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Gold Cash (GCY00)

1,347.47-12.15 (-0.89%) 7:07P EDT (COMEX)
Commodity Price Quote as of Sunday, May 19th, 2013 View Help

Contract Specifications

Symbol GC
Name Gold (GC)
Exchange COMEX
Trading Months February, April, June, August, October, December (G, J, M, Q, V, Z)
Trading Unit 100 troy ounces
Tick Size 0.10 (10 cents) per troy ounce ($10.00 per contract)
Daily Limit None
Trading Hours 5:00p.m. - 4:15p.m. (Sun-Fri) (RTH 7:20a.m. - 12:30p.m.) CST
Last Trading Day Third last business day of the maturing delivery month
Value of one futures unit $100
Value of one options unit $100

CRB Yearbook Description

Gold is a dense, bright yellow metallic element with a high luster. Gold is an inactive substance and is unaffected by air, heat, moisture, and most solvents. Gold has been coveted for centuries for its unique blend of rarity, beauty, and near indestructibility. The Egyptians mined gold before 2,000 BC. The first known, pure gold coin was made on the orders of King Croesus of Lydia in the sixth century BC.

Gold is found in nature in quartz veins and secondary alluvial deposits as a free metal. Gold is produced from mines on every continent with the exception of Antarctica, where mining is forbidden. Because it is virtually indestructible, much of the gold that has ever been mined still exists above ground in one form or another. The largest producer of gold in the U.S. by far is the state of Nevada, with Alaska and California running a distant second and third.

Gold is a vital industrial commodity. Pure gold is one of the most malleable and ductile of all the metals. It is a good conductor of heat and electricity. The prime industrial use of gold is in electronics. Another important sector is dental gold where it has been used for almost 3,000 years. Other applications for gold include decorative gold leaf, reflective glass, and jewelry.

In 1792, the United States first assigned a formal monetary role for gold when Congress put the nation's currency on a bimetallic standard, backing it with gold and silver. Under the gold standard, the U.S. government was willing to exchange its paper currency for a set amount of gold, meaning the paper currency was backed by a physical asset with real value. However, President Nixon in 1971 severed the convertibility between the U.S. dollar and gold, which led to the breakdown of the Bretton Woods international payments system. Since then, the prices of gold and of paper currencies have floated freely. U.S. and other central banks now hold physical gold reserves primarily as a store of wealth.

Gold futures and options are traded at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Gold futures are traded on the Bolsa de Mercadorias and Futuros (BM&F) and on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM), the NYSE-LIFFE exchange, the Central Japan Commodity Exchange (CJCE), the Hong Kong Futures Exchange (HKFE) and the Korea Futures Exchange (KOFEX). The NYMEX gold futures contract calls for the delivery of 100 troy ounces of gold (0.995 fineness), and the contract trades in terms of dollars and cents per troy ounce.

Prices - Nymex gold futures prices on a nearest-futures basis continued to strengthen in the first half of 2011 and exploded to an all-time high of $1,921 an ounce in September 2011 as the credit rating downgrades of the U.S., Italy and Japan fueled demand for gold as an alternative asset. European sovereign-debt contagion fears, however, prompted a rally in the dollar index to a 1-year high that fueled massive long liquidation in gold prices. Investors held a record 2,360.8 tons of in exchange-traded products as of December 2011. Gold prices then slumped to a 6-month low in December and finished the year up +10% at $1,567 an ounce. Gold prices remain in a secular bull market and retain strong long-term support from the Federal Reserve's pledge to extend its record low interest rates until at least late 2014, the ongoing European debt crisis, and extraordinary easy G7 monetary policies.

Supply - World mine production of gold rose +5.5% yr/yr to 2.700 million kilograms in 2011, a new record high (1 kilogram = 32.1507 troy ounces). The world's largest producers of gold in 2011 were China with 13.2% of world production, followed by Australia (10.0%), the U.S (8.8%), Russia (7.4%), and South Africa (7.0%).

Gold mine production has been moving lower in most major gold-producing countries such as South Africa, Australia, and the U.S. For example, South Africa's production of 192,000 kilograms in 2010 was down -4.0% yr/yr and that was about one-third the production levels of more than 600,000 kilograms seen in the 1980s and early 1990s. On the other hand, China's gold production in 2011 rose +7.8% to a record 355,000 kilograms. U.S. gold mine production in 2011 rose +2.6% yr/yr to 237,000 kilograms, just above 2009 production level which was the lowest production since 1988. U.S. refinery production of gold from domestic and foreign ore sources in 2011 rose +8.6% yr/yr to 190,000 kilograms. U.S. refinery production of gold from secondary scrap sources in 2011 rose +13.6% yr/yr to 225,000 kilograms.

Demand - U.S. consumption of gold in 2011 rose +11.1% yr/yr kilograms. The most recent data available from the early 1990s showed that 71% of that gold demand came from jewelry and the arts, 22% from industrial uses, and 7% from dental uses.

Trade - U.S. exports of gold (excluding coinage) in 2011 rose +22.7% yr/yr to 470,000 kilograms, down from the 16-year high of 568,000 kilograms seen in 2008. U.S. imports of gold for consumption in 2011 rose +11.0% yr/yr to 670,000 kilograms, a new record high.

Articles from the Commodity Research Bureau (CRB) Commodity Yearbook. The single most comprehensive source of commodity and futures market information available, the Yearbook is the book of record of the Commodity Research Bureau, which is, in turn, the organization of record for the commodity industry itself. Its sources - reports from governments, private industries, and trade and industrial associations - are authoritative, and its historical scope is second to none. Additional information can be found at www.crbyearbook.com.
More commodity data from Commodity Research Bureau.