September 2005 Archives
More New Engagement Rings by Vatche!!
Some more eye candy for you; these gorgeous diamond engagement rings with matching womens wedding bands, by master jeweler -- Vatche!!
Diamond Week In Review: 9/9/05
Diamond prices showing several increases over the past two months as cost of diamond rough is extremely expensive. Further price increases
expected for this Fall's shopping season.
Asschers and Princess shapes in better cut qualities very strong.
Gold hit it's highest level of the year yesterday at $449.40 on heavy volume and traders fully expect Gold to break the $450.00 resistance level next week as the combination of rising Oil prices and the upcoming heavy Christmas shopping season are coming up.
Platinum hit a high of $914.00 this week and analysts expect the metal to hit $950.00 as Japan,China, and Italy will be purchasing large amounts of Platinum for upcoming Chistmas shopping season.
Gold Poised for Major Takeoff!
Gold futures marked their seventh winning session in a row Friday, closing 1% above the week-ago level, as at least one analyst touted the possibility of $500-an-ounce gold by the end of the year.
Gold futures prices may climb as much as 10% by the end of 2005 "if the economic conditions show further momentum, such as more employment gains are above 192,000 on average per month for the next two consecutive months," said John Person, president of National Futures Advisory Service.
That would put gold at the $500 level, he said.
On Friday, gold for December delivery closed at $453 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up $2.30 for the session and up $4.50 for the week. The contract, which has been on the rise since Aug. 31, closed at its highest level since March 11.
Federal deficits are expanding, concerns over rising inflation exist, fears that the Fed may be forced to keep interest rates in a more accommodative environment due to the effects from Hurricane Katrina are simply the more recent catalysts for gold's recent advance.
And global demand for gold has increased on expectations that holiday-related jewelry sales will also boost buying.
Gold is "primed for new highs thanks to a weakening U.S. dollar, continuing strong physical demand and simply because relative to most other investments, it remains 'dirt' cheap," said Peter Grandich, editor of the Grandich Letter.
Stay tuned.
Gold Is Red Hot!!
Bloomberg News Services reported today that Gold may rise to a 17-year high on increased demand from jewelry makers, the biggest users of the precious metal.
Twenty-four of 35 traders, investors and analysts surveyed Sept. 8 and Sept. 9 urged investors to buy gold, which rose 1 percent last week to $453 an ounce in New York and up 13 percent from a year ago. A rally above $458.70 would be the highest price since June 1988. Six respondents said gold will fall, and five forecast little change.
Jewelers bought a record $38 billion of gold in the 12 months ended in June as the global economy grew, the producer- funded World Gold council said Sept. 7. Jim DeNatale, part owner of a New York jewelry shop, said he increased inventory by 30 percent this year to meet demand and adjusted prices in his catalogue to reflect costs that are up $25 an ounce from 2004.
``Jewelers will pay these prices and pass them on to their customers,'' said Thomas Au, an analyst at financial consulting company R.W. Wentworth in New York.
Gold futures for December delivery rose $4.50 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange last week, a gain anticipated by the majority of analysts surveyed Sept. 1 and Sept. 2. Bloomberg's survey has correctly forecast gold's direction in 40 of 72 weeks, or 56 percent of the time. A futures contract is an obligation to buy or sell a commodity at a set price by a specific date.
Gold futures for December delivery rose as much as A$2.80, or 0.6 percent, to $455.80 an ounce in after-hours electronic trading, and traded at $454.10 at 3:16 p.m. Sydney time.
Rising Demand
Jewelers accounted for 68 percent of world gold demand in 2004, said London-based GFMS Ltd. India, the largest market for gold, increased demand for gold jewelry by 42 percent in the second quarter, GFMS said. Taiwan's buying rose 27 percent, and Saudi Arabia jumped 18 percent. Gold is sold mostly in dollars.
Analysts expect gold demand to grow in the second half of the year as jewelers stock up this month and next for the wedding season in India and the year-end holidays in Europe and the Americas. Gold has risen from Sept. 1 to Oct. 31 every year since 2000, including 4.5 percent last year.
``At this point, there are no signs that prices are a deterrent,'' said George Milling-Stanley, New York-based manager of investment and market intelligence at the World Gold Council. ``Most people in the jewelry business believe prices will continue to go up.''
The record demand for the year through June is $3 billion higher than the previous record of $35 billion for the 12 months ending in June 1997, the World Council said.
`Very Hot'
``Gold is definitely becoming hot again,'' said Alexandra Nazarian, a gemologist with Denatale Jewelers Inc., the New York shop that Jim DeNatale owns with his three brothers. ``People are asking for yellow gold. Gold-toned bangles are very hot.''
Customers haven't been bothered by the price increase, DeNatale said. The most popular items are a $500 charm bracelet and a $1,000 14-karat necklace that wraps around the neck three times, he said.
Gold also may benefit from concern that inflation will accelerate as damage from Hurricane Katrina helps keep energy prices high, prompting some investors to buy bullion as a hedge, analysts said.
Gold is up 2.5 percent since Katrina swept through the Gulf of Mexico on Aug. 29, causing an estimated $200 billion in damage. Crude oil surged to a record $70.85 a barrel on Aug. 30. In a separate survey, analysts and strategists expect oil prices to rise next week on speculation output of crude and refined products, curtailed by the hurricane, may take months to recover. Oil prices, which fell 5.2 percent this week, have more than doubled in the past two years.
China Jewelry Sales Soaring!
The Chinese Government released statistics today showing that Chinese jewelry sales rose 11 percent in August, and oil and oil product sales jumped 41 percent.
The average annual earnings for urban residents has risen 91 percent since year 2000, the government said.
China's economy has expanded an average of 9.5 percent for each of the past 20 years.
Overall, August retail sales in China rose 12.5 percent due to higher incomes and tax breaks, according to government statistics. Retail sales for the month ended at $62 billion, reflecting what the country's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said was helped by his national increase in the minimum wage and lower taxes for farmers.
To paraphrase the great Satchel Page, "Don't look back, cause China be gainin' on ya"!
Gold hits 17-year high, ‘and going UP!
GOLD surged to 17-year highs yesterday,lifted by a combination of high oil prices, increased demand from Asia and a negative outlook on the US economy after Hurricane Katrina.
Analysts remained bullish on the metal, saying bullion could reach $500/oz by early next year.
Gold futures gained 1% to $459/oz yesterday, the highest level since June 1988, as the prospect of economic slowdown and signs of rising inflation drove US investors to the safety of gold.
Gold also rose yesterday after Argentina’s central bank said it might increase gold reserves as a hedge against inflation and protection against a financial crisis.
Wiphold Treasury Solutions’ chief economist, Craig Zaayman, said: “The current surge in gold prices is as a result of a culmination of a whole lot of factors, which have contributed to slowly driving the market up.”
Demand from Asia, particularly China and India, had increased ahead of the festival season.
Platinum is also rising, now selling at $922.00/oz
Diamond Week In Review: 9/16/05
U.S. trading markets are stable with jewelers and tradespeople concerned about the impact of New Orleans, high oil prices,continued Iraq war on consumer mood and pocketbooks, and rising Gold and platinum Prices.
Gold hit a new high yesterday of $459.00/oz with analysts expecting $500.00 Gold in the very near future. Platinum hit $922.00 and further increases are expected.
Anybody Remember What Silver Looks Like??
Do you remember Silver? That such a metal actually exists? I think the last time Silver was front and center on the Evening News was many years ago when the Hunt Brothers of Texas unsuccessfully tried to corner the Silver market and lost their pants.
Well, guess what. SILVER IS BACK with a vengeance!
Silver, which is used in a wide variety of applications in several industries, including the electronic, jewelry and photographic sectors, currently trades around $7 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
That's a far cry from the peak level around $50 in the 1980s, but that may change soon enough.
"No other commodity exists in such short supply as silver" and "silver demand has exceeded production for 15 years now," says Ned Schmidt of the Value View Gold Report.
Indeed, the physical silver market operated in a deficit for the fifteenth-consecutive year in 2004, according to the CPM Group, a commodity research and consulting-services provider based in New York.
In its Silver Survey report released in late August, the group estimated that newly refined supplies of 750 million ounces fell short of industrial demand by 44.5 million in 2004. And the deficit, though not quite as high, will likely reach 31.4 million this year, with total supply estimated at 774.3 million.
The supply deficit could spell more gains for silver on the futures market, which posted a climb of around 40%, or $2 an ounce, over the past two years.
"As you analyze silver's potential, the fundamentals become powerfully bullish," said Paul Mladjenovic, a New Jersey-based certified financial planner at PM Financial Services.
The "chronic silver shortage ... is becoming more acute," he said.
Demand factor
Overall demand is growing as silver is used in cell phones, military technology and a range of new applications in the healthcare sector and alternative energy technology.
On the other hand, Peter Grandich, editor of the Grandich Letter, takes a contrarian view and believes that the poor man's gold will continue to "play second fiddle to its namesake and while it can have its own moments in the sun, it will continue to need a higher gold price to help lift it up."
But this appears to be a lone voice.
Indeed, Philip Klapwijk, executive chairman at precious metals consultancy GFMS Ltd., expects gold to climb toward the $480 mark before the year is over because of rising investor demand for the metal.
"A similar phenomenon is likely in silver, a metal that historically tends to follow gold," he said.
It's true that silver is an industrial metal and is affected by economic demand, but even during the depression of the 1970s, "silver tracked gold because the Fed was creating 'money' -- actually, banking system credit -- out of thin air," said John Stafford, editor of Stafford's Investment Strategy Letter.
"More 'money' and credit was created 'out of thin air' by the Fed and world central banks in the single decade of the 1970s than the entire cumulative total in all the world's previous history," he said, citing an academic study done in the early 1980s.
So it's no wonder that silver went to $50 from $1.29 an ounce, and gold to $850 from $35 in early 1980.
And in the framework of a rising gold price, silver is actually the "coiled spring," Schmidt said.
Traders "will move to silver for the unrealized opportunity it represents," he said, noting that the silver market simply "cannot take incremental demand without its price being moved materially higher."
Price outlook
Against this backdrop, there is valid sentiment that silver will end the year above the $7 mark.
The key levels for silver to watch are $7.25 and $7.50, Schmidt said. "As they are taken out, silver will move on to $9 this fall."
Klapwijk would only go as far to say that "another spike above the $7.50 mark is very likely before year-end."
"Long term, I believe that silver will easily exceed its all-time high of $50."
Analyst Stafford sees prices reaching $8 or more this year and maybe even trading in the $12 to $15 range in five years.
Given silver's growing uses, Mladjenovic expects prices to see a very strong upward movement during 2006 to 2008, with silver having an opportunity to top its recent April 2004 high of $8.50 by the end of 2005 or early 2006.
Expectations are for Silver to trade in the $8 to $10 range in the fourth quarter of this year, or no later than the first quarter of 2006 with $50 a reachable target within 2-5 years according to Analyst Mladjenovic.
Imelda Marcos Sues to get her Diamonds Back!
Imelda Marcos, former first lady and wife of the late President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, filed a motion in court to prevent the auction of as much as $10 million worth of diamonds and jewelry.
Marcos said the jewelry is hers and told the government to "Please stop this. This is too much repression."
Christie's auction house was already sorting jewels to prepare bid for auction as early as November, but a complete and current value of goods remained unknown. The collection includes a Burmese ruby, diamonds and two diamond tiaras, and many pearl necklaces and jewelry. Sotheby's and Boham's are scheduled to review the collection in coming days.
In 1986 United States customs officials confiscated diamonds carried in diapers by the Marcoses after their flight arrived in Hawaii from Manila.
Marcos, 76, filed a petition on September 15 to stop the sale of the collection including that of a 37.5 carat diamond. She says in the document that the diamond was left at the couple's home when they fled to Hawaii and it was then stolen before it ended up with "a certain Demetriou Roumeliotes, who attempted to smuggle them out of the country."
Roumeliotes is a Greek national who was prevented from fleeing Manila with 60 pieces of jewelry.
Proceeds from the sale of Marcos' jewelry would fund a land reform program in the Philippines. The jewelry was twice before prevented from auction due to litigation.
Hey, Yo, Phillipine Government! I agree with Imelda. Give her back her diamonds and jewelry! If you guys want to make some real money, auction off her shoes!
Watch Out!! Diamonds! China Is Coming!!
In the past several weeks we have been highlighting the fact that China is rapidly emerging as a world super-power in trade, manufacturing, and sales. Diamond companies from the USA, Israel, India, and Belgium are scurrying to open offices and manufacturing plants in China in order to take advantage of this explosive growth and potential windfall of spending by Chinese natives.
Now comes a report issued on Sept. 16th of China's explosive rise to economic superpower status confirmed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) think-tank in a new report predicting that it would leapfrog the United States and Germany within five years to become the world's biggest exporter.
Despite growing social strains and international concerns, OECD said there would be no let-up in China's breakneck growth.
Although China is not a member of the OECD - a group of the world's richest developed nations, the Paris-based organization published its first report on September 16 on a country that has been transformed within a quarter of a century from a struggling economy to an industrial titan.
It already accounts for 6 percent of world exports and its potential to supply the globe with low-cost manufactured goods has caused tensions in the global trading system, exemplified by the recent "bra wars" row. The OECD said China's share was on course to rise to 10 percent by 2010, by which time it would overtake the United States.
Despite 25 years of gross domestic product (GDP) growth at an annual rate of more than 9 percent, China is not expected to slow in the near future. The think-tank predicted that the world's most populous nation would overtake Britain, France and Italy to become the fourth largest economy within five years.
Hardly a day goes by without new evidence of China's surge up the ranks of the richest economies. This week Ernst & Young released a report predicting it would surpass the U.S. as the world's second largest consumer of luxury goods within 10 years.
The accounting firm forecast 10 percent to 20 percent annual growth rates in the sector until 2015, by which time sales are expected to exceed $11.5 billion, or 29 percent of the world's total, second only to Japan.
A separate study by the China Academy of Social Sciences predicted that the middle class would more than double in size by 2020 to account for about 40 percent of the 1.3 billion population.
If such statistics are not convincing enough, one must only look at the cityscapes of powerhouses such as Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing, where the transformation is apparent in the forest of skyscrapers, shopping malls and roads.
But the OECD also identified areas that will have to be reformed if Beijing is to complete the transition from a centrally planned economy. These include strengthening the financial system, further steps to allow the currency to float freely and measures to reduce inequality.
Chiming with last week's report from the United Nations, the OECD said there was evidence of a growing gulf between urban and rural China and between rich and poor on the eastern seaboard. "Although economic dynamism has helped reduce the number living in absolute poverty, income levels are still low and inequality is on the rise, not only between the cities and rural regions, but also within the more prosperous coastal provinces," the OECD said.
The think-tank added that to reduce the gap in incomes, the government should make it easier for people to move from the country to the cities, but urbanization should also be carefully managed, partly though land law a reform of the land law.
The strains of China's spectacular growth are increasingly apparent. Energy shortages cause frequent brown-outs on the industrialized eastern seaboard during the peak demand periods of midsummer and midwinter. To ease demand, the factories of Shenzhen have to halt production one day a week and the lights on Shanghai's Bund, the old financial district, are cut on many nights.
Some of the biggest problems have been in the area of the environment and health. According to the U.N. and the OECD, China's ability to meet the millennium development goal of cutting infant mortality by two-thirds is being hampered by unequal access to healthcare, and this point was also emphasized by the OECD.
But the state is no longer the main force for change. The OECD noted that, as a result of "profound shifts in government policies, the private sector is now driving China's remarkable economic growth". Over half of China's GDP was produced by privately controlled enterprises.
"Made In China" might have made you laugh, sneer, and snicker in the past, but now the Chinese are laughing all the way to the Bank!
On-line Shopping & Sales Increasing!
An increase in the number of female shoppers will contribute to 14 percent of jewelry sales moving online by 2010, according to a new forecast from Forrester Research released Monday.
Last year, it was estimated that 5 percent of jewelry sales were occurring online.
But jewelry is just part of a retail online picture which is growing even faster across the board, according to Forrester. Thanks to innovations that will make online shopping simpler and more engaging, online retail sales will nearly double within five years—from $172 billion in 2005 to $329 billion in 2010, according to the report. That increase includes a 14 percent compound annual growth rate over the next five years.
"Businesses are debating their online strategy. Many believe they became too focused on sales. Now they're looking at their Web sites as a way to drive in-store traffic and increase their engagement with customers," said Forrester Research Vice President Carrie Johnson in a release. "This is a huge shift in philosophy, as e-commerce enters a more sophisticated phase. But it's also creating tension, as CEOs demand ROI for expensive Web sites with hard-to-define metrics, such as loyalty and brand."
Since more and more mainstream consumers are already shopping online, retailers are investing in improved online shopping experiences by using state-of-the-art technologies, such as sophisticated analytics and personalization tools.
Other highlights from the Forrester report:
-E-commerce will represent 13 percent of total U.S. retail sales in 2010.
-Travel remains the largest online retail category, growing from $63 billion in 2005 to $119 billion in 2010.
-General merchandise (all retail categories, excluding food and beverage, auto and travel) will top $100 billion for the first time in 2005.
-Online sales of health and beauty products will grow at an annual rate of 22 percent.
-Twenty-nine percent of small appliance sales will migrate to the Web by the end of the decade, as a generation that grew up with the Internet marries and attends weddings.
-Categories showing significant growth (i.e., growth outpacing the overall 14 percent compound annual rate) include: apparel, consumer electronics, health and beauty, food and beverage, home products and sporting goods.
The $329 billion Forrester projects for online retail sales for 2010 represents a minor downward adjustment from its 2004 forecast.
Platinum and Diamonds HOT HOT HOT at The Emmys!
Though consumers have been warming to yellow gold in recent months, television's biggest stars stuck mainly to a celebrity staple—platinum and diamonds—for Sunday's Emmy Awards.
Style-wise, the stars chose pieces that are sure to gratify jewelers. Earrings of all shapes were rampant, with hoop, chandelier and linear styles all popping up on the red carpet. Bracelets were the season's hot addition, with styles that ranged from diamond and gemstone line bracelets to gold bangles largely trumping cocktail rings, as stars strove to adorn their wrists instead.
Long necklaces, which have taken root within the fashion world in recent months, will enjoy longevity for at least for another season, if celebrity preferences are as strong an indicator as in years past.
Gold Rises for 5th Straight Day!
Gold rose for the fifth straight day as a surge in energy prices renewed concern the pace of inflation may accelerate.
Gold for immediate delivery yesterday touched $468.65 an ounce, the highest since January 1988, as oil prices jumped 7 percent on concern Tropical Storm Rita may strengthen into a hurricane before striking Texas. Investors buy gold to hedge against inflation, which erodes the value of other fixed-asset investments, such as bonds.
`Speculators continued to buy on the back of inflationary worries and uncertainty about the U.S. economy,' Darren Heathcote, head of trading at N.M. Rothschild & Sons (Australia) Ltd., said in a report e-mailed today.
$525 an Ounce?
Gold for immediate delivery may rise as high as $470 an ounce this quarter, from a previous forecast of $450, Barclays Capital said in a weekly report e-mailed yesterday from London.
Barclays Capital, the investment-banking arm of Barclays Plc, is one of the nine market-making members of the London Bullion Market Association.
Newmont Mining Corp. President Pierre Lassonde expects gold to rise to $525 an ounce by January, according to an interview published yesterday in Le Temps.
Gold prices will then stabilize within a range $25 higher or lower than $525, Lassonde told the Geneva-based newspaper. The surge in prices will be triggered by a depreciation in the dollar, the newspaper quoted him as saying.
Stay tuned.
Fed Raises Interest Rates Again: Diamond Price Increases Expected.
The Federal Open Market Committee increased its target for overnight interest rates by a quarter percentage point to 3.75% today. This is the eleventh straight meeting with a quarter-point rate hike. The Fed funds rate is now at its highest level since June 2001. The increase in the federal funds rate was expected by traders and economists on Wall Street. There was one dissent. Fed governor Mark Olson preferred that the Fed stand pat. The committee once again concluded its monetary policy stance remains accommodative and that this "accommodation" can be removed "at a pace that is likely to be measured."
Analysts are not as sanguine believing that the reversal of rising Interests rates is a long way off. Current upward price pressures in both the Oil and Precious Metals markets will spill over into the Diamonds sector as the cost of doing business increases.
Consumers can expect to be paying more for their Holiday jewelry.
Ernst & Young Predicts Challenging Season for Retailers.
Rising distribution costs that resulted from Hurricane Katrina will deliver a hit to retail spending this holiday, but consumers will still pursue luxury products, the Ernst & Young Consumer Trends Center said in a preliminary report released today.
The firm expects holiday sales increases for November and December to be 6 and 7 percent this year, compared to an 8.3 percent increase for the same period last year.
"It will be a challenging holiday season for most retailers, but many have back-up distribution plans and inventories that will help them cope with the effects of Hurricane Katrina," said Jay McIntosh, Americas Director of Retail and Consumer Products for Ernst & Young LLP. "To bolster traffic and sales, retailers will begin promoting earlier in the season and promote more frequently and aggressively than originally planned." Luxury items such as diamonds and jewelry, due to the growing luxury trend will continue to appeal to shoppers, and higher gas prices likely will boost Internet sales.
Ernst & Young issues a final holiday forecast in early November.
Big Funds Push Gold To-18 Year High! Silver & Platinum UP!
Gold touched 18-year highs yesterday as surging commodity prices signalled accelerating inflation across the world.
Big funds drove the price of gold to modern records in all major currencies, reaching $471.40 an ounce in London before falling back slightly on profit-taking.
Ross Norman, head of TheBullionDesk, said gold had lagged base metals and energy resources in the current commodities boom but is now catching up as investors begin to suspect that the world's central banks are responding to the oil shock "the lazy man's way" - by yielding to creeping inflation.
"The mindset has changed. The big funds are buying into strength and holding. We've broken through very important chart points and there are now prospects of $600 next year," he said at a Dow Jones-AIG event.
Of great interest but little noticed is the fact that Copper and Nickel have increased over 200% over the past two years, driven by surging industrial demand in China and resilient US growth. Oil fell slightly yesterday to $64.32 a barrel for Brent crude in late trading after OPEC ministers pledged to raised output by 2million barrels a day, but it remains at levels viewed as unthinkable just five years ago.
Costly commodities have pushed US inflation to an annual rate of 3.6 %, reaching 5% over the past six months. Interest rates are barely keeping pace even after the US Federal Reserve's 1/4 point rise to 3-3/4% yesterday - an ultra-lax stance heavily criticised by the Bank of International Settlements.
In Britain, inflation reached 2.4% in August, the highest in eight years. With the M4 money supply still ballooning at 10.2% a year, there are concerns that inflation may burst through the Bank of England's upper limit of 3% this Autumn.
Analysts say the 13% rise in gold since May is different from earlier rallies in its four-year climb back into favor. Previous surges largely reflected weakness in the dollar, leaving gold almost static against the euro.
Almost unnoticed but of tremendous significance during this latest surge of Gold has been the very strong price increase of Platinum, now selling at $929/0Z.
Silver, the poor Man's Gold, is quietly moving up as well...now selling at $7.29/OZ.
As we have mentioned in the past days these price surges in the Precious Metals coupled with worldwide economic inflation, Oil, and the slow recovery from Katrina, will increase prices for consumers on diamonds and jewelry during the upcoming Holiday shopping season.
Black Diamond With A Curse.
In what is being called the world's largest exhibit of diamonds underway at the London Natural History Museum, a new diamond joined the display on September 21.
The Black Orlov or The Eye of Brahma, joined the Diamonds show begun at the museum July 8. A 65-year old curse is associated with the Black Orlov and lore tells that the jewel was responsible for deaths of two Russia princesses after it was removed from a Hindu shrine in southern India.
A monk removed the original rough 195-carat diamond from the eye of the Idol of Brahma at a shrine near Pondicherry, India. This act forever cursed all future owners of the precious stone by bringing a violent death.
In 1947 princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov and princess Leonila Galitsine-Bariatinsky (both former owners of the Black Orlov) leapt to their deaths in apparent suicides. Fifteen years earlier, J.W. Paris, the diamond dealer who imported the stone to the United States, had jumped to his death from one of New York's tallest buildings shortly after concluding the sale of the jewel.
In an attempt to break the curse, the diamond was re-cut into three separate gemstones and has since been owned by a succession of private owners, all of whom seem to have escaped the curse. The 67.5-carat Black Orlov is set in a 108-diamond brooch suspended from a 124-diamond necklace.
Black diamonds are incredibly rare. Only one in 10,000 diamonds mined are colored. Most colored diamonds get their color from chemical impurities or defects in the stone itself. Black diamonds are different: Their color comes from the presence of tiny mineral inclusions.
Recent studies have shown that these inclusions are predominantly the iron oxide minerals magnetite and haematite along with native iron itself. When these iron-rich inclusions occur in a high enough proportion they can even make diamonds magnetic.
Holiday Ads Target Male Egos.
The diamond industry continues to target the male ego with marketing plans this holiday season, as Diamond Trading Co. (DTC) ad agency J. Walter Thompson (JWT) has devised a fourth-quarter campaign asking men, "What will you do for love this Christmas?"
DTC's new multimedia campaign will tell its story through two sequential television commercials aired separately—the first in mid-November and the second at Thanksgiving. In the weeks between the spots, consumers will be able to follow the story through local radio ads and an interactive, experiential Web site. The campaign will be supported by national newspaper insertions and out-of-home placements in top diamond jewelry markets, with ads highlighting three-stone diamond jewelry, diamond right-hand rings and diamond solitaires.
The ads depict the story of a man who gets stranded at an airport during a snowstorm as he is trying to return home for Christmas. After talking to his wife by phone, looking at the three-stone diamond necklace he's gotten her for Christmas strengthens his resolve, and the commercial ends with a shot of him running through the airport terminal, followed by the teaser: "To be continued at ADiamondIsForever.com." Consumers can then follow the story through a DTC Web site enabling them track the man's journey home. Finally, the second commercial will debut during Thanksgiving week, when viewers will find that the man has commandeered a snowplow to get home.
Guys, what do you think? Appealing?
Dancing Diamonds for Imelda! The Saga Continues!
Diamondvues has been following the story of the Phillipine Government trying to recoup the money they claim Imelda Marcos stole from them by litigating to seize her diamond jewelry.
In this continuing saga, todays Phillipine Inquirer reports that the Phillipine gov't is confident that the world's fascination with her mystique will fetch a price running into the millions of dollars, the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) says it is also now considering auctioning off former First Lady Imelda Marcos gowns and famous shoe collection along with her jewelry.
PCGG Commissioner Ricardo Abcede said he will discuss this possibility with three international auction houses he had earlier invited to bid for three collections of jewelry seized from the Marcoses after the 1986 People Power revolt that ended Ferdinand Marcos 20-year rule.
In an interview with the Inquirer yesterday, Abcede said that, like the jewelry, Imeldas gowns and shoes were nonperforming assets that should have been sold a long time ago.
Abcede said he expects that the jewelry alone, earlier estimated to be worth around $10 million, would fetch as much as $150 million, or about P8.4 billion, in an international auction.
Fascination with Imelda
Abcede believes that the worldwide publicity that the jewelry has received, plus the fascination with Imelda, the total price could be 15 times what has been previously estimated. This has happened several times with auction houses, Abcede said. He recalled that a rocking chair once owned by former U.S. President John F. Kennedy fetched a price 15 times its original estimated value.
Its a celebrity auction, meaning the price will be dictated not by the item itself but by its association with the celebrity, Abcede said.
He did not say how much the gowns and shoes would fetch or who would be interested in them.
Displaying Imeldas gowns and shoes as done in the past is no longer feasible because people lose interest after around three months, according to Abcede. He added that, like the jewelry, they could be put to better use by being sold, with the proceeds going to the governments land reform program.
3,000 pairs of shoes!
At the time of the Marcoses ouster, the former first lady was reported to have around 3,000 pairs of shoes, including many designed by such world-famous names as Ferragamo, Givenchy, Chanel, and Christian Dior, all size eight-and-a-half.
She had admitted owning only 1,060 pairs, saying they were mostly given to her as presents by Filipino shoe manufacturers in Marikina. Nonetheless, this massive shoe collection has gained her international notoriety.
Her gowns, mostly ternos, were designed by top Filipino designers like Pitoy Moreno, Ramon Valera and Joe Salazar, and international designers Valentino and Jean Paul Gaultier (in the 70s before he became famous).
The PCGG has been negotiating for some time now with three major international auction houses, namely, Sothebys, Christies, and Bonhams, for the right to sell the Marcos jewelry.
While the auction was planned initially to be held abroad, the PCGG is now considering holding it in the Philippines in hopes it would attract tourists and funnel taxes from the sale directly into the national coffers instead of going to some foreign government. Abcede said March would be a good time to hold the auction in Manila because it would fit in with an international jewelry fair in Hongkong.
Mrs. Marcos is seeking a court injunction to stop the sale, claiming she is the rightful owner of the jewelry, but nothing has come out of this thus far.
The jewelry consists of three lots: the Malacanang collection consisting of around 300 items left behind in Malacanang when the Marcoses fled; the Honolulu collection of around 400 items confiscated by U.S. Customs in Hawaii when the Marcos landed there in 1986; and the so-called Roumeliotes collection, supposedly the most expensive, confiscated at the Manila airport in 1986 from Greek national Demetriou Roumeliotes, said to be a friend of the Mrs. Marcos.
Abcede said keeping the jewelry on display as some quarters want goes against the mandate of the PCGG and would require a congressional amendment of the law creating it.
I have one question, friends: Abcede heads the Commission on Good Government; isn't that an oxymoron? Talk about non-performing ass-ets!
Diamond Auction at Sotheby's Tops 5 Mil
Yesterday's (Sept. 28th) Sotheby's New York sale of Important Jewels totaled $5.3 million, 70 percent sold by lot and 78 percent sold by value.
Some highlights of the sale included:
5.58 carat, D-Flawless diamond ring: $385,600
12.42 carat, Fancy Intense Yellow, VVS1 diamond ring: $168,000
6.41 carat, Fancy Intense Yellow, VS2 diamond ring: $162,000
5.04 carat, D, VVS2, diamond ring: $126,000
Sotheby's featured period and signed pair of diamond pendant-earrings, circa 1915 that brought $60,000 and an aquamarine and diamond clip, Cartier, London, circa 1935 that sold for $32,400.
We can dream, can't we?
Diamond and Precious Metals Week In Review: 9/30/05
This week saw strong trading activity at the Hong Kong show with good overall demand for diamonds especially larger stones. Excellent makes and over-sizes brought premium prices. Trade is concerned about levels of sales for this upcoming Holiday Season as consumer confidence falls amid rising oil prices.
Gold hit a high of $473.50 in trading yesterday with Platinum rising to $929 and Silver making a big jump to $7.51.
Analysts expect some short-term volatility in the Precious Metals but over the next few months expect Gold to rise to the $500.00 area.
Some dealers said gold was prone to profit-taking but would find support at around $470 an ounce, thanks to firm Tokyo gold futures and physical demand at lower levels.
"Where do we go from here, is a big question. I still don't, at this present moment, see a reason to be selling gold. I wouldn't be surprised if we went towards $475 during next week," said Darren Heathcote, head of trading at N M Rothschild.
Dealers said gold was likely to watch the dollar and crude oil for direction. The euro was higher than New York levels at $1.2044.
The market awaits the payrolls report for September due next week, and Thursday's report showing that U.S. jobless claims fell more than expected suggested the data would be stronger than forecasts.
