Billionaires Soros, Bacon Cut Gold Holdings on Decline
By Debarati Roy & Phoebe Sedgman - Feb 15, 2013 3:34 AM ET
Billionaire investors George Soros and Louis Moore Bacon cut their stakes in exchange-traded products backed by gold last quarter as futures dropped the most in more than eight years. John Paulson maintained his holding.
Soros Fund Management LLC reduced its investment in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest fund backed by the metal, by 55 percent to 600,000 shares as of Dec. 31 from three months earlier, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed yesterday. Bacon’s Moore Capital Management LP sold its entire stake in the SPDR fund and lowered holdings in the Sprott Physical Gold Trust. Paulson & Co., the largest investor in SPDR, kept its stake at 21.8 million shares.
The fourth-quarter decisions by Soros and Bacon may bolster speculation that gold’s 12-year bull-run is coming to an end as economic data from the U.S. to China show signs of recovery, curbing haven demand. Global ETP holdings have lost 0.9 percent since reaching a record on Dec. 20. UBS AG reduced its one-month price target yesterday by 6.8 percent, saying economic optimism “takes the shine off defensive assets,” including bullion.
“The reduction in holdings by George Soros may unnerve the market a little bit,” said Nick Trevethan, a senior commodities strategist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “The market may also be watching Paulson, and those are steady.”
Gold for April delivery fell as much as 0.3 percent to $1,630.10 an ounce on the Comex, the cheapest since Jan. 4, and was at $1,632.10 at 8:15 a.m. in London.
The most-active price, which has lost 2.6 percent this year, declined 5.5 percent in the final three months of 2012, the most since the three months ended June 30, 2004.
more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-14/billionaires-soros-bacon-reduce-gold-holdings-as-prices-slump.html
DO SOMETHING!
| 