Some of yesterday’s surge in the price of gold bullion was apparently driven by this report from Pravda that his since been de-bunked by the more mainstream financial press:

China has confirmed the intention to purchase 191.3 tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund at an open auction, Finmarket news agency said.
…
“Chinese officials have confirmed previous announcements from IMF experts and said that the purchasing of 191 tons of gold would not exert negative influence on the world market. China is interested in the development of the domestic consumer market,” the agency reports.

Well, maybe not – Reuters followed up and filed this report:

Contacted by Reuters, the author of the Rough and Polished story, Nadezhda Shagrova, who works as a tour guide and journalist in Shanghai, said she did not have any official information to back up her story.

“The source for the story? Well, that’s been written about in lots of places. I mean, Xinhua news agency wrote about that and other official Chinese sources, lots of them. Why are you asking?”

Told that gold prices were moving on her story, she said: “No, no, there’s just no way that could be because of my article.”

As reported in China Economic Review this morning, an official at the China Gold Association said China would not buy any IMF gold, a view that has been widely held for many months since they are now the world’s number one producer of gold and, when combined with overseas acquisitions have a natural source of supply to add to their holdings.