Posted On: Tuesday, August 05, 2008, 11:19:00 AM EST

Nothing Changed in Gold Market

Author: Jim Sinclair

Dear Friends,

Nothing has changed and nothing will. Gold will reach $1,200 and then $1,650. If I am wrong it is because gold will go even higher - and sooner than expected.

Sincerely,

Jim Sinclair

Whitney: Credit crunch far from over

The star analyst tells Fortune magazine that housing woes will force banks to keep taking writedowns.

By Jon Birger, senior writer

Last Updated: August 4, 2008: 2:33 PM EDT

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The credit crisis is far from over, star analyst Meredith Whitney tells Fortune magazine in its upcoming issue.

Whitney, who audaciously - and correctly - predicted last October that Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) would have to cut its dividend, tells the magazine that banks in general today are still facing much bigger credit losses than what they've reported so far.

The Oppenheimer & Co. analyst warned last year - and continues to warn today - that the "incestuous" relationship between the banks and the credit-rating agencies during the real estate bubble will have a long-lasting impact on banks' ability to recover.

For years the ratings agencies, which are paid by the issuers of bonds, gave high marks to securities backed by subprime mortgages. Many of those bonds, of course, turned out to be anything but safe.

With Moody's (MCO) and Standard & Poor's (MHP, Fortune 500) now trying to make up for past wrongs, the pace of downgrades on mortgage securities is quickening.

This is a problem, because every time their portfolios are hit by significant credit downgrades, banks are forced to improve their capital ratios. Often that means issuing reams of new stock, which leads to serious dilution, as shareholders at Citi, Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500), and Washington Mutual (WM, Fortune 500) now know.

"You're going to have this stealth pressure on bank balance sheets until you start to see the ratio of downgrades to upgrades change," Whitney tells the magazine. (This is an excerpt from "The Woman Who Called Wall Street's Meltdown and What She Sees Next" in the August 18 issue of Fortune. Read the complete story.)

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Gold price may hit $US1200: Sino Gold

5-August-08 by AAP

Gold could rise to $US1000 an ounce again by the end of this year, before moving up to $US1200, as investors seek to insulate themselve from rising global inflation, the head of Sino Gold Mining Ltd said.

Gold's value natural a hedge against inflation in the current environment of financial market instability would continue to rise, chief executive Jake Klein said today.

As well, maturing gold deposits and fewer new discoveries are keeping supply tight and adding to the upward pressure on the price of the precious metal.

"We closed out all of our hedges on the basis that we had an optimistic view of the gold price," Mr Klein told journalists at the annaul Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

"I think $US1,200 an ounce seems like a reasonable target.

"I'd be very surprised if we didn't see $US1,000 per ounce by the end of the year."

Gold peaked over $US1,000 in March this year at $US1,030 and is currently trading about $US890 an ounce.

The head of the Sydney-based miner also said the Australian gold sector had "some work to do to regain credibility" after recent high-profile collapses of local gold companies, such as Monarch Gold Mining Company Ltd and View Resources Ltd.

"The Australian reinvigoration of the industry has not really been successful - we've been trying to re-mine old deposits," he said.

"This industry is dependent on new discoveries and new mines coming on stream, and at the moment, it's not happening."

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