Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Here are the following closes for gold and silver today:
Gold: $1184.70 down $9.40 (comex closing time)
Silver $16.46 down 32 cents (comex closing time)
In the access market 5:15 pm
Gold $1185.10
Silver: $16.52
Gold/Silver trading: see kitco charts on the right side of the commentary
Following is a brief outline on gold and silver comex figures for today:
At the gold comex today, we had a fair delivery day, registering 74 notices serviced for 7,400 oz. Silver comex filed with 0 notices for nil oz.
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today, the total inventory rests at 245.25 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period.
In silver, the open interest rose by 164 contracts despite the fact that Tuesday’s silver price was up by only 2 cents. The total silver OI continues to remain extremely high with today’s reading at 178,343 contracts maintaining itself near multi-year highs despite a record low price. This dichotomy has been happening now for quite a while and defies logic. There is no doubt that the silver situation is scaring our bankers to no end.
In silver we had 0 notices served upon for nil oz.
In gold, the total comex gold OI rests tonight at 398,724 for a gain of 268 contracts as gold was up $5.80 on Tuesday. We had 74 notices filed for 7400 oz.
Late last night, we had a huge change in gold inventory at the GLD, a whopping 4.18 tonnes, thus the inventory rests tonight at 709.89 tonnes. The appetite for gold coming from China is depleting not only gold from the LBMA and GLD but also the comex is bleeding gold.
In silver, /we had a small withdrawal of 138,000 oz in silver inventory at the SLV/Inventory rests at 318.175 million oz
We have a few important stories to bring to your attention today…
1. Today, had the open interest in silver rise by 164 contracts despite the fact that silver was up in price by 2 cents yesterday. The OI for gold rose by 268 contracts up to 398,724 contracts as the price of gold was up by $5.80 yesterday. We again witness the collapse in the front month OI for no apparent reason.
(report Harvey)
2,Today we have 3 major commentaries on Greece. The ECB raises ELA by .5 billion euros to 80.7 billion euros.
(zero hedge )
3. Another major bust in China coming: Hanergy Group
(zero hedge)
4. First Majestic Silver Corp President and CEO, Keith Neumeyer, writes a letter to the CFTC complaining of manipulation in the precious metals. The letter was written in the same format as Ted Butler’s letter.
(First Majestic Silver Corp/zero hedge.GATA)
5. The rebels from Eastern Ukraine are on the offensive against Ukraine.
(zero hedge)
6. German bunds spike upwards to .80%. All European peripheral bonds also rise in yield/spells trouble for underwriters of derivatives
(zero hedge)
7. Regulators in 11 countries forcing bail in provisions
(Reuters/Dave Kranzler IRD)
8. ISM services uSA (Markit) falters.
(zero hedge)
9. Private ADP: a little bounce but still lower than 2014
(ADP)
10. Precious metals trading overnight from Asia/Europe
(Goldcore)
11. Trading from Asia and Europe overnight
(zero hedge)
12. Trading of equities/ New York
(zero hedge)
13. Trade deficit narrows. However lower imports as the consumer is just not spending
(zero hedge)
we have these plus other stories to bring your way tonight. But first……..
let us now head over to the comex and assess trading over there today.
Here are today’s comex results:
The total gold comex open interest rose by 268 contracts from 398,456 up to 398,724 as gold was up by $5.80 yesterday (at the comex close). For at least the past 18 months, we have been witnessing a total contraction of open interest in an active precious metals month once we enter first day notice as well as the dumping of front month open interest, and today the tradition continues. We are now in the big active delivery contract month of June. Here the OI fell by 3026 contracts down to 2062. We had 2,468 notices served upon yesterday. Thus we lost 558 contracts or an additional 55,800 oz will not stand for delivery. No doubt, again, we had a huge number of cash settlements. The next contract month is July and here the OI rose by 13 contracts up to 480. The next big delivery month after June will be August and here the OI rose by 2,852 contracts to 261,572. No doubt that the cash settled June contracts, having been bought out for fiat, rolled into August. The estimated volume today (which is just comex sales during regular business hours of 8:20 until 1:30 pm est) was poor at 64,243. The confirmed volume yesterday (which includes the volume during regular business hours + access market sales the previous day) was poor at 117,282 contracts. Today we had 74 notices filed for 7400 oz.
And now for the wild silver comex results. Silver OI rose by 164 contracts from 178,179 up to 178,343 despite the fact that the price of silver was up in price by only 2 cents, with respect to Tuesday’s trading. The front non active delivery month of June saw it’s OI rise by 0 contracts remaining at 33. We had 0 contracts delivered upon yesterday. Thus we neither gained nor lost any silver contracts standing in this non active June contract month. The estimated volume today was good at 37,967 contracts (just comex sales during regular business hours. The confirmed volume yesterday (regular plus access market) came in at 50,776 contracts which is very good in volume. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today.
June initial standing
June 3.2015
Gold
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz
2,339.907 oz (Brinks HSBC) includes 5 kilobars
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz
nil
No of oz served (contracts) today
74 contracts (7400 oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
1988 contracts (198,800 oz)
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
2588 contracts(258,800 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers inventory this month
nil
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month
19,785.5 oz
Today, we had 0 dealer transactions
total Dealer withdrawals: nil oz
we had 0 dealer deposit
total dealer deposit: nil oz
we had 2 customer withdrawals
i) Out of Brinks 160.75 oz (5 kilobars)
ii) Out of HSBC: 2179.157 oz
total customer withdrawal: 2,339.907 oz
We had 0 customer deposits:
Total customer deposit: nil oz
We had 0 adjustment:
Today, 74 notices was issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 2468 contracts of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 422 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account
To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the May contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (2588) x 100 oz or 258,800 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of June (2062) and the number of notice served upon today (74) x 100 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for gold for the June contract month:
No of notices served so far (2588) x 100 oz or ounces + {OI for the front month (2062) – the number of notices served upon today (74) x 100 oz which equals 457,600 oz standing so far in this month of June (14.233 tonnes of gold). Thus we have 14.233 tonnes of gold standing and only 17.04 tonnes of registered or for sale gold is available:
Total dealer inventory 547,860.327 or 17.04 tonnes
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7,885,008.557 (245.25 tonnes)
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 245.25 tonnes for a loss of 57 tonnes over that period.
end
And now for silver
June silver initial standings
June 3 2015:
Silver
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory
577,959.75 oz (Scotia)
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory
1,196,312.56 oz (Scotia,CNT)
No of oz served (contracts)
0 contracts (nil oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
33 contracts(165,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)
199 contracts (995,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers inventory this month
114,943.6
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month
642,007.8 oz
Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
total dealer deposit: nil oz
we had 0 dealer withdrawals:
total dealer withdrawal: nil oz
We had 2 customer deposits:
i) Into Delaware; 2966.900 oz
ii) Into CNT 595,608.5 oz
ii) Into Scotia: 600,704.06 oz
total customer deposit: 1,196,312.56 oz
We had 3 customer withdrawals:
i) Out of Brinks: 3000.38 oz
ii) out of Delaware: 14,824.072 oz
iii) Out of HSBC: 499,241.69 oz
total withdrawals from customer; 577,959.75 oz
we had 0 adjustments
Total dealer inventory: 58.189 million oz
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 180.408 million oz
The total number of notices filed today is represented by 0 contracts for nil oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in June, we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at (199) x 5,000 oz = 995,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of June (33) and the number of notices served upon today (0) x 5000 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for silver for the June contract month:
199 (notices served so far) + { OI for front month of June (33) -number of notices served upon today (0} x 5000 oz = 1,160,000 oz of silver standing for the June contract month.
we neither gained nor lost any silver contracts that will stand for delivery in this month of June.
for those wishing to see the rest of data today see:
http://www.harveyorgan.wordpress.com orhttp://www.harveyorganblog.com
end
The two ETF’s that I follow are the GLD and SLV. You must be very careful in trading these vehicles as these funds do not have any beneficial gold or silver behind them. They probably have only paper claims and when the dust settles, on a collapse, there will be countless class action lawsuits trying to recover your lost investment.
There is now evidence that the GLD and SLV are paper settling on the comex.
***I do not think that the GLD will head to zero as we still have some GLD shareholders who think that gold is the right vehicle to be in even though they do not understand the difference between paper gold and physical gold. I can visualize demand coming to the buyers side:
i) demand from paper gold shareholders
ii) demand from the bankers who then redeem for gold to send this gold onto China
vs no sellers of GLD paper.
And now the Gold inventory at the GLD:
June 3/late last night: a huge withdrawal of 4.18 tonnes. Tonight’s inventory rests at 709.89
June 2/no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 714.07 tonnes
June 1/ we had a huge withdrawal of 1.79 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests tonight at 714.07 tonnes
May 29/ no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 715.86 tonnes
May 28/ no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 715.86 tonnes
may 27: no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 715.86 tonnes
may 26.2015/we had a slight addition of .600 tonnes of gold to the GLD inventory/inventory rests at 715.86 tonnes
May 22.2015: no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 715.26 tonnes
May 21./no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 715.26 tonnes
May 20./we had another withdrawal of 2.98 tonnes of gold leaving the GLD. Inventory rests tonight at 715.26 tonnes
May 19/no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 718.24 tonnes
June 3 GLD : 709.89 tonnes.
end
And now for silver (SLV)
June 3/ we had a small withdrawal of 138,000 oz of silver inventory/Inventory rests at 318.175 million oz
June 2/ we had a huge addition of 1.243 million oz of silver inventory at the SLV./Inventory rests at 318.313 million oz
June 1/no change in inventory at the SLV/Inventory rests at 317.07 million oz
May 29/no changes in inventory at the SLV/Inventory rests at 317.07 million oz
May 28/a small deposit of 143,000 oz of silver added to the SLV/Inventory rests at 317.070 million oz
May 27/we had another 1.003 million oz withdrawn from the SLV/Inventory rests tonight at 316.927 million oz
May 26.2015: no change in SLV /Inventory rests at 317.93 million oz
May 22.2015: no changes in SLV/Inventory rests at 317.93 million oz
May 21.no changes at the SLV/Inventory rests at 317.93 million oz
May 20/no changes at the SLV. Inventory rests at 317.93 million oz/
June 3/2015: a small withdrawal of 138,000 oz of inventory/SLV inventory at 318.175 million oz/
end
And now for our premiums to NAV for the funds I follow:
Sprott and Central Fund of Canada.
(both of these funds have 100% physical metal behind them and unencumbered and I can vouch for that)
1. Central Fund of Canada: traded at Negative 7.9% percent to NAV in usa funds and Negative 8.0% to NAV for Cdn funds!!!!!!!
Percentage of fund in gold 60.9%
Percentage of fund in silver:38.7%
cash .4%
( June 3/2015)
2. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): Premium to NAV rises to-0.02%!!!!! NAV (June 3/2015)
3. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV falls to -33% to NAV(June 3/2015
Note: Sprott silver trust back into negative territory at -0.02%.
Sprott physical gold trust is back into negative territory at -.33%
Central fund of Canada’s is still in jail.
Last week Sprott formally launches its offer for Central Trust gold and Silver Bullion trust:
SII.CN Sprott formally launches previously announced offers to Central GoldTrust (GTU.UT.CN) and Silver Bullion Trust (SBT.UT.CN) unitholders (C$2.64)
Sprott Asset Management has formally commenced its offers to acquire all of the outstanding units of Central GoldTrust and Silver Bullion Trust, respectively, on a NAV to NAV exchange basis.
Note company announced its intent to make the offer on 23-Apr-15 Based on the NAV per unit of Sprott Physical Gold Trust $9.98 and Central GoldTrust $44.36 on 22-May, a unitholder would receive 4.45 Sprott Physical Gold Trust units for each Central GoldTrust unit tendered in the Offer.
Based on the NAV per unit of Sprott Physical Silver Trust $6.66 and Silver Bullion Trust $10.00 on 22-May, a unitholder would receive 1.50 Sprott Physical Silver Trust units for each Silver Bullion Trust unit tendered in the Offer.
* * * * *
end
Early morning trading from Asia and Europe last night:
Gold and silver trading from Europe overnight/and important physical
stories
(courtesy Mark O’Byrne/Goldcore)
Bail-Ins Coming – EU Gives Countries Two Months To Adopt Rules
By Mark O’ByrneJune 3, 2015No Comments
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– 11 countries face legal action if bail-in rules are not enacted within two months
– Bail-in legislation aims at removing state responsibility when banks collapse
– Rules place burden on creditors – among whom depositors are counted
– Austria abolished bank deposit guarantee in April
– “Bail-in regimes” coming globally
The European Commission has ordered 11 EU countries to enact the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD) within two months or be hauled before the EU Court of Justice, according to a report from Reuters on Friday.
The news was not covered in other media despite the importantrisks and ramifications for depositors and savers throughout the EU and indeed internationally.
The article “EU regulators tell 11 countries to adopt bank bail-in rules” reported how 11 countries are under pressure from the EC and had yet “to fall in line”. The countries were Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France and Italy.
France and Italy are two countries who are regarded as having particularly fragile banking systems.
The rules, known as the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD), aim ostensibly, to shield taxpayers from the fall out of another banking crisis. Should such a crisis erupt governments will not be obliged to prop up the banks. At any rate most countries are far too deeply indebted to play such a role.
Instead, the burden is being placed on the creditors. As Reuters put it,
The rules seek to shield taxpayers from having to bail out troubled lenders, forcing creditors and shareholders to contribute to the rescue in a process known as “bail-in”.
However, if recent events in Austria are anything to go by, creditors now also include depositors of banks. In April, Austria enacted legislation which removed government liability for all bank deposits.
Until then, the state would protect deposits of ordinary people and companies up to a value of €100,000. In its place a bank deposit insurance fund is being set up. This fund appears inadequate to protect savers’ deposits in the event of any kind of bank failure. We covered the story in more detail here.
Each country will enact its own version of the BRRD. How vulnerable savers are in specific countries is difficult to tell at this time. The drive towards a cashless economy which has accelerated in recent months makes deposit holders and savers ever more vulnerable.
This bail-in legislation which is being driven by the BIS through the Bank of England, ECB, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) appears designed to protect banks by allowing them to confiscate deposits to prop them up rather than the noble stated objective – “to shield taxpayers”.
Those who hold deposits in our banks are also taxpayers and have already paid tax in order to earn the money that is on deposit.
Allowing for the confiscation of deposits is a retrograde step and may be the last straw for an already enfeebled western banking system. It will also be very deflationary as a primary source of capital and demand – from companies and consumers – is confiscated.
Cyprus was devastated by bail-ins and has shown little sign of recovery.
Central banks claim to be attempting to avert deflation with QE and negative interest rates and not simply bailing out and aiding overly indebted banks.
However, the bail-in of deposits would again place the interests of banks over those of taxpayers and depositors. It would be very deflationary and could be the tipping point which pushes economies into a recession and depression.
However, the key insight from Cyprus and the coming move from bail-out regimes to bail-in regimes, is that a precedent has now been created in terms of deposit confiscation. Therefore, simply having deposits in a bank is no longer the safest way to save, protect capital and conservatively grow wealth.
Conservative wealth management, asset diversification and wealth preservation will again become important and gold will again have an important role to play in order to protect, preserve and grow wealth in the coming bail-in era.
Must-read Guides:
Protecting Your Savings In The Coming Bail-In Era
From Bail-Outs To Bail-Ins: Risks and Ramifications – Includes 60 Safest Banks In the World
MARKET UPDATE
Today’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,186.60, EUR 1,067.23 and GBP 777.60 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,188.75, EUR 1,083.17 and GBP 779.91 per ounce.
Gold climbed $4.10 or 0.34 percent yesterday to $1,193.40 an ounce. Silver rose $0.06 or 0.36 percent to $16.80 an ounce.
Gold in Singapore for immediate delivery edged down 0.2 percent to $1,191.40 an ounce near the end of the day, whilegold in Switzerland ticked marginally higher.
Gold rallied a bit yesterday on the news of weak U.S. factory orders and a feeble U.S. dollar and falling stock markets, while the market looked for closure in the Greek debt negotiations.
News that Greece outlined an agreement to deliver to the Athens government strengthened the euro and saw the dollar come under pressure.
Top gold ETF holdings were seen at a five year low yesterday. SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 0.59 percent to 709.89 tonnes on Tuesday, the lowest since January.
Holdings of all gold ETFs are close to their lowest in nearly six years showing the very poor sentiment towards gold.
The current holding pattern on the gold price continues. The non farm payrolls number on Friday will be keenly watched for signs about how bad the slowdown in the U.S. is.
In late morning trading gold bullion is down 0.43 percent at $1,188.43 an ounce. Silver is off 0.76 percent at $16.64 an ounce and platinum is down 0.12 percent at $1,111.67 an ounce.
Breaking News and Research Here
end
(courtesy Times of India)
Traders may get cash-settled gold and silver futures on Indian commodity exchange
Submitted by cpowell on Wed, 2015-06-03 04:19. Section: Daily Dispatches
By Ram Sahga
The Times of India
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/traders-may-get-…
MUMBAI — Domestic punters and hedgers in gold and silver futures might soon be able to play similar contracts that are traded on CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace, but denominated in rupees on the Multi-Commodity Exchange (MCX), the country’s largest commodity bourse, subject to regulatory approval.
Unlike existing gold and silver contracts that are compulsorily settled at the average of three days’ spot price in Ahmedabad, the new contracts will be cash settled at the CME relevant rate multiplied by the rupee exchange rate, said two persons aware of the development. “This will be helpful to those who don’t want delivery but just to hedge or speculate. Approval of Forward Markets Commission, or FMC, is awaited,” they added.
On MCX the kilo gold contract is settled once in two months. The contract enters the delivery period on the first of the expiry month while delivery takes place on the fifth. However, once the contract enters delivery period, the margin to trade jumps to 25 per cent of open position, which is substantial, leading to many hedgers and punters simply rolling over their positions or squaring off pre-delivery. In the new contract, this might not be the case since it is cash-settled.”Clients in such case will not be forced to roll over or cut out their positions before delivery period,” said one of them cited earlier.MCX has an agreement in place with CME for using its benchmark prices in metals and energy contracts. The new contracts would be similar to Gold Hedge launched by MCX rival NCDEX in January 2014 to raise its turnover by diversifying into non-farm products. However, gold hedge, as per data for May, seldom crosses Rs.100 crore turnover on the predominantly farm futures bourse.MCX, on the other hand, recorded turnover of Rs.4,000-5,000 crore a day in gold over the same period. Gold is also delivered on MCX. In April, 445 kilos valued at Rs.117 crore was delivered on MCX.”The thinking is that these contracts will gain better traction on MCX which is a metals and energy bourse where maximum trading in bullion futures happens here,” said the other person.
end
(courtesy New York Sun/GATA)
New York Sun: Jeb Bush on the dollar and currency manipulation
Submitted by cpowell on Wed, 2015-06-03 00:10. Section: Daily Dispatches
From The New York Sun
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
We were just sitting down at the typewriter to tap out an editorial on the failure of any of the Republican contenders to address the crisis in respect of the dollar when an email hit our screen from the editor of the Future of Capitalism about the remarks over the weekend by Jeb Bush. The former governor of Florida was making an appearance at WMUR-TV in New Hampshire when he was asked whether, as Future of Capitalism characterized the question, “foreign currency manipulation had put American manufacturers at a disadvantage.”
Mr. Bush responded that there might be some manipulation by foreigners. But, he added, You can make a case that in the last few years, given our monetary policy, we’ve been manipulating our currency. We’ve never had a time where our central bank is just printing money like nobody’s business. And that depreciates our currency. It lowers our interest rates and depreciates our currency.”
Mr. Bush acknowledged that there exist some protections against foreign currency manipulation already and noted that an eventual trade pact may yet add more. …
… For the remainder of the commentary:
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/jeb-bush-on-the-dollar/89177/
end
A biggy silver mining company takes heed to ted Butler’s letter and slams the CFTC:
(courtesy,GATA/ zero hedge/First Majestic Silver Corp)
First Majestic Silver CEO complains to CFTC about market manipulation
Submitted by cpowell on Wed, 2015-06-03 14:37. Section: Daily Dispatches
10:37a ET Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Keith N. Neumeyer, president and CEO of First Majestic Silver, just about the only executive in the monetary metals mining industry who complains openly about market manipulation that suppresses the price of gold and silver, has heeded market analyst Ted Butler’s latest call to write to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a call noted by GATA last week:
http://www.gata.org/node/15406
Neumeyer’s letter is posted in PDF format at GATA’s Internet site here —
http://www.gata.org/files/FirstMajesticLetterCFTC-06-01-2015.pdf
— and investors in the monetary metals mining industry who are not hopelessly demoralized might do well to bring it to the attention of the companies in which they have invested.
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
end
One Of The World’s Largest Silver Miners Slams The CFTC About Silver Market Manipulation
It has long been known to silver market watchers that when it comes to the price of paper silver, there has long been a chronic and extremely concentrated shorting presence at the Comex, one which the CFTC has persistently refused to address even though it consistently surpasses the proposed limits on derivative positions. Now, at long last, a Canadian silver miner, First Majestic Silver Corp., has decided to take the CFTC to task.
In a letter penned by Ted Butler to CFTC Chairman Tim Massad (who recently replaced former Goldmanite andfuture US Treasury Secretary, Gary Gensler), Keith Neumeyer, CEO of First Majestic, became the first primary silver producer to vocally highlight some of the questionable activity reported weekly in the CFTC’s Commitment of Traders report, specifically the “record position change of more than 28,200 net contracts of COMEX silver futures” the equivalent of 141 million ounces of silver and 61 days of world mine production. Incidentally, this was first observed here one week ago.
Neumeyer observes accurately that the “big changes in positions on the COMEX are by speculators and commercials acting as speculators and not by those engaged in bona fide hedging” and comments that “such massive speculation in COMEX silver futures may not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of commodity law andmay suggest something is wrong with the price discovery process, since real producers and consumers of silver don’t appear to be represented.”
Neumeyer concludes that such moves in the futures market “appear from the outside to be manipulated practices by a concentration of players.”
Don’t hold your breath for a response, however. Recall that less than two years ago, under the aegis of Bart Chilton who is currently a handsomely paid lobbyist at DLA Piper on behalf of the HFT lobby after spending years bashing them while at the CFTC, the commodity regulatorclosed its “investigation” concerning manipulation in the silver market, without finding anything:
CFTC Closes Investigation Concerning the Silver Markets
Washington, DC – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC or Commission)Division of Enforcement has closed the investigation that was publicly confirmed in September 2008 concerning silver markets. The Division of Enforcement is not recommending charges to the Commission in that investigation. For law enforcement and confidentiality reasons, the CFTC only rarely comments publicly on whether it has opened or closed any particular investigation.Nonetheless, given that this particular investigation was confirmed in September 2008, the CFTC deemed it appropriate to inform the public that the investigation is no longer ongoing. Based upon the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring an enforcement action with respect to any firm or its employees related to our investigation of silver markets.
Curiously, this investigation took place during a time when the CFTC, as it publicly admitted recently never even looked at spoofing activity in the precious metals markets, which also explains why two days ago, another Indian scapegoat (the third in a row after Navinder Saraoand Nasim Salim), one Himanshu Kalra was busted for spoofing gold and silver in the period between March 1, 2012 and October 31, 2012 – a span of time which was covered by the CFTC’s grand silver manipulation which concluded in September 2013, and yet which the CFTC completely failed to notice.
And yes, in a non-banana republic, a regulator so humiliated would be forced to at least reopen its “investigation” and admit that it was wrong and has missed glaring examples of market rigging, but in the US that won’t happen.
Which is also why while we salute First Majestic with this first public appeal by a corporation to the CFTC to stop the rigging in the silver market, we have absolute certainty that this too complaint will promptly end up in Mr. Massad trash never to be heard from again.
end
We brought this to your attention yesterday, but it is worth repeating;
(courtesy Epoch Times/and special thanks to Robert H for sending this to us)
Europe Was First, Now a US State Wants Control Over Its Gold
By Valentin Schmid, Epoch Times | June 2, 2015
After the latest European country (Austria) announced it would ship some of its gold back from the Bank of England to Vienna, New York likely thought it was safe as a major gold storage center.
Distrust in the countries and companies that currently store gold have led Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, and Venezuela to move some of their gold stored in New York, London, and Paris back home.
China never bothered to store its gold abroad and has also moved to take control of pricing.
Now the same distrust is hitting New York from within: The Texas Legislature on Monday ratified and sent a bill to Gov. Greg Abbott to enable the state to build a bullion depository in Texas and repatriate $1 billion worth of gold the University of Texas Investment Management Co. is currently storing with HSBC Bank in New York.
For a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold.
— Texas state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione
The bill was introduced by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who told the Star-Telegram: “We are not talking Fort Knox. But when I first announced this, I got so many emails and phone calls from people literally all over the world who said they want to store their gold … in a Texas depository. People have this image of Texas as big and powerful … so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold.”
He did not get into detail why Texas doesn’t trust New York anymore, but another fellow Texan did.
Kyle Bass, a hedge-fund manager famous for shorting subprime mortgages, urged UTIM as part of his responsibility as a board member of the endowment to take delivery of its paper “gold” future contracts in 2011, which it did. The next step is taking it home, but why?
“As a fiduciary, which I am in that position to the extent you own gold and you are going for a long time, and it’s not a trade … We looked at the COMEX at the time and they had about $80 billion of open interest between futures and futures options. And in the warehouse they had $2.7 billion of deliverables. We are going to own it a long time. You are on the board, you are a fiduciary, so that’s an easy one, you go get it.”
Bass is implying that there is much more financial gold out there than physical, and that it is prudent to actually hold the physical.
If you want to be really, really sure you actually own gold, follow Texas and store it on your own backyard.
Since then, speculation intensified that even banks storing gold on behalf of clients (like HSBC) have leased it out, so it can remain on the books but is not actually present physically.
So if you want to be really, really sure you actually own gold, follow Texas and store it in your own backyard.
end
And now overnight trading in stocks and currency in Europe and Asia
1 Chinese yuan vs USA dollar/yuan strengthens to 6.1980/Shanghai bourse red and Hang Sang: green
2 Nikkei closed down by 69.68 points or .34%
3. Europe stocks all in the green/USA dollar index up to 96.20/Euro falls to 1.1020/
3b Japan 10 year bond yield: huge rise to .47% !!!!(Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese yen vs usa cross now at 124.78/very ominous
3c Nikkei still just above 20,000
3d USA/Yen rate now well above the 124 barrier this morning
3e WTI 59.93 and Brent: 64.09
3f Gold down/Yen down
3gJapan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion uSA dollars worth of bond per month or $1.3 trillion. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa.
Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and by 2018 they will have 25% of all Japanese debt. Fifty percent of Japanese budget financed with debt.
3h Oil down for WTI and down for Brent this morning
3i European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10 yr bund rises to 71 basis points. German bunds in negative yields from 4 years out.
Except Greece which sees its 2 year rate fall to 22.17%/Greek stocks up 3.82%/ still expect continual bank runs on Greek banks /Greek default inevitable/
3j Greek 10 year bond yield falls to: 11.20%
3k Gold at 1191.00 dollars/silver $16.65
3l USA vs Russian rouble; (Russian rouble falls 1/5 rouble/dollar in value) 53.41 , the rouble is still the best acting currency this year!!
3m oil into the 59 dollar handle for WTI and 64 handle for Brent/Saudi Arabia increases production to drive out competition.
3n Higher foreign deposits out of China sees huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation. This can spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/China may be forced to do QE!!
30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the SF. It is not working: USA/SF this morning .9360 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF is 1.0409 well below the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister.
3p Britain’s serious fraud squad investigating the Bank of England/
3r the 4 year German bund remains in negative territory with the 10 year moving still near negativity at +.71/
3s Six weeks ago, the ECB increased the ELA to Greece by another large 2.0 billion euros.Four weeks ago, they raised it another 1.1 billion and then two weeks ago they raised it another tiny 200 million euros to a maximum of 80.2 billion euros. Last week, the limit was not raised. Today, the ECB raised the ELA by 1/2 billion euros to 80.7 billion euros.The ELA is used to replace depositors fleeing the Greek banking system. The bank runs are increasing exponentially. The ECB is contemplating cutting off the ELA which would be a death sentence to Greece and they are as well considering a 50% haircut to all Greek sovereign collateral which will totally wipe out the entire Gr. banking and financial sector.
3t Greece paid the 700 million plus payment to the IMF last Wednesday but with IMF reserve funds. It must be paid back in on June 9.
3 u. If the ECB cuts off Greece’s ELA they would have very little money left to function. So far, they have decided not to cut the ELA
4. USA 10 year treasury bond at 2.28% early this morning. Thirty year rate just above 3% at 3.03% / yield curve flatten/foreshadowing recession.
5. Details Ransquawk, Bloomberg, Deutsche bank/Jim Reid.
(courtesy Jim Reid/Bloomberg/Deutsche bank/zero hedge)
Futures Rise, Bund Rout Pauses On “Cautious Optimism” Ahead Of Greek Endgame
With the Greek IMF payment just 48 hours away, and Europe having submitted its best and final offer to Greece in a battle of “deal proposals”, today Greek PM Tsipras will meet with European Commission President Juncker to discuss the recently submitted reform proposals by the Greek premier. However, a Greek government spokesman says that Greek PM Tsipras will not meet Eurogroup’s Dijsselbloem despite several reports suggesting that they would do so later today. Last night it was reported that the EU, ECB, IMF agreed on terms for a cash-for-reform plan to be presented to Greece. However, a senior EU official has said that they are concerned that the stringent measures of the proposal could be met with rejection by Greece.
As a result, European markets, which have been following the Greek drama closely, are mixed, as are US equity futures. Price action in Europe thus far has taken place in a considerably more confined range than in recent days with participants pausing for breath ahead of upcoming key risk events. Equities currently trade with no sustained direction with a modest bout of underperformance in the FTSE 100 with miners leading the way lower for the index amid softness in metals markets.
More importantly in the European bond market after yesterday’s latest historic one-day rout, Bunds have managed to temporarily halt their recent decline after trading relatively sideways as attention turns towards the upcoming ECB press conference.
Indeed, it is not only Greece on the calendar today but so is the ECB’s monthly press conference. According to SocGen, with deflation fears largely averted, expect no policy action from Mario Draghi in just over two hours and only small adjustments to staff projections. Most of the interesting points are likely to emerge during the press conference (in which reporters will be screened far more carefully this time), with questions focused on the solvency of Greek banks (especially in case of the potential impairment of Greek public debt), the ECB’s communication policy (following the recent Cœuré incident), reasons for the bond sell-off, the inflation outllok, coming after the higher than expected May printings, and possibly views on exit strategies for the ECB.
In FX markets, the main mover this morning has been GBP, with GBP/USD falling over a point in the wake of the latest Service PMI number from the UK which fell way short of expectations (56.5 vs. Exp. 59.2). Elsewhere, AUD has held onto its
gains on the back of a stellar Australian Q1 GDP report, which showed the fast growth pace in a year (GDP SA (Q1) Q/Q 0.9% vs. Exp. 0.7% (Prev. 0.5%). EUR/USD currently trades relatively unchanged as participants await any response by either Greece or their European counterparts on the latest set of proposals.
In the commodity complex, WTI and Brent crude futures have continued to drift lower after breaking below the USD 61/bbl level with the latest API crude oil inventories pointed to a second consecutive build in oil stockpiles (+1.8mln vs. Prev. +1.268mln). Furthermore, according to a senior OPEC delegate, the cartel are in agreement to maintain their current production target at Friday’s meeting. Accord