With continued consolidation in the gold and silver markets, below is an extremely important update on the gold market that was recently issued by SentimenTrader. There is also a note about the human workforce being by replaced by robots in China.
Jason Goepfert at SentimenTrader: “The last update here suggested that the risk/reward for precious metals, gold in particular, was poor due to an extreme position in speculator positions and seasonality, primarily. Gold has sold off more than 5% since then and optimism has come down quite a bit, causing risk in that market to recede as well.
Gold is nearing what short-term traders will likely assume is support from the lows in March, and if the metal fails to hold that level, we should see a quick drop that should alleviate any excess optimism.”
Also of importance…
Rise Of The Robots
A portion of today’s note from Art Cashin: The Robots Are Coming – Maybe In Battalions – Late last week, perhaps in response to my multiple musing on robotics emanating from the Kotok dinner, a long distance member of the FoF sent me an article from “Digital Trends”. That article relied heavily on the South China Morning Post. Here’s an opening bit:
A Foxconn factory’s workforce today shrunk from 110,000 employees down to 50,000, according to a report from the South China Morning Post. Why? Because robots can do the same job.
Foxconn is Apple’s primary manufacturing partner, and there is a fear that other factories in the Chinese city of Kunshan will do the same thing, something that could have a disastrous impact on the population of the area, which is largely made up of migrant workers. In fact, according to the report as many as 600 companies in the area have plans to rely more on automation.
Foxconn has been working toward replacing workers with robots for a while now, obviously in an attempt to save money and increase profits. Sure, the robots are expensive up front, but over time they’re far cheaper than hiring and employing workers. It’s not known exactly which products are manufactured at the Kunshan plant.
However, The Post says that companies in the area made 51 million laptops and 20 million smartphones last year. Over time, Foxconn plants are going to get increasingly automated — not just to save money, but also to continue to meet Apple’s demands.
Replacing 55% of your workers with robots is quite a significant move. It is also significant to China. The replaced workers are most likely to have been that key demographic – rural folks who moved from farm to city to get into the “modern economy”. I thought there were supposed to be a couple of hundred million waiting to follow them in. Let’s hope it’s an exaggeration.
***KWN has now released Pierre Lassonde’s remarkable audio interview, where he discusses his $10,000+ gold price prediction and much more CLICK HERE OR ON THE IMAGE BELOW.
***Also just released: Famed Short Seller On The Gold & Silver Pullback, Plus Must-See Gold, Silver And GLD Sentiment Charts CLICK HERE.
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