR terms found strong support at €760/oz a week to ten trading days ago, and it found strong support just above that level early last week. It shall require, however, that gold moves upward through €790 before we are comfortable enough to add to our position. Until then so long as support at €760 holds, we’ll sit tight, comfortable in knowing that the bullish trend remains intact.

Gold in Yen terms has found strong support several times in recent weeks at ¥98,000, having touched there in late November; having touched there again early in the 2nd week of December, and having touched there again, briefly, early last week. It shall take a move upward through ¥102,000 to truly turn us positive, but we suspect that that shall happen sooner rather than later.

Finally our friends at Thebulliondesk.com note that Russia has quietly but consistently added to its reserves of gold, for according to the latest statistics, Russia bought 200,000 ounces of gold (the equivalent of 6.2 tonnes) in November, and this after having bought 500,000 ounces in October. Russia is now the 9th largest owner of gold in reserves in the world, moving past the ECB and the Netherlands in the past year. Interestingly, Russia’s Central Bank has said that it is interested in having gold as 10% of its total reserve position, a figure almost incomprehensible to believe for that would require the purchase of 1200-1300 tonnes of gold, and that simply shall not happen… at least not in our lifetime. Nonetheless, shall the Reserve Bank continue to buy gold for its reserves? Yes, rather obviously."

(my bolding for emphasis)