With gold at $3,000, another look at ETF holdings/'Sacrificing even on necessities'/Bund yields jump again

Gold has finally gotten above the $3,000 level, albeit slightly, and it's done it without much help from the western investor. I define 'help' and 'western' by looking at the ETF holdings of gold that investors usually use to own their gold, outside of physical holdings or mining stocks. At 86.4mm ounces of holdings, while off the lows of 80.5mm a year ago, is still well below the 2020 high of 110.67mm ounces. The main buying continues to be foreign central banks and governments and I'm confident that the western buyers of gold will catch up and remains sort of fresh buying powder. We remain long and bullish gold to say again. I mentioned silver the other day too and it's just $1 from the highest level since October 2012.

As for the CRB raw industrials index that I now keep mentioning and where gold and silver are not a part of, it rose another .3% yesterday to a fresh 2 yr high and is up 2.4% just over the past two weeks.

Total Known ETF Holdings of Gold

CRB Raw Industrials Index

Silver

These were comments from some of the retailers that reported yesterday, particularly Dollar General and Ulta Beauty, and it remains clear that a portion of the US population continues to be challenged financially.