22 September 2016 — Thursday
YESTERDAY in GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM and PALLADIUM
It was an interesting day in the precious metal markets yesterday — and I’m not even going to bother doing a play-by-play on each one. But it’s obvious that the action got underway around 1:30 p.m. Japan Standard Time in Tokyo when the BoJ made it’s an announcement. Gold’s low tick of the day came at that juncture — and the price rallied in fits and starts for the rest of the Wednesday session everywhere on Planet Earth. But all rally attempts that looked “irrationally exuberant” got stepped on before they could get totally out of hand, with the last example of that coming at 2 p.m. EDT on the Fed ‘news’.
The low and high tick in gold were recorded by the CME Group as $1,310.90 and $1,341.30 in the December contract.
Gold was closed in New York yesterday at $1,334.90 spot, up $20.30 on the day. With the powers-that-be on red alert as short buyers and long sellers of last resort, net volume was very heavy at just over 238,000 contracts.
Here’s the 5-minute gold tick chart courtesy of Brad Robertson. There were a lot big volume spikes yesterday, with the obvious ones coming on the BoJ news around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday evening Denver time, then at the COMEX open. But the biggy was on the Fed news, with the initial volume spike over 14,000 contracts — and it was very heavy after that as well. It didn’t die off to background until shortly after 2 p.m. MDT, which was 4 p.m. EDT.
The vertical gray line is 10:00 p.m. Denver time, midnight in New York — and noon China Standard Time [CST] the following day in Shanghai—and don’t forget to add two hours for EDT. The ‘click to enlarge‘ is a must here.
It was pretty much the same price pattern for silver, so I shan’t bother with the play-by-play.
The low and high tick in this precious metal was reported as $19.07 and $19.955 in the December contract.
Gold finished the Wednesday session at $19.815 spot, up 61 cents. Net volume was astronomical at just under 84,000 contracts.
And here’s the 5-minute tick chart for silver, courtesy of Brad as well and, not surprisingly, the volume spikes follow the same pattern as in gold, including the 5,000+ contract spike on the Fed ‘news’…or lack thereof, as ‘da boyz’ were there to quickly hammer that rally flat.
Like the 5-minute chart for gold posted above, the vertical gray line is 10:00 p.m. Denver time, midnight in New York — and noon China Standard Time [CST] the following day in Shanghai—and don’t forget to add two hours for EDT. The ‘click to enlarge‘ is a must here as well.
It was mostly similar in platinum as well, although it didn’t do much from Zurich open until shortly before the COMEX open. At that point it rallied to its high of the day, which came shortly before Zurich close at 11 a.m. EDT. It was sold down below its opening price on the COMEX by 1:00 p.m. in New York, but rallied into the 5:00 p.m. EDT close from there in the thinly-traded after-hours market. Platinum finished the day at $1,050 spot, up 22 dollars from Tuesday.
It was similar for palladium, but after its pre-COMEX open rally yesterday morning, it got hammered back to below unchanged by noon in New York, before rallying a bit into the close. Palladium was allowed to finish the day up one whole dollar from Tuesday at $683 spot.
With no exception, none of them were allowed to close on their respective high ticks of the day — and if it has ever been allowed to happen in the 16 years I’ve been following the precious metals, I could easily count the times on the fingers of one hand.
The dollar index closed very late on Tuesday afternoon in New York at 96.000 — and then sold off 5 basis points until a few minutes before noon in Tokyo on their Wednesday, which was a few minutes before 11 a.m. in Shanghai. Then away it went to the upside, with the 96.33 high tick coming about 2:20 p.m. in Tokyo, which was 1:20 a.m. in New York. From there it began to head lower — and after the dust had settled from the Fed news, it continued to drift lower into the close. The dollar index finished the Wednesday session in New York at 95.48 — down 52 basis points from its Tuesday.
And here’s the 6-month U.S. dollar index chart — and you can read into it whatever you wish.
The gold stocks gapped up a percent and change at the 9:30 a.m. EDT open of the equity markets in New York yesterday morning — and then continued to creep higher in fits and starts until the 2:00 p.m. Fed news. They jumped up at that point, but fell back immediately once JPMorgan et al hammered the ensuing gold rally. But shortly after 2:30 p.m. they rallied anew, as the gold price headed higher once again — and they finished the Wednesday session almost on their high ticks. The HUI closed higher by a very respectable 7.72 percent.
The silver equities gapped up two percent at the open — and then edged a bit higher by 2 p.m. in New York. After that the price chart was a carbon copy of what happened with the gold shares. Nick Laird’s Intraday Silver Sentiment/Silver 7 Index closed up 6.22 percent. Click to enlarge if necessary.
The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that 66 gold and 27 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the COMEX-approved depositories on Friday. In gold, the two short/issuers were Morgan Stanley and Canada’s Scotiabank with 36 and 30 contracts respectively. Goldman Sachs stopped all 66 for its client account. In silver, the only two short/issuers were ABN Amro and International F.C. Stone with 24 and 3 contracts respectively. There were seven long/stoppers in total. Scotiabank picked up 10, Goldman Sachs picked up 7 — and JPMorgan stopped 3 contracts for its own account. The link to yesterday’s Issuers and Stoppers Report is here.
The CME Preliminary Report for the Wednesday trading session showed that gold open interest in September declined by 1 contract, leaving 241 still open, minus the 66 mentioned in the previous paragraph. Tuesday’s Daily Delivery Report showed that 72 gold contracts were actually posted for delivery today, so that means that another 72-1=71 gold contracts were added to the September delivery month yesterday. Silver o.i. for September remained unchanged at 76 contracts. Tuesday’s Daily Delivery Report showed that 8 silver contracts were actually posted for delivery today, so that means that, obviously, 8 silver contracts were added to the September delivery month yesterday.
After a 25 percent drop in open interest on Tuesday, October o.i. in gold fell by a very modest 1,092 contracts, leaving 27,229 still open.
There was a decent-sized addition to GLD yesterday as an authorized participant deposited 181,259 troy ounces. And as of 8:09 p.m. EDT yesterday evening, there were no reported changes in SLV.
There was another sales report from the U.S. Mint yesterday. They sold 6,000 troy ounces of gold eagles — 500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes — and zero silver eagles.
There was no gold reported received over at the COMEX-approved depositories on Tuesday. But 160.750 troy ounces/5 kilobars [U.K./U.S. kilobar weight] were shipped out of Manfra, Tordella & Brookes, Inc. — plus another 6,430.000 troy ounces/200 kilobars [U.K./U.S. kilobar weight] were shipped out of Canada’s Scotiabank as well. I shan’t bother linking this activity.
It was very quiet in silver for a change. Nothing was reported received — and only 29,179 troy ounces were shipped out. Of that amount, there was 25,097 troy ounces that came out of JPMorgan’s depository. I won’t bother linking this activity, either.
There was decent activity over at the COMEX-approved gold kilobar depositories in Hong Kong on their Tuesday. They received 4,045 of them — and shipped out 3,208. All of the action was at Brink’s, Inc. — and the link to that, in troy ounces, is here.
I have very few stories for you today, so that makes your final edit all that much easier.
CRITICAL READS
Just Plain Pathetic — David Stockman
We are speaking, of course, of the Fed’s decision to punt yet again, and for a reason that is not mysterious at all. To wit, our financial rulers are petrified of a stock market hissy fit, and will go to any length of dissimulation and double-talk to avoid triggering a crash of the very bubbles their policies have inflated.
So now the money market rate will be pinned to the zero bound for 96 months running—–through at least December. Indeed, hell itself could freeze over before these cowardly fools would raise rates at their next meeting a week before the elections—–and most especially not when the Donald is remonstrating loudly and correctly that the whole thing is rigged.
Not that any more evidence was needed, but today’s decision surely proves that our financial rulers have wandered so deep into their monetary puzzle palace that they have now lost touch with every vestige of the real world. That’s because there is not a shred of evidence that more free money for the Wall Street gamblers will do anything except further inflate financial asset values that are already tottering in the nosebleed section of history.
So the entirety of what they are doing is simply paving the way for an even bigger crash. Yet to hear Janet Yellen tell it, they decided to keep their Big Fat Thumb on money market rates because “there is still slack coming out of the labor market” and because the Fed is still “undershooting our inflation goals”. But so what!
Another must read rant from David. This one put in an appearance on his Internet site yesterday sometime — and it comes to us courtesy of Roy Stephens. Another link to his commentary is here.
Bill Gross: “I’m hardly able to speak after Fed decision“
After the Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged, bond guru Bill Gross told CNBC he was barely able to speak.
“I’m choked with emotion and hardly able to speak,” the portfolio manager at Janus Capital Management said in an interview with CNBC‘s “Power Lunch.”
“After hawkish talk at Jackson Hole from [Fed Chair] Yellen and [Vice Chair] Stan Fischer, who even said there’d be two hikes in 2016, they’ve chosen to defer once more a necessary hike to normalize short-term interest rates and provide savers, in my view, with at least a bit of thin gruel to work with to provide for education, retirement and health-care needs.”
He believes the contradiction between what Fed officials have said leading up to the meeting and the outcome of the gathering is leaving investors “very confused.”
This news item appeared on the cnbc.com Internet site early on Wednesday afternoon EDT — and I found it on the Sharps Pixley website late last night. There’s a 1:58 minute video clip embedded — and another link to this story is here.
Elizabeth Warren rips Wells Fargo CEO a new one
During a Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf should resign immediately, and be criminally investigated, amid a scandal that bank employees opened phony bank and credit card accounts to meet company sales targets.
Wow! This 2:00 minute youtube.com video clip was posted on their website on Tuesday — and it’s a must watch for sure. I thank ‘Zoey’ for bringing it to our attention.
Senate Prepares to Override Obama’s Veto of 9/11 Bill
Senate Republicans hoping to make a bill law that would give family members of 9/11 victims the ability to sue the government of Saudi Arabia issued a unique call to President Obama on Tuesday: veto it.
“My question is why are you waiting, Mr. President? Veto the bill, if that’s what you decided to do,” said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas).
The White House last week confirmed Obama intends to veto the measure, which is strongly opposed by the Saudi government. The top Middle East ally to the U.S. has said the legislation would open them up to costly litigation that would alter its political and economic relationships with the U.S., and the president himself has warned that the bill could make the American government vulnerable to foreign lawsuits.
But as lawmakers prepare to finalize must-pass legislation to fund the government, Republican leaders are hoping he will do so quickly so they can vote to override it before heading out of town to campaign for re-election.
This news item was posted on the morningconsult.com Internet site on Tuesday sometime — and I thank Brad Robertson for sending it along. Another link to it is here.
American Legislator Wants Canadians Banned from Driving in USA — [REDUX!!!]
I spent the better part of two hours late yesterday morning answering a huge stack of e-mails about this ‘story’ I posted in yesterday’s column. I was quickly informed that the CBC show “This and That” where this so-called ‘interview’ originated, is “an award-winning satirical current affairs show that doesn’t just talk about the issues, it fabricates them!”
The above story was one of those fabrications — and if I’d just checked snopes.com, as more than one reader kindly suggested, I would have found that out. And as reader Barry McKnight pointed out…”The announcer and alleged U.S. senator are both Canadian comedians.”
I sincerely apologize for any bad feelings that may have been generated, because as I said in yesterday’s missive, it certainly doesn’t represent the knowledge base of all my American subscribers. But the reason I found it very believable is because of a real-life incident that occurred in my late teens when walking down Broadway Avenue in Winnipeg on a stinking hot July day back in the mid-to-late 1960s. A car, with skis on the roof rack — and bearing Kentucky license plates, pulled up beside my friend and I, and the driver asked where the snow was. Another link to the snopes.com webpage on this ‘news item’, is here.
Brexit not as bad as feared, says OECD as it performs U-turn on 2016 growth prediction
Britain’s economy will hold up strongly for the rest of this year, defying warnings of an immediate Brexit collapse, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has predicted.
Performing somewhat of a post-Brexit u-turn, the international body has increased its 2016 growth forecast modestly, raising its gross domestic product (GDP) predictions from 1.7pc in its June update to 1.8pc now.
The organisation had warned of a “large negative shock” were the U.K. to vote to leave the E.U. ahead of the June 23 referendum.
Britain’s improved figure came even as the OECD trimmed its forecasts for most other large economies this year, citing weak trade growth and poor productivity.
This article showed up on the telegraph.co.uk Internet site at 1:32 p.m. BST on their Wednesday afternoon, which was 8:32 a.m. in New York — EDT plus 5 hours. I thank Roy Stephens for this — and another link to it is here.
Syrian Ceasefire failed, what now?
One week ago I and many other analysts predicted that the ceasefire agreement brokered by the US and Russia last week was doomed to fail. I said this because of the fact that there are no “moderate” rebels, and that any group trying to disassociate itself from Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (formerly Jabhat Al-Nusra) would commit both political and military suicide. Right from the first day of the implementation, Western backed Jihadists and their allies declared that they would not take part in the cessation of hostilities, which really rendered the whole agreement useless since it became clear that they would use this opportunity to regroup and rearm.
This week long ceasefire was also supposed to allow for humanitarian aid to reach besieged areas such as East Aleppo which is currently under the control of Washington’s “moderate” rebels. Despite the Syrian Army withdrawing up to 1 km north of the imperative Castillo road leading into the eastern parts of Aleppo and handing over the control over the checkpoints in this area to Russian Marines and Syrian Red Crescent Society, the humanitarian aid destined for eastern Aleppo were severely delayed due to constant attacks on the Russian Marines by the Jihadists. In a video posted by Russia Today on their Youtube page, one can clearly see the Russian personnel coming under attack by Jihadist fire, yet despite this, mainstream media in the West shamefully reported that the “Assad regime” were the ones who were guilty of both violating the ceasefire and disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The Jihadists and their supporters refused to allow for humanitarian aid to be delivered because they refused to acknowledge the ceasefire, instead claiming that both the ceasefire and the humanitarian aid being sent to them was part of a “U.N. conspiracy” and that they “refuse to accept this humiliating and pathetic aid”. In a video posted online, a rally takes place in eastern Aleppo where Jihadists and their supporters declare that they refuse to accept this “humiliating” aid in the name of the religion (of Islam).
It should clearly be concluded then that these Jihadists and their supporters were not interested in any kind of reduced violence, not even for a week it would seem, with Jihadists clearly showing their intentions of using this ceasefire to break the siege of Aleppo by even attacking Russian Marines.
This longish commentary appeared on thesaker.is Internet site yesterday — and it’s certainly worth reading if you’re a serious student of the New Great Game. I thank ‘aurora’ for passing it around — and another link to this article is here.
Why U.S. Had to Kill the Syrian Ceasefire — Finian Cunningham
There are several sound reasons for concluding that the US-led air strike on the Syrian army base near Deir Ezzor last weekend was a deliberate act of murderous sabotage. One compelling reason is that the Pentagon and CIA knew they had to act in order to kill the ceasefire plan worked out by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
The compulsion to wreck the already shaky truce was due to the unbearable exposure that the ceasefire plan was shedding on American systematic involvement in the terrorist proxy war on Syria.
Not only that, but the tentative ceasefire was also exposing the elements within the U.S. government responsible for driving the war effort. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter – the head of the Pentagon – reportedly fought tooth and nail with Obama’s top diplomat John Kerry while the latter was trying to finalize the ceasefire plan with Russia’s Lavrov on the previous weekend of September 9 in Geneva.
While Sergey Lavrov and media reporters were reportedly kept waiting several hours for Kerry to finally emerge to sign off on the deal, the American foreign secretary was delayed by intense haggling in conference calls with Carter and other military chiefs back in Washington. Even days before Kerry’s diplomatic shuttle to Geneva, Carter was disparaging any prospective deal with Russia on a Syrian ceasefire.
It is well documented that both the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency have been running clandestine programs for arming and training anti-government militants in Syria since the outset of the war in March 2011. Officially, Washington claims to be only supporting «moderate, vetted opposition». However, on occasion, Western media reports allude to the deeper sinister connections between the U.S. military and terrorist groups when it has been reported that American weaponry «accidentally» finds its way into the hands of extremist jihadist networks.
This opinion piece was posted on the strategic-culture.org Internet site on Tuesday — and I thank Brad Robertson for finding it for us. It’s definitely worth reading if you have the interest — and another link to this article is here.
Russia presented all evidence on aid convoy attack, now wants impartial investigation – Lavrov
Moscow has provided all the data it has on the attack on a humanitarian convoy in Aleppo, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a U.N. Security Council meeting. Lavrov also called for a full and impartial investigation into the incident.
“There was another unacceptable provocation on September 19 — the shelling of a humanitarian convoy near Aleppo,” Lavrov said.
He also noted that at the same time militants had advanced in the 1070 district of Aleppo…“I am confident that such coincidences require serious analysis and an investigation.”
On September 19, a humanitarian convoy consisting of 31 trucks was attacked while heading to Aleppo. According to the Red Cross, 20 civilians and one aid worker died as a result. Initial reports by the organization claimed the convoy had been targeted by an airstrike.
On Tuesday, the U.N. backtracked on its earlier claims that the convoy was hit by military planes.
This news item put in an appearance on the Russia Today website at 2:16 p.m. Moscow time on their Wednesday afternoon, which was 6:16 a.m. in Washington — EDT plus 8 hours. Another link to this story is here — and it’s another offering from Roy Stephens.
Bank of Japan alters policy to spur growth
The Bank of Japan has made changes to its stimulus programme, in its latest attempt to spur economic growth.
The bank kept interest rates unchanged, but said it would aim to keep yields on 10-year government bonds at around current levels of zero percent.
The BoJ is also aiming push inflation above the 2% target rate, which was set more than three years ago.
It will continue to buy assets such as government bonds, at the rate of 80tn yen ($787bn; £605bn) a year.
Negative interest rates have squeezed Japan’s financial sector and keeping 10-year bonds at zero percent – as opposed to allowing them to slip into negative territory – should help bank earnings and improve returns for insurers and pension funds.
Abe kicked the can down the road a little more with this decision yesterday — and David Stockman spells it out chapter and verse in today’s first story. I thank Swedish reader Patrik Ekdahl for being the first subscriber through the door with this news item yesterday. It was posted on the bbc.com Internet site very early on Monday morning BST — and another link to it is here. Richard Saler sent along a brief 1-chart Reuters opinion piece on the BoJ decision — and it’s headlined “BOJ buys time and friends with yield-based reboot”
Barack Obama’s Asia pivot is sinking beneath Pacific waves — M.K. Bhadrakumar
The fate of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement remains uncertain even as US President Barack Obama tries to get congressional passage for the bill. The trade deal, which is a strategic and geopolitical drive to contain China and maintain U.S. hegemony in the Asia-Pacific, is facing hurdles as Vietnam is delaying its ratification. Hanoi’s rethink came soon after Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s recent six-day visit to China. U.S. dominance in Asia-Pacific is challenged by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte who is cozying up to Beijing. If other leaders follow suit, the U.S. will soon lose its hold on Asia.
In his final address to the U.N. General Assembly annual session in New York on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama failed to list amongst his legacies what should have been the crowning glory of his presidency – Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the mother of all trade deals covering 40% of world’s GDP. Does it mean this extraordinary statesman is walking out of the world arena with nothing to show by way of a historic Asian legacy?
Obviously, Obama is unsure which way the wind is blowing. TPP’s fate hangs in the balance. What ought to have been another platinum grade trade deal, Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, just capsized, hitting the rocks of popular opposition in Europe.
The TPP can meet a similar fate, hitting an American iceberg. The populist mood in America regarding trade deals has become unfriendly, given their dubious reputation for creating wealth for corporate industry while taking away jobs.
This commentary falls into the absolute must read category, even if you’re not a serious student of the New Great Game. It’s the final offering of the day from Roy Stephens — and I thank him on your behalf. It was posted on the Asia Times website yesterday — and another link to this article is here.
Gold Seen Rallying to Record High as Asset Bubbles Pop in Next 5 Years
Gold will likely soar to a record within five years as asset bubbles burst in everything from bonds to credit and equities, forcing investors to find a haven, according to Old Mutual Global Investors’ Diego Parrilla.
The metal is at the start of a multi-year bull run with a “few thousand dollars of upside” in a world of “monetary policy without limits” where central banks print lots of money and low or negative interest rates prevail, said Parrilla, who joined the firm as managing director of commodities last month. He’s worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
“As some of the excesses in other asset classes get unwound, gold will perform very strongly,” said 43-year-old Parrilla, who has almost 20 years experience in precious-metals markets. The “perfect storm scenario will mean that gold will perform best when other classes are doing worst.”
While gold has climbed 24 percent this year amid low or negative rates, it slumped more than 40 percent from its record in 2011 through the end of last year to what Parrilla called “very oversold, very distressed” levels. With the downside only a few hundred dollars, the risk-to-reward ratio is extremely asymmetric and skewed to the upside, he said in an interview on Sept. 14.
This is a reprint of a Bloomberg article from within the last week. It’s been picked up by the newsmax.com Internet site — and showed up there yesterday. I may have posted this in its Bloomberg iteration — and I’m only posting it now, because it’s the only precious metals-related story out there. I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sharing it with us — and another link to this article is here.
The PHOTOS and the FUNNIES
The first photo are the berries from our neighbours hawthorn tree — and the second is a flower of some sort in the flowerbed a few feet away. The low angle of the suns brings out the richness in the colours, as the blue end of the spectrum gets filtered out, plus the light from the sun is more polarized at this time of year as well. The ‘Click/Double Click to enlarge’ feature works well here.
The WRAP
I would suspect that all of yesterday’s price action was strictly a GLOBEX/COMEX affair where JPMorgan et al were pitted against mostly the Managed Money traders. This would particularly be the case in silver, as it rose above — and then closed above, it’s 50-day moving average yesterday. It was an event, as Ted Butler said in his mid-week commentary yesterday — “usually an irresistible invitation for managed money technical fund buying.”
Here are the 6-month charts for all four precious metals, so you can see how their respective rallies fared in the overall scheme of things in the medium term. Gold broke through, but did not close above, its 50-day moving average.
And because all of the above activity occurred the day after the cut-off for tomorrow’s COT Report, none of it will be in it.
And as I type this paragraph, the London open is less than ten minutes away — and I note that gold was sold down 3 bucks or so at the open in New York yesterday evening — and hasn’t done much since — and is currently down $1.50 the ounce. Silver traded around unchanged until shortly before 2 p.m. China Standard time on their Thursday afternoon, but its now down 11 cents. Platinum is down 3 dollars — and palladium is up a buck. There’s not much going on — and there was absolutely no follow-through after the big day that three of the four precious metals had in New York yesterday.
Net HFT volume in gold is sitting right at the 21,000 contract mark, which is pretty light — and that number in silver is a hair over 14,000 contracts, which is heavy considering the lack of price action. The dollar index had a 10 basis point down/up move in the early going in the Far East — and began to head lower starting around 11 a.m. Shanghai time. It fell off a bit of a cliff just before 2 p.m. over there — and as London opens, it’s down 22 basis points. That certainly isn’t being reflected in precious metal prices, at least not yet.
With JPMorgan et al on red alert all of yesterday as short buyers and long sellers of last resort, Ted said that the Commercial traders went another $1 billion dollars in the hole, bringing their losing positions back up to the $2.2 billion dollar mark.
It’s obvious that ‘da boyz’ weren’t going to fold their tents — and the volume on the Fed news at 2:00 p.m. EDT yesterday afternoon — and at other times during the Wednesday session, certainly indicated their resolve to do “whatever it takes” to prevent the precious metals from alerting the world to the true state of affairs from an economic, financial and monetary perspective.
But they can’t keep this up forever — and I’m certain that they know this fact.
As I pointed out in The Wrap in my Saturday missive, there are only three possible ways that this situation can be resolved — and all we can do is wait for one of these events to materialize.
And as I post today’s effort on the website at 4:00 a.m. EDT, I see that the gold price hasn’t done much during the first hour of London trading — and is down $2.30 currently. Silver is down 9 cents at the moment. And now that Zurich is open, platinum is down 4 dollars — and palladium is up two bucks.
Current HFT gold volume sits at a bit over 26,000 contracts — and that number in silver is just over 16,000 contracts, which is quite a bit. The dollar index is now down 26 basis points.
I haven’t the foggiest idea as to what might happen during the remainder of the Thursday session, nor does anyone else. But whatever transpires, it will be, as Ted Butler has said on many occasions, entirely a paper game on the COMEX…and mostly between JPMorgan et al on one side — and the Managed Money traders on the other.
That’s it for today — and I’ll see you here tomorrow.
Ed
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