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The Hoarding Continues: China Has Imported More Gold In Six Months Than Portugal
http://ning.it/NqjYk9

Junko Kimura/Bloomberg

Gold bars are displayed for a photograph at Tanaka Kikinzoku Jewelry K. K.'s store in Tokyo.

Billionaire investors George Soros and John Paulsonincreased their stakes in the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by gold as prices posted the largest quarterly drop since 2008.

Soros Fund Managementmore than doubled its investment in the SPDR Gold Trust to 884,400 shares as of June 30, compared with three months earlier, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing for second-quarter holdings showed yesterday. Paulson & Co. increased its holdings by 26 percent to 21.8 million shares.

Gold slumped 4 percent in the second quarter, the biggest such loss since Sept. 30, 2008. Prices fell as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernankefailed to increase stimulus measures, damping the outlook for global growth and demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation. The price fell 0.1 percent since June 30 through yesterday.

“It’s all about easing, and people are especially waiting for the Fed since investors expect prices will rise,” if the central bank announces more bond purchases, said Walter “Bucky” Hellwig, who helps manage $17 billion of assets at BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. “People are willing to hold on to gold to see what the Fed will say.”

The metal surged 70 percent from the end of December 2008 to June 2011 as the Fed kept borrowing costs at a record low and bought $2.3 trillion of debt in two rounds of so-called quantitative easing.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-14/paulson-soros-add-to-gold-...
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