24 February 2016 — Wednesday
YESTERDAY in GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM and PALLADIUM
The gold price opened flat at 6 p.m. EST on Monday evening in New York, but began a rally about ninety minutes later. That was capped around 11:30 a.m. Hong Kong time on their Tuesday morning—and three hours later, half of these gains were gone. Gold attempted to rally a few times after that, but was capped every time it broke above the $1,220 spot mark. But starting at the noon London silver fix, a rally began that had somewhat more substance. Although it got sold off minutes after the COMEX open, it powered a bit higher until London closed at 11 a.m. EST. From there it got sold down a bit into the COMEX close—and then proceeded to rally in the after-hours market. The high tick of the day came about ten minutes before the end of the Tuesday trading session—and it got sold down a couple of bucks in last few minutes.
The low and high tick were recorded by the CME Group as $1,207.60 and $1,229.00 in the April contract.
Gold finished the Tuesday session in New York at $1,225.40 spot, up $17.10 from Monday. Net volume was pretty heavy at just under 161,000 contracts.
Here’s yesterday’s 5-minute gold tick chart courtesy of Brad Robertson—and it runs right up until the 5 p.m. EST close yesterday afternoon. Even though there was a decent amount of price movement in Far East trading on their Tuesday morning, there wasn’t much in the way of net volume, but it was a bit higher than background until the COMEX opened at 8:20 a.m. EST, which is 6:20 a.m. Denver time on this chart. Once COMEX trading closed, volume dropped off to almost nothing—and the price movements in after-hours trading was on very light volume. The dark gray line is midnight in New York—add two hours for EST—and there’s still no ‘click to enlarge’ feature.
The silver price certainly wasn’t allowed much room to play. It rallied about a dime by 1 p.m. Hong Kong time—and then sold down to unchanged by shortly before 1 p.m. GMT in London, which was minutes before 8 a.m. in New York It gained that dime back by noon EST, then gave back a nickel of it by the COMEX close, then rallied 6 cents by the end of the after-hours market. Nothing much to see here.
The low and high ticks aren’t worth my effort to look up.
Silver finished the Monday trading session at $15.26 spot, up 10.5 cents from Monday’s close. Gross volume was pretty spectacular at 93,897 contracts—but once the March activity was subtracted out, net volume imploded to just under 21,000 contracts, which is very light. With March going off the board at the COMEX close on Friday, I’m expecting big volume days for the rest of the week.
Platinum was up about five bucks by noon Hong Kong time—and traded a few dollar above unchanged until the COMEX open. Then away it went to the upside, until either the buyer disappeared, or ‘da boyz’ came along to stick a fork in it about 12:20 p.m. in New York. It got sold down four bucks off its high by the close of COMEX trading, but gained most of that back in the after-hours session. Platinum closed yesterday in New York at $943 spot, up 16 dollars on the day—gaining back all of Monday’s ‘losses’—and then some.
Palladium chopped around unchanged for most of the Tuesday trading session—and its attempt to rise to the $500 spot mark got turned back again starting just after the London p.m. gold fix. In most ways it was a repeat of the price action on Monday when this precious metal was stopped in its tracks at the $500 mark by brute force during the same time period—and that’s very obvious on the chart below. Palladium finished the Tuesday session at $498 spot, up 4 bucks from Monday.
The dollar index closed late on Monday afternoon in New York at 97.39—and it got sold down 20 basis points in the first hour of trading when the markets opened at 6:00 p.m. EST on Monday evening. I would guess that ‘gentle hands’ showed up at that juncture and guided the dollar index higher from there, but with a few speed bumps thrown in during the London and New York sessions, as the index really looked like it wanted to roll over and die on more than several occasions. The 97.58 high tick came minutes after the equity markets opened in New York yesterday morning, but shortly before the London close about an hour later, it had to ‘rescued’ again. By noon EST it had settled down—and then traded sideways into the close, finishing the Tuesday session at 97.44—up 5 basis points.
I don’t know how you see this, dear reader, but the dollar index—along with the U.S. equity markets—look like they just want to curl up their toes if left to their own devices. But, for the moment, the powers-that-be are not allowing that to happen.
And here’s the 6-month U.S. dollar chart so you can keep track of the medium term. But, like the precious metals, the ‘values’ you see on these charts are micromanaged to perfection as well.
The gold stocks gapped up two percent at the open—and chopped to their high tick by shortly after 11 a.m. in New York trading. They sold off to their lows by shortly after the COMEX close, but then rallied as the day went on, as gold began to rally in after-hours trading. The HUI closed higher by 2.29 percent.
The chart pattern for the silver equities was about the same, except their high tick came minutes before 10 a.m. in New York. They, like their golden brethren, were then sold to their lows minutes after the COMEX close—and into negative territory. Despite the fact that silver rallied a bit from that point onward, the stocks themselves couldn’t quite squeeze a positive finish on the day, as Nick Laird’s Intraday Silver Sentiment Index ended the Tuesday session basically unchanged at down 0.11 percent.
The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that 30 gold and 1 silver contract were posted for delivery within the COMEX-approved depositories on Thursday. The only short/issuer worth mentioning was Canada’s Scotiabank with 25 contracts—and the two long/stoppers of note were HSBC USA and Citigroup, with 18 and 11 contracts respectively. JPMorgan stopped the lone silver contract for its client account. The link to yesterday’s Issuers and Stoppers Report is here.
The CME Preliminary Report for the Tuesday trading session showed that February open interest in gold dropped by 12 contracts, leaving 136 still around, minus the 30 mentioned above. And with the delivery of that 1 silver contract, the February deliveries in that precious metal are now complete.
There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday, so I would assume that the deposit on Monday was legit. On Friday and Monday combined, there was 1,243,040 troy ounces of gold deposited in GLD—38.66 tonnes. And as of 7:07 p.m. EST yesterday evening, there were no reported changes in SLV.
The folks over at Switzerland’s Zürcher Kantonalbank updated their website with the goings-on inside both their gold and silver ETFs as of the close of business on Friday, February 19—and this is what they had to report. Despite the ongoing bull market in gold and silver so far this year, both ETFs showed declines. Their gold ETF dropped by 3,231 troy ounces—and their silver EFT dropped by a pretty chunky 362,082 troy ounces.
Nick Laird sent around this nifty chart to all and sundry at midnight Denver time last night—and it shows that 303 tonnes of gold have been deposited in all visible gold repositories, ETFs, etc. since the rally began at the start of 2016. At some point in the future, all this new demand will certainly have an effect on the price. It may be doing so at this very moment, but the powers-that-be are keeping a lid on it as best the can.
There was another sales report from the U.S. Mint. They sold 1,000 troy ounces of gold eagles—2,500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes—and another 224,000 silver eagles.
There was a bit of activity in gold over at the COMEX-approved depositories on Monday, as 3,800.000 troy ounces were received—380 ten-ounce gold bars—and 331 troy ounces were shipped out. All of the activity was at Brink’s, Inc.—and the link to that is here.
It was a much busier day in silver, of course, as 906,726 troy ounces were received—and of that amount, there was 606,141 troy ounces deposited in JPMorgan’s vault. There was also 602,976 troy ounces shipped out. The link to that action is here.
All this frantic in/out action in silver at the COMEX-approved depositories for all these years—and still not a soul other than Ted Butler is talking about it. Why that continues to be the case sure beats the heck out of me.
Here’s the chart of the JPMorgan silver warehouse inventory, updated with Tuesday’s deposit. And as you can see, it had zero silver in it back on May 1, 2011—the day after the drive-by shooting. With the exception of the Delaware silver depository, whose inventories are pretty stable, the other Big 4 silver depositories—Brinks, CNT, Scotiabank and HSBC USA—have been, or are, in precipitous decline.
It was pretty busy over at the COMEX-approved gold kilobar depositories in Hong Kong on their Monday, as they reported receiving 2,072 of them—and shipped 4,840 out the door. As usual, all of the activity was at Brink’s, Inc.—and the link to that, in troy ounces, is here.
It was a very slow news day yesterday—and I have few stories today, so I hope there’s the odd one that interests you in the list below.
CRITICAL READS
Richmond Fed Slides Back Into Contraction as New Orders Collapse
With the biggest drop in New Orders since September, Richmond Fed Manufacturing survey dropped to -4 (missing expectations of +2), hovering at its weakest in over 3 years. Across the board the components were weaker with order backlogs and shipments plunging, average workweek and wages dropping, and capacity utilization worst since October. Prices (paid and received) dropped notably as future expectations for wages, workweek, and employees all fell.
This 2-chart Zero Hedge article put in an appearance on their Internet site at 10:22 a.m. on Tuesday morning EST—and it’s worth a quick look. And another link to this news item is here.
OPEC has failed to stop U.S. shale revolution admits energy watchdog
The current crash in oil prices is sowing the seeds of a powerful rebound and a potential supply crunch by the end of the decade, but the prize may go to the U.S. shale industry rather than OPEC, the world’s energy watchdog has predicted.
America’s shale oil producers and Canada’s oil sands will come roaring back from late 2017 onwards once the current brutal purge is over, a cycle it described as the “rise, fall and rise again” of the fracking industry.
“Anybody who believes the U.S. revolution has stalled should think again. We have been very surprised at how resilient it is,” said Neil Atkinson, head of oil markets at the International Energy Agency.
The IEA forecasts in its “medium-term” outlook for the next five years that U.S. production will fall by 600,000 barrels per day (b/d) this year and 200,000 next year as the so-called “fracklog” of drilled wells is finally cleared and the global market works off a surplus of 1m b/d.
But shale will come back to life within six months – far more quickly than conventional mega-projects and offshore wells – once crude rebounds to $60. Shale output is expected to reach new highs of 5m b/d by 2021.
The OPEC chief admitted that the cartel has been caught badly off guard by crash, blaming the wild moves on speculative forces with control over 5m “paper barrels” on the derivatives markets. “The fundamentals have not changed that much,” he said.
As I’ve stated before, although there is an oil glut, the price is this low because ‘da boyz’ are running this market for fun, profit and price management purposes as well—as it’s one of the Big 6+1. This commentary by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard appeared on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site at 11:30 p.m. GMT on Monday night in London—and it’s definitely worth reading. It just missed my Tuesday column, so here it is today—and I thank Roy Stephens for sending it our way. Another link to this story is here.
The Trickle of U.S. Oil Exports Is Already Shifting Global Power
The sea stretched toward the horizon last New Year’s Eve as the Theo T, a red-and-white tug at her side, slipped quietly beneath the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge in Texas. Few Americans knew she was sailing into history.
Inside the Panamax oil tanker was a cargo that some on Capitol Hill had dubbed “Liquid American Freedom” — the first U.S. crude bound for overseas markets after Congress lifted the 40-year export ban.
It was a landmark moment for the beleaguered energy industry and one heavy with both symbolism and economic implications. The Theo T was ushering in a new era as it left the U.S. Gulf Coast bound for France.
The implications — both financial and political — for energy behemoths such as Saudi Arabia and Russia are staggering, according to Mark Mills, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank and a former venture capitalist. “It’s a game changer,” he said.
This interesting Bloomberg article showed up on their Internet site at 5:01 p.m. Denver time on Monday afternoon—and was subsequently updated very early Tuesday afternoon. I thank Doug Clark for sharing it with us—and another link to this news item is here.
JPMorgan Chase lifts reserves for bad oil, metals loans
JPMorgan Chase said Tuesday it is setting aside an additional $600 million to cover potential loan defaults in the energy and mining sector and could reserve another $1.5 billion if conditions worsen.
The biggest U.S. bank by assets boosted its reserves for bad oil and gas loans by $500 million in the first quarter of 2016, taking the total to $1.3 billion, according to a presentation by chief financial officer Marianne Lake at an investor day.
In mining, JPMorgan boosted reserves by $100 million, taking the total to $350 million.
Lake said JPMorgan could further boost its reserves by as much as $1.5 billion under a “stress scenario” in which the benchmark U.S. oil price trades at $25 a barrel for 18 months. JPMorgan does not view this outcome as a baseline scenario, she said.
This AFP story, filed from New York, was picked up the finance.yahoo.com Internet site Tuesday morning EST—and I thank Jerome Cherry for bringing it to our attention. Another link to this article is here.
London-Based Standard Chartered PLC Posts Horrendous Results as Impairments Soar 87%
Back in August, we warned that things were about to get much worse for Standard Chartered, whose EM focus makes the bank especially vulnerable to the ongoing downturn in commodities and the generally poor outlook for the emerging world in an environment characterized by slowing global growth and a persistently strong USD.
At the time, the Standard had just reported a 44% decline in H1 profits but investors were pacified by a 50% “rebasing” of the dividend. “The underlying business looks to be headed downhill in a hurry,” we warned, noting that trouble among corporate and institutional clients contributed to a 158% increase in impairments.
Needless to say, the outlook for EM hasn’t brightened since then. On Tuesday, we got a look at the bank’s full year results and boy, oh boy were they bad. Standard posted an annual net loss for the first time in more than 25 years with pre-tax red ink totaling $1.5 billion.
Impairments skyrocketed by 87% to more than $4 billion primarily due (again) to the Corporate & Institutional Clients and Commercial Clients business. “We have reviewed the portfolio extensively through 2015 and have increased provisioning, largely to reflect lower commodity prices as well as further deterioration in India,” the bank said.
This Zero Hedge article was posted on their Internet site at 7:38 a.m. EST on Tuesday morning—and I thank Brad Robertson for pointing it out. Another link to this story is here.
HSBC Posts 4th-Quarter Loss and Comes Under S.E.C. Scrutiny
HSBC said on Monday that it lost money in the fourth quarter and warned that it was being investigated for hiring candidates with ties to government officials in the Asia-Pacific region.
The lender, which is based in Britain but generates more than half its earnings in Asia, also forecast that slowing economic growth in China would contribute to a “bumpier financial environment.”
For the three months that ended Dec. 31, HSBC, Britain’s largest by assets, posted a loss of $1.33 billion, compared with a profit of $511 million in the fourth quarter of 2014. Before taxes, HSBC posted a loss of $858 million in the final quarter of last year.
In addition to reporting its earnings, HSBC said that it and “multiple financial institutions” were facing an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The regulator, HSBC said, was looking into the hiring of candidates who were referred by, or related to, government officials or employees of state-owned enterprises in Asia.
This story, filed from London, appeared on The New York Times website on Monday—and it’s the second offering in a row from Brad Robertson. Another link to this news item is here.
NSA Targets World Leaders for U.S. Geopolitical Interests
Today, 23 February 2016 at 00:00 GMT, WikiLeaks publishes highly classified documents showing that the NSA bugged meetings between U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, between Israel prime minister Netanyahu and Italian prime minister Berlusconi, between key E.U. and Japanese trade ministers discussing their secret trade red-lines at WTO negotiations, as well as details of a private meeting between then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel and Berlusconi.
The documents also reveal the content of the meetings from Ban Ki Moon’s strategising with Merkel over climate change, to Netanyahu’s begging Berlusconi to help him deal with Obama, to Sarkozy telling Berlusconi that the Italian banking system would soon “pop like a cork“.
Some documents are classified TOP-SECRET / COMINT-GAMMA and are the most highly classified documents ever published by a media organization.
WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange said “Today we showed that U.N. Secretary General Ban KiMoon’s private meetings over how to save the planet from climate change were bugged by a country intent on protecting its largest oil companies. We previously published Hillary Clinton orders that U.S. diplomats were to steal the Secretary General’s DNA. The U.S. government has signed agreements with the U.N. that it will not engage in such conduct against the U.N.–let alone its Secretary General. It will be interesting to see the U.N.’s reaction, because if the Secretary General can be targeted without consequence then everyone from world leader to street sweeper is at risk.“
The above four paragraphs are all there is to this news item that was posted on the informationclearninghouse.com Internet site yesterday—and I thank Doug Clark for his second contribution of the day.
Vladimir Putin: Special Statement on Cessation of Hostilities in Syria starting Feb. 27th
This 5:24 minute youtube.com video was picked up by thesaker.is Internet site yesterday sometime. It’s in Russian, of course, but there are English subtitles—and it’s certainly worth watching if you have the interest, because you won’t hear any of this in the western main stream media. I thank ‘aurora’ for passing it around.
Golfers warned of 11-foot crocodiles lurking around course in Queensland
Wildlife authorities have warned golfers at a course in tropical north-east Australia to beware of three crocodiles – up to 11 feet long – that have taken up residence in the waterways.
A night-time survey of the saltwater crocodiles on the Palmer Sea Reef course in the popular tourist town of Port Douglas in north Queensland was conducted following numerous sightings.
Last year, a man in his 70s was bitten on the leg after disturbing a four-foot crocodile on the eleventh hole; he later said from hospital that he planned to resume playing and the creature should be left alone.
Nick Laird, who lives in the area, says they’re very common, protected—and breed like rabbits. As I said, it was slow news day on Tuesday. This article is one I found on The Telegraph‘s website where I was looking for something worth posting—and this is all I found. Another link to this news item is here.
Gold hedging returns as Harmony, Acacia lock in profit margins
Harmony Gold Mining Co. and Acacia Mining Plc agreed to lock in profit margins at some of their African operations in a return to hedging strategies that undermined the industry during the metal’s bull run in the 2000s.
Harmony, which gets 95 percent of its production from South Africa, hedged its local currency at between 15.59 rand ($1.03) and 18.60 rand per dollar for a third of its annual production, it said in a statement today. Acacia took out contracts known as zero-cost collars on 136,000 ounces of gold from Buzwagi, a Tanzanian mine, at $1,150 an ounce to $1,290 an ounce, it said in a separate statement.
Harmony and Acacia, among the world’s highest-cost major gold miners a year ago, are trying to secure current profits linked to higher bullion prices and weak local currencies. Miners largely got out of hedges in bullion’s decade-long bull run to 2011 as the rising spot price made many of the contracts unprofitable.
As bad as this sounds, when you read the whole story, it doesn’t represent much—and it’s mine specific and done for a good reason. Hedging is never happy news, but in special circumstances such as this—and for such a piddling amount, it’s pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things. This Bloomberg story appeared on their Internet site at 2:45 a.m. Denver time on Tuesday morning—and I found it embedded in a GATA release. It’s worth reading. Another link to this gold-related story is here.
India’s February gold imports seen at lowest since 2013, high prices drag
India’s overseas gold purchases are likely to hit a more than two-year low in February, as rising prices and hopes for a cut in import taxes keep buyers away, industry sources said.
While lower purchases by the world’s second-biggest consumer could dent the current rally in global bullion prices, it would mean relief for the government which has been struggling to curb gold imports that cost the country $36 billion in 2015.
India’s imports of the metal are expected to drop to 25 tonnes in February, according to a median of estimates from five industry participants, including bank dealers and traders.
That would be about 67 percent below month-ago levels and the lowest since September 2013, when arrivals were hit by a government mandate to export a fifth of all gold imports.
This Reuters article, filed from Mumbai, showed up on their website at 2:06 p.m. IST on their Tuesday afternoon—and I found this news item on the Sharps Pixley website. Another link to this story is here.
Gold ETFs take in spectacular volumes past two days — Lawrie Williams
Heavy sales out of the main gold ETFs – SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) in particular – were seen as one of the principal reasons for the dramatic falls in the gold price in 2012 and 2013 in particular, so why, one might ask, has the gold price not benefited more than it has from a remarkable two working day upsurge in the main ETF gold holdings?
Indeed this year’s increase in GLD’s gold holdings has been rather more than solid – and absolutely spectacular on Friday last week and Monday this, when a total of just under 39 tonnes were added – this is equivalent to around 4.5 days total annual new mined gold production into just one ETF.
Over the year to date GLD’s gold holdings have increased by 110 tonnes to the current level of 752.3 tonnes. This is equivalent to more than the annual gold output of the worlds tenth largest gold producing nation – Ghana. The much smaller iShares Gold Trust (IAU) added a further 7 tonnes over the same two days.
This must read commentary by Lawrie put in an appearance on the Sharps Pixley website yesterday sometime. Another link to this gold-related news item is here.
The PHOTOS and the FUNNIES
The first photo is of a muntjacs, or barking deer. The second photo is a red panda.
The WRAP
I think silver’s price has been kept in check by the big COMEX commercial shorts to cut off any potential surge in investment buying in SLV. By adding aggressively to new short positions in COMEX silver futures, JPMorgan and the other commercial crooks have succeeded in snuffing out the silver rally to date for the prime reason to not let silver investment demand unfold as it has in gold. And while there’s no question this won’t be effective on a long term basis, these crooks have owned the short term, at least up until now.
When it comes to comparisons of gold and silver demand where the relative price rally to date doesn’t matter much, silver has put in a much better relative demand performance. Sales of Silver and Gold Eagles from the U.S. Mint indicate it is selling as many coins as it can produce. In fact because the Mint has clearly struggled longer and more to provide as many Silver Eagles as demanded, it is not quite fair to compare the amount of Silver Eagles sold to Gold Eagles because it is beyond question many more Silver Eagles would have been sold if the Mint could keep up with demand. Furthermore, JPMorgan has purchased more than 100 million Silver Eagles over the past five years because it could do so without impacting the price of silver.
Based on how the Mint sells these coins, a large buyer acquiring massive quantities can do so with adding pressure to the price of silver (since the Mint accepts the spot price plus a fixed premium on the date of sale). Figuring out these types of angles is what JPMorgan does at its core. It also helps that the U.S. Mint will release no information about who is buying its coins, a further testament to the power of JPM’s lobbying. Am I suggesting that the Mint is in cahoots with JPM? Absolutely. — Silver analyst Ted Butler: 20 February 2016
I was more than happy to see yesterday’s gains in gold and silver—platinum too. But I’ve watched the markets long enough and closely enough [maybe too closely, some might say] for the last sixteen years to know that JPMorgan et al were micromanaging the precious metal market again yesterday, as no rally no matter how small, was allowed to hint at a breakout—and anything that was, got stopped in its tracks before it became a serious trend.
The precious metal market is, as Ted Butler has pointed out on more than one occasion, very illiquid—and it wouldn’t take too much buying pressure to drive prices to the moon in what would quickly become a ‘no ask’ market. We’ve seen it before—and it happened in gold for about eight minutes after the COMEX open yesterday morning. The only thing that has prevented that from happening on any given hour or minute of the day, is the ever-present sellers of last resort. That is what ‘da boyz’ are guarding against, as there are no legitimate short sellers in the precious metal market.
Remove the Big 4 and/or the Big 8 shorts—or in the case of silver, just JPMorgan and Scotiabank—and the balance of the traders in the Commercial category are net long the precious metal market. Add to that the already net long positions of the Noncommercial and Nonreportable small traders—and you’d have a nuclear explosion to the upside in minutes. And as I just said, that’s precisely what the powers-that-be are ever vigilant about.
Someday that explosion may come to pass, but what day that may be, is unknown.
Of course these ‘sellers of last resort’ are permanently stuck on the short side, as no trader worth their salt on the long side is prepared to take on any part of their short position, at least not anywhere near current prices. There are only two ways out for these guys—and that’s buy to cover, or default. I suppose JPMorgan could deliver physical metal into these contracts in some instances, but most of the long holders are paper speculators—and have no interest in taking delivery.
Here are the 6-month charts for the Big 6+1 commodities—and in the precious metals, they look pretty sad since the top we had a week or so ago, but their respective equities continue to creep ever higher.
And as I type this paragraph, the London open is less than ten minutes away—and I note that after a brief rally in the first hour of trading in New York yesterday evening, the price got capped—and has been slowly sold off ever since—and is currently down 2 bucks from Tuesday’s close. Silver was given the same treatment—and is down 7 cents the ounce at the moment. Ditto for platinum, which is lower by 8 dollars—and palladium is down 2 bucks.
Net HFT gold volume is pretty high as per usual at just over 35,000 contracts net of roll-overs—and that number in silver is just about 3,700 contracts, with heavy roll-over volume. The dollar index continues to chop slowly higher—and is currently up 10 basis points.
With another ‘up’ day in three of the four precious metals yesterday, it’s a reasonably safe bet that this Friday’s Commitment of Traders Report won’t be fun to look at, as it’s a given that the high volume, along with the price action associated with it since last Tuesday’s cut-off, the powers-that-be have been going short against all comers during the reporting week. Just how bad it will be, isn’t known—and I’ll be interested in Ted Butler’s prediction [if he has one] in his mid-week commentary this afternoon.
I must admit, as I have for the last week or so, that a short-term price prediction is certainly not worth the paper it’s printed on, because looming over the entire scene is a COT Report that will certainly have ‘HEAVY DANGER’ written all over it. Like you, I’m just a spectator at the moment—and all we can do is sit here and wait it out.
There’s certainly is the possibility that ‘da boyz’ could get over run considering the current financial and monetary environment. But if we do get an engineered price decline, we won’t have far to look for the culprits, as it will be “all the usual suspects” ringing the cash register for fun, profit and price management purposes.
And as I post today’s column on the website at 4:05 a.m. EST, I see that not a lot has happened in the intervening hour since I last reported on things—as the gold price, with some obvious resistance, is back to unchanged—silver is still down 8 cents, platinum is still down 8 dollars—and palladium is now down 4 bucks.
Net HFT gold volume is now up to 40,000 contracts on the button—and in silver that number has climbed to 4,600 contracts with heavy roll-over volume associated. The dollar index jumped up to the 97.66 level, up 22 basis points from Tuesday’s close, but that began to get sold down at the precise moment that London opened, which was 8:00 a.m. GMT. Now the dollar index is only up 11 basis points.
That’s all I have for today—and I’ll see you here tomorrow.
Ed
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