Germany Rebuffs American Companies NSA, US Fed, Russia Gold Reserves At Record High

It's not just soccer that is pitting these two superpowers against one another;
German government cancels contract with America's number two wireless services provider Verizan (nyse:VZ) over allegations the NSA has unrestricted access to all information going through Verizon, regardless of how sensitive that information is.  Germany is deeply concerned about "the ties revealed between foreign intelligence agencies and firms".

Germany versus USA: Who Wins ? Federal Gold Reserves Stay In NY

Also this month, the German government cancelled a previous request to repatriate Fed-held gold reserves, on account of the slow pace / doubts about their whereabouts still prevalent.  The cancellation comes just 1.5 years into a 7 year plan that had called for the return of 87 tonnes per year (374 tonnes from Paris, 300 tonnes from New York), though Germany was getting it back at the rate of only 25 tonnes per year.  What's more, The US Fed returned only five tonnes representing only 8% of what should have been returned.

Russia Replaces US Security Bond Reserves With Physical Gold

Over the last three years Russia has dumped $50 billion in US securities, replacing dollars mainly with gold bars.  In the month of May 2014 alone, Russia purchased 900 thousand ounces of gold ($1.17 billion) bringing its total gold holdings up to 35.5 million ounces (valued at $44.3 billion).  The previous month of April was also a big month for purchases, had been the biggest month for gold purchases by the Russian central bank since 2010.

USA to export first shipment of oil in August 

On June 25, 2014 the Obama administration signs bill lifting previous oil export ban; the ban had been in place to protect US oil supplies.
Over the last few years American oil output increased from 5.5 million to 8.0 million barrels per day, while at the same time US oil consumption fell from 20 million to 18.5 mbpd.  Initially, exports will be limited to condensate from shale produced at Eagle Ford.  Exports could reach 700,000 barrels per day by early next year.  note: shale oil is light oil, making it easier to use in industry; for instance it can be used as aerospace fuel whereas heavy oil cannot.

China Buying Up London

Just this week China Construction Bank paid £110 million for a 123 thousand ft2 seven story building at 111 Old Broad Street.  The building will presumably be its headquarters in Europe and base for yuan clearing bank operations.  This comes one week after China Life paid £795 million for 70% stake in a London office tower.

China Construction Bank is the second biggest bank in China after ICBC.  It has an aggressive overseas expansion plan (in 2013 overseas assets up 40% to $120 billion).

German Government Relies On BlackBerry, Pretium Resources Proves Seabridge Gold Underpriced, Oil Stocks (CPE)

         BlackBerry (bbry) gains on rumours that German government and possibly others remain more committed than ever to BlackBerry devices - a few months ago they ordered 40,000 q10/z10 units.  Apparently NSA snooping isn't being tolerated at all in Germany, and that has led to a government-wide ban on the iPhone.  Two reasons for this 1) Germany-based firm secusmart has created a micro sd card that, when used on a BlackBerry device, renders the phone impenetrable (enhances BlackBerry security via encryption technology) .. would take a minimum of 149 years to hack.  2) Apple's iPhone servers are located in the US where NSA has governmental authority .. unrestricted access to private information  3) Germany's federation office for information security (BSI) has developed software that must be used in government employee phones.  Apple's devices aren't compatable with secusmart software.

on the flipside
Could the NSA access BlackBerry servers via relationship with government ? The Canadian government helped the NSA collect information during the 2010 Toronto G8 summit.  This leads to other concerns:  Does the Canadian government have unrestricted access to BlackBerry servers in Ontario ? We know that a big reason BlackBerry is off the market is because the government won't ok such a deal if it involves a foreign company such as Lenovo, this leads us to believe that the government of Canada does have a certain level of influence over BlackBerry.

Gold Silver stock doubles on news of higher than expected pre-production

Nov 21-22 Pretium Resources (tsx|pvg) stock climbs 80% on news that initial ore samples taken from the area known as 'Valley of the Kings' within the company's flagship Brucejack gold mine in British Columbia, yielded higher than expected gold grades:  19% higher to be exact (16g vs expected 13g per ton).  That translated into 4200 ounces of gold, 3500 ounces of silver.  The mine won't begin commercial production until 2016.  Reserves estimated at 7 million ounces of gold, 35 million ounces of silver.

That makes my favorite gold mining stock Seabridge Gold (SEA) even more enticing.  You see, Seabridge has 5X as much gold and silver at neighbouring mine Kerr-Sulphurates-Mitchell.  Higher gold grades at Brucejack probably means higher gold grades at KSM !  Either way, Seabridge Gold has to be on your stock radar .. has much more gold than Pretium Resources at a property that is only miles away .. any company looking to develop Brucejack is going to take an interest in KSM.  Future news regarding development at KSM will have a huge impact on Seabridge stock.  With Brucejack prepping for 2016, it's only a matter of time until the focus shifts to KSM.

Watch Out: New tax on gold in India will affect gold demand

Two months ago, in September India raised the duty tax on imports of gold jewelry from 10% to 15%.   Unsurprisingly Thailand, a major source of India's gold (3% of Thailand -India trade) initially objected to the tax hike however by the end of October, Thailand agreed to abide by the new rules after India threatened to suspend imports of gold jewelry from the country.  India also introduced a tax of 10% on gold bullion.

The new tax on Indian gold imports will eventually have a significant affect on world gold consumption:  Last year, India was the primary driver of gold demand - the country accounted for a fifth of gold consumption worldwide (864 tonnes out of 4405 tonnes total; 11% more than China).

Sears Canada being run into the ground by parent Sears Holdings ? (owns 51%; Sears Canada closes)

Over the last five weeks, Sears Canada raised $695 million in two seperate deals that saw the 61 year-old retailer sell a number of its core, revenue generating stores.  In the $380 million October 29 deal, Sears gave up its most profitable location in Toronto's Eaton Centre (335 employees there alone, store is so big mall gets its name from previous tenant Eatons) and one of its biggest stores in Western Canada (Richmond BC).  What's most alarming about the deal is this: