* I have to apologize for today’s post as unfortunately my internet has been down for most of the day (and still down). Some of the sections have been removed where I will update when I have bandwith.*
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Here are the following closes for gold and silver today:
Gold: $1106.80 (comex closing time)
Silver $14.67
In the access market 5:15 pm
Gold $1096.70
Silver: $14.67
First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:
At the gold comex today, we had a poor delivery day, registering 0 notices for nil ounces . Silver saw 27 notices filed for 135,000 oz.
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today, the total inventory rests at 243.49 tonnes for a loss of 60 tonnes over that period.
In silver, the open interest rose by 1,113 contracts despite the fact that Friday’s price was down by 14 cents. The total silver OI continues to remain extremely high, with today’s reading at 188,772 contracts now at decade highs despite a record low price. In ounces, the OI is represented by .944 billion oz or 135% of annual global silver production (ex Russia ex China). 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 as they continue to raid as basically they have no other alternative. Today again, we must have had banker shortcovering.
In silver we had 27 notices served upon for 135,000 oz.
In gold, the total comex gold OI rests tonight at 474,057 for a gain of 3,337 contracts despite the fact that gold was down $12.00 on Friday. We had 0 notices filed for nil oz today.
We had a massive withdrawal in gold tonnage at the GLD to the tune of 11.63 tonnes/ thus the inventory rests tonight at 696.25 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. I thought that 700 tonnes is the rock bottom inventory in gold, but I guess I was wrong. However we must be coming pretty close to a level of only paper gold and the GLD being totally void of physical gold. In silver, we had no change in inventory at the SLV / Inventory now rests at 327.593 million oz.
Here are today’s comex results:
The total gold comex open interest rose by 274 contracts from 474,057 up to 474,331 despite the fact that gold was down $12.00 in price yesterday (at the comex close). We are now in the next contract month of July and here the OI rose by 60 contracts to 218 contracts. We had 0 notices filed yesterday and thus we gained 60 contracts or an additional 6,000 ounces will stand in this non active delivery month of July. The next big delivery month is August and here the OI decreased by 1560 contracts down to 226,979. The estimated volume today (which is just comex sales during regular business hours of 8:20 until 1:30 pm est) was excellent at 329,371.However today’s volume was aided by HFT traders. The confirmed volume yesterday (which includes the volume during regular business hours + access market sales the previous day was poor at 195,751 contracts. Today we had 0 notices filed for nil oz.
And now for the wild silver comex results. Silver OI rose by 1113 contracts from 187,659 up to 188,772 despite the fact that the price of silver was down by 14 cents with respect to Friday’s trading and now the OI is rising in total sympathy with gold. We continue to have our bankers pulling their hair out with respect to the continued high silver OI as the world senses something is brewing in the silver (and gold ) arena. The next delivery month is July and here the OI rose by 22 contracts down to 137. We had 0 notices served upon yesterday and thus we gained 22 contracts or an additional 110,000 ounces of silver will stand for delivery in this active month of July. This is the first time in quite some time that we have not lost any silver ounces standing immediately after first day notice. The August contract month saw it’s OI rise by 57 contracts down to 174. The next major active delivery month is September and here the OI rose by 710 contracts to 128,557. The estimated volume today was excellent at 67,208 contracts (just comex sales during regular business hours). The confirmed volume yesterday (regular plus access market) came in at 30,878contracts which is fair in volume. We had 27 notices filed for 135,000 oz.
July initial standing
July 20.2015
Gold
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz
64,196.711 (Scotia, Manfra) and includes 5 kilobars
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz
16,075.000 (Scotia)(500 kilobars)
No of oz served (contracts) today
0 contracts (nil oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
218 contracts 21,800 oz
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
412 contracts(41,200 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers inventory this month
203.60 oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month
288,163.4 oz
Today, we had 0 dealer transactions
total Dealer withdrawals: nil oz
we had 0 dealer deposits
total dealer deposit: zero
we had 2 customer withdrawal
i) out of Scotia: 64,196.711 oz
ii) Out of Manfra: 160.75 oz (5 kilobars)
total customer withdrawal: 64,357.461 oz
We had 1 customer deposit:
i) Into Scotia: 16,075.000 oz or 500 kilobars
Total customer deposit: 16,075.000 ounces
We had 0 adjustments.
Today, 0 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 0 contracts of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan dealer and 0 notices were stopped (received) by JPMorgan customer account
To calculate the total number of gold ounces standing for the July contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (412) x 100 oz or 41,200 oz , to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of July (218) and the number of notices served upon today (0) x 100 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for gold for the July contract month:
No of notices served so far (412) x 100 oz or ounces + {OI for the front month (218) – the number of notices served upon today (0) x 100 oz which equals 63,000 oz standing so far in this month of July (1.9595 tonnes of gold).
we gained 60 contracts or an additional 6000 oz will stand in this non active delivery month of JULY.
Total dealer inventory 482,778.738 or 15.016 tonnes
Total gold inventory (dealer and customer) = 7,828,512.94 oz or 243.49 tonnes
Several months ago the comex had 303 tonnes of total gold. Today the total inventory rests at 243.49 tonnes for a loss of 60 tonnes over that period.
end
And now for silver
July silver initial standings
July 20 2015:
Silver
Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory
nil
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory
116,978.120 oz (CNT, Delaware,Brinks,Scotia)
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory
nil
Deposits to the Customer Inventory
587,971.400 oz (JPM)
No of oz served (contracts)
27 contracts (135,000 oz)
No of oz to be served (notices)
110 contracts (550000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)
3304 contracts (16,520,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers inventory this month
nil
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month
6,383,162.0 oz
Today, we had 0 deposits into the dealer account:
total dealer deposit: nil oz
we had 0 dealer withdrawal:
total dealer withdrawal: nil oz
We had 1 customer deposits:
i) Into JPMorgan: 587,971.400 oz
total customer deposit: 587,971.400 oz
We had 4 customer withdrawals:
i)Out of CNT: 10,472.84 oz
ii) Out of Delaware: 980.700 oz
iii) Out of Brinks: 29,351.48 oz
iv) Scotia; 76,173.100 oz
total withdrawals from customer: 116,978.120 oz
we had 0 adjustments
Total dealer inventory: 58.96 million oz
Total of all silver inventory (dealer and customer) 178.879 million oz
The total number of notices filed today for the July contract month is represented by 27 contracts for 135,000 oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in July, we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at (3304) x 5,000 oz = 16,520,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of July (137) and the number of notices served upon today (27) x 5000 oz equals the number of ounces standing.
Thus the initial standings for silver for the July contract month:
3304 (notices served so far) + { OI for front month of July (137) -number of notices served upon today (27} x 5000 oz ,= 17,070,000 oz of silver standing for the July contract month.
We gained 22 contracts or an additional 110,000 ounces will stand in this active delivery month of July.
for those wishing to see the rest of data today see:
http://www.harveyorgan.wordpress.comorhttp://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:
July 20
July 17./a massive withdrawal of 11.63 tonnes in gold tonnage tonight from the GLD/Inventory rests at 696.25 tonnes
July 16./we lost 1.19 tonnes of gold tonight/Inventory rests at 707.88 tonnes
July 15/no change in inventory/gold inventory rests tonight at 709.07 tonnes.
July 14.2015:no change in inventory/gold inventory rests at 709.07 tonnes
July 13.2015: a big inventory gain of 1.49 tonnes/Inventory rests tonight at 709.07 tonnes
July 10/ we had a big withdrawal of 2.07 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests this weekend at 707.58 tonnes
July 9/ no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 709.65 tonnes
July 8/no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 709.65 tonnes
July 7/ no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 709.65 tonnes
July 6/no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory at 709.65 tonnes
July 2/we had a huge withdrawal of inventory to the tune of 1.79 tonnes/rests tonight at 709.65 tonnes
July 20 GLD : 696.25 tonnes
end
And now for silver (SLV)
July 20
july 17.2015/no change in silver inventory tonight/inventory at 327.593 million oz
July 16./no change in silver inventory/rests tonight at 327.593 million oz
July 15./no change in silver inventory/rests tonight at 327.593 million oz/
July 14.2015: no change in silver inventory/rests tonight at 327.593 million oz.
July 13./an inventory gain of 1.051 million oz/Inventory rests at 327.593 million oz
july 10/no change in silver inventory at the SLV tonight/inventory 326.542 million oz/
July 9/ a huge increase in inventory at the SLV of 1.337 million oz. Inventory rests tonight at 326.542 million oz
July 8/no change in inventory at the SLV/rests at 325.205
July 7/no change in inventory at the SLV/rests at 325.205 tonnes
July 6/we have a slight inventory withdrawal which no doubt paid fees. we lost 137,000 oz/Inventory rests tonight at 325.205 million oz
July 2/ no change in inventory at the SLV/rests tonight at 325.342 million oz
July 20/2015: tonight inventory rests at 327.593 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 10.3 percent to NAV usa funds and Negative 10.40% to NAV for Cdn funds!!!!!!!
Percentage of fund in gold 62.2%
Percentage of fund in silver:37.4%
cash .4%
( July 20/2015)
2. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): Premium to NAV falls to 1.58%!!!! NAV (July 20/2015) (silver must be in short supply)
3. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV falls to – .73% toNAV(July 20/2015
Note: Sprott silver trust back into positive territory at 2.21%
Sprott physical gold trust is back into negative territory at -.73%
Central fund of Canada’s is still in jail.
Sprott formally launches its offer for Central Trust gold and Silver Bullion trust:
SII.CN Sprott formally launches previously announced offers to CentralGoldTrust (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.
* * * * *
>
And now for your overnight trading in gold and silver plus stories
on gold and silver issues:
(courtesy/Mark O’Byrne/Goldcore)
China’s Total Gold Holdings Much Higher – Owns Gold In SAFE and CIC
By Mark O’ByrneJuly 20, 2015No Comments
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– China revises up its stated gold reserves in bid for IMF membership and reserve currency status
– China announces a 604 tonne increase in gold reserves
– First public disclosure re reserves in since 2009
– China officially owns around 1,660 tonnes of gold reserves – true total figure is likely much larger
– Playing long game – protecting USD reserves and positioning RMB as global reserve currency
– China true gold holdings much higher as also owns gold in SAFE and CIC
China officially revised its gold reserves upward for the first time since 2009 on Friday. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) stated on Friday that it had added 604 tonnes of gold to its official reserves last month.
Gold is no longer used to back paper and digital money of today, however it remains an important part of monetary reserves internationally. This can be seen in the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) announcement of an increase in their gold reserves.
China’s official reserves are now almost 1660 tonnes of gold. Analysts, including Bloomberg and ourselves, had been expecting a sharp jump to at least 2,000 tonnes and possibly as high as 3,000 or 4,000 tonnes.
It is clear by the secrecy surrounding China’s reserves that they view gold as a vital strategic asset. Chinese gold reserves increased by 57 percent and China’s holdings have now surpassed those of Russia to become the fifth-largest. The U.S. is believed to have the biggest reserves at 8,133.5 tons. The current official holdings rank them as the fifth largest holder of gold in the world (see chart).
Many analysts believe this figure to be an understatement given the enormous volumes of gold that have been passing through Hong Kong – and through Shanghai in more recent years – and the large amounts that have been produced and bought domestically.
It is important to remember that as we have long pointed out two other entities, besides the PBOC, have also been buying gold – the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and theChina Investment Corporation (CIC).
Although if the combined holdings of the PBOC, SAFE and CIC were added together, China may well be the second largest holder of gold bullion – after the U.S. – assuming that U.S. gold reserve figures, which have not been publicly audited in over 60 years, are accurate.
It is likely, that in total and between the three China’s financial institutions, China may in fact be holding between 3,000 tonnes and 6,000 tonnes of gold.
China is playing the long game and they could be low balling their total gold holdings – official central bank reserves and non official holdings – in order to maintain confidence in their substantial US dollar holdings and to aid their bid to join the IMF.
China became the world’s second-largest economy in 2010 and has stepped up efforts to internationalize its currency – the yuan. The Chinese are pushing for full convertibility of the RMB and increasing their gold holdings will create confidence in the fledgling reserve currency and aid them in this regard.
China, regardless of its ambitions, is not currently in a position to challenge the the dollar’s reserve currency supremacy. The absence of a deep and liquid bond market is one impediment that they need to overcome on this regard.
On the other hand, it certainly is strong enough to take its place at the IMF and have the yuan included in the currency basket that makes up Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).
Whoever has the gold makes the rules. While gold is denigrated at every opportunity by some commentators – frequently Keynesians anti gold ideologues – it is clear that the true power-brokers in the world – leading international banks and central banks – still adhere to that adage.
To demonstrate its fitness to join the IMF, China must demonstrate its financial and monetary strength by declaring sufficient gold reserves which it has now done.
The bloated, debt-based international monetary system faces huge challenges and the scale of debts globally could indeed lead to collapse. In time China may disclose its true gold holdings and partially back its currency with gold to discourage capital flight.
Gold is no longer used to back the trillions and trillions of paper and digital money of today, however it clearly remains money contrary to assertions to the contrary. Gold bullion remains a substantial part of central bank reserves in the U.S. and Europe.
The PBOC gold announcement is the continuation of the trend of China positioning the yuan as global reserve currency. China’s gold reserves remain miniscule as a percent of their massive $3.7 trillion foreign exchange reserves – less than 2%. In marked contrast to the U.S., Germany and even France and Italy when gold’s share of national forex reserves is over 70%.
We would not be surprised if the PBOC begins to accumulate a minimum of 100 metric tonnes in gold reserves a month going forward as the Russians have done in recent years. Alternatively, they may elect to continue accumulating gold bullion quietly through SAFE and the CIC – indeed they have been buying hundreds of gold mines in South America, Africa and internationally in recent years – likely securing another important source of supply.
Central banks internationally still hold physical gold as financial insurance. Investors and savers should do the same and have an allocation to gold bullion outside of the banking system, in the safest vaults in the world.
Must-read guides to international bullion storage:
Essential Guide to Gold Storage in Switzerland
Essential Guide to Gold Storage in Singapore
MARKET UPDATE
Today’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,115.00, EUR 1,029.17 and GBP 717.41 per ounce.
Friday’s AM LBMA Gold Price was USD 1,143.00, EUR 1,049.25 and GBP 730.68 per ounce.
For the week, gold was lower in dollars and pounds but eked out slight gains in euros. Gold fell 2.5% to $1133.90 per ounce and silver fell 4.4% to $14.89 per ounce.
This morning, massive concentrated selling in the futures market again led to sharp price falls and at one stage gold fell nearly 5% to below $1,100 per ounce. Gold in Singapore for immediate delivery fell sharply while gold in Switzerland bounced higher from the intra day lows.
In what looked like another successful bid to manipulate the gold market lower, there was massive selling of gold futures contracts – some 700,000 ounces worth of gold futures in mere seconds. The equivalent of one-fifth of a whole day’s trade in a normal session, was sold in a concentrated manner in less than two minutes – pushing prices lower again.
ANZ Bank analyst Victor Thianpiriya said in a note that the“nature, size and timing of the heavy selling” suggests someone “was taking advantage of low liquidity or some sort of forced selling had taken place.“
The sell off in the gold market spooked other commodities and most commodities are seeing sharp selling today, while stocks have continued to eke out further gains.
This is somewhat counter intuitive as the sharp falls in commodities in recent days suggest the global economy is weakening and threatened by deflation. Thus, stocks should be falling too. However, it appears that stocks are being supported by ultra loose monetary policies and currency debasement for now.
Gold looks horrible technically after having a fourth weekly loss last week. This is the longest series of price falls since February.The price falls are despite strong coin and bar demand internationally. U.S. Mint gold bullion coin sales remain very robust and dealers, mints and refineries report robust demand – particularly in Germany and wider Europe and indeed in the U.S.
This suggests that we are close to capitulation and a bottom and gold looks very oversold. Gold mining stocks absolutely collapsed last week with the XAU index down 8.1% and the HUI index down 9.3% – another indication that we may be close to a bottom.
Although as ever we caution to never ‘catch a falling knife’ and $1,000 per ounce remains possible on the down side. Dollar cost averaging into a physical position remains prudent.
Silver for immediate delivery fell 0.6% to $14.84 an ounce. Spot platinum fell 1.1 percent to $984.51 an ounce, while palladium fell 1 percent to $611 an ounce.
Breaking News and Research Here
end
Gata responds to China’s official gold holdings:
(courtesy GATA)
China’s official gold reserves total is still phony — and so is most everybody else’s
Submitted by cpowell on Fri, 2015-07-17 22:58. Section: Daily Dispatches
7:41p ET Friday, July 17, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Most people in the gold business seems disappointed with China’s announcement today of its gold reserve total, which, as Sharps Pixley CEO Ross Norman told The Wall Street Journal, was only about half of what the market expected, since it was the first updating of gold reserves by the People’s Bank of China in six years:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-discloses-its-gold-holdings-1437144149
But this expectation was probably always unrealistic, for as Zero Hedge writes —
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-17/china-increases-gold-holdings-5…
— China’s announcement today was also an admission that its gold reserve figures have been misleading. Indeed, the announcement was almost certainly hugely misleading, China’s true gold reserves likely being far larger.
That is, for six years, right through yesterday, China asserted that its official gold reserves were 1.054 tonnes, but today China reported its official reserves as 1,658 tonnes, an increase of 604 tonnes or 57 percent —
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/17/china-gold-reserves-idUSL4N0ZX…
— and of course that much additional metal was not obtained in the last 24 hours.
Zero Hedge writes: “China has finally admitted that its official gold numbers were fabricated (alongside all other official data released from the communist country), as it is impossible that the People’s Bank of China could have bought 600 tons of gold in the open market in June when the price of the yellow metal actually dropped by 2 percent.”
But China has not “finally” admitted anything, as these are the same circumstances that prevailed when China updated its reserve report in 2009. For from 2003 to 2009 China maintained that its gold reserves were just 454 tonnes. Then one day in April 2009 the reserves report jumped 146 tonnes to 600 tonnes:
http://www.gata.org/node/7380
end
China adds a whopping 62 tonnes in the latest week. This is a big increase from the week before.
(courtesy Jessie/American Cafe/GATA)
Shanghai Gold Exchange Sees 61.8 Tonnes Withdrawn In
Eighth Largest Week Ever – Talk To the Hand
Asia continues to add significant amounts of gold bullion to their wealth reserves.
Wall Street and its sycophants would like us to consider gold to be just ‘a pet rock’ or ‘like trading sardines.’ And yet central banks have turned to be net buyers, and Asia and the Mideast continue to buy bullion in record amounts. Talk to the Chan.
One of the few coherent things Alan Greenspan said was that statists of all persuasions, both right and left, have ‘an almost hysterical antagonism towards gold.’ This is because gold resists their will to power over others.
So why isn’t gold ‘working’ at this moment in history?
“We hypothesize that, having learned from the misadventures of the 1960s, the policy elites, well-versed in the practice of financial engineering and market manipulation, would have seen no need to dump stocks of government gold reserves onto the market, 1960s style, to keep the price in check.
Instead, synthetic gold, sourced in pyramids of credit extended to bullion bankers by central banks with little or no claim on physical substance, have provided a more efficient, better-camouflaged form of intervention. COMEX synthetic gold and related over-the-counter derivatives are traded in macro strategies implemented by hedge funds, high-frequency trades, and commodity funds in pair trades with interest-rate, currencies, equity futures, or even more exotic offsets. The volumes traded are huge, and bear little resemblance to actual flows of physical metal.
We suspect that shorting gold has come to seem like a riskless proposition as long as there is confidence in the Fed. Synthetic gold is the perfect substance for a carry trade: an easy borrow with very low carrying cost and little upside basis risk. Such a hypothesis, in our opinion, does much to explain the incongruity of a declining gold price while fundamentals for paper currency, and the U.S. dollar in particular, obviously deteriorate; while demand for physical gold has exceeded new mine supply for several years running; and while above-ground 400-ounce .995-gold bars located in London, New York, and other financial capitals (in cohabitation with speculative trading activity in paper markets) have steadily dwindled and disappeared into Asian financial centers reformulated as .9999 kilo bars.”
Tocqueville Gold Newsletter 2Q 2015
The dumping at market of very large amounts of paper assets into quiet market hours has been well documented in many places. It is a well worn market manipulating strategy abused by some very large trading desks, often playing with other people’s money. Citi privately called it their ‘Dr. Evil Strategy.’
It is funny how the systematic rigging of so many financially related markets has been revealed, but the blatant manipulation of the precious metals market, which is certainly knowable by anyone with a basic knowledge of the markets and a computer terminal, is so willfully ignored. A love of money, lust for power, and a lack of integrity will alloy to make people hypocrites.
When we see such trash articles being written, and passed along mindlessly by those who yearn to warm themselves by the fires of the oligarchs, we know that gold has cast a cold fear into the hearts of those who would be kings, or their privileged servants.
And considering the long, cynical rally in paper assets that culminated in the financial crisis of 2008, when people start believing in the power of fraud and willful distortion of markets, we can only say as we did then, this will end badly.
A man cannot serve two masters. He will love the one and come to hate the other. You love what you serve.
end
(courtesy Bix Weir)
Good Sign for Silver in the Short Term
Bix Weir
A few weeks back the US Mint announced that US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, had ordered them to stop selling the #1 retail silver coin in the world…the 1oz Silver Eagle. He ordered it because too many were being sold at the low, manipulated silver price below $15/oz and he knew that there was more pain to come in the silver price suppression so he cut off supply to slow the physical dishoarding of the remaining stockpiles of silver.
That’s the truth and there is no other way to describe it.
Yesterday, the US Mint announced that the sales of US Silver Eagles will resume on July 27th on an allocated basis as mandated by US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew.
US Mint to Resume Silver Eagle Sales July 27
http://www.kitco.com/news/2015-07-17/U-S-Mint-To-Restart-Silver-Sales-July-27-Gold-Demand-Remains-Strong.html
Silver bullion investors will have to wait one more week to buy more 2015 U.S. American Eagle Silver coins from the U.S. Mint.
Friday, the U.S. Mint said announced that it would resume sales of their popular silver coin, on an allocated basis, July 27.
The mint sold out of its American eagle coins July 7 after silver prices dropped below $15 an ounce, creating “significant demand” for the bullion coins. According to sales data compiled by the mint, more than 2.7 million silver coins have been sold in July, completely surpassing sales of 1.98 million coins in 2014. For the year, the mint has sold more than 24.5 million silver coins.
The mint’s sales data also shows strong demand for gold bullion coins. The mint has seen its busy month since April 2013 in only the first few weeks of July. The data shows that so far the mint has sold a total of 101,000 ounces of gold so far this month. Last year the mint sold 30,000 ounces of gold for the entire July 2014.
END
So let me get this straight, the price of silver is plummeting and the demand for silver is going through the roof so much so that the US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, found it necessary to halt the production (ie demand) for the #1 use of retail physical silver. His other choice, and the one that is mandated by the Bullion Coin Act of 1985, was to continue purchasing silver blanks to fill demand even though it may drive the price of silver much higher.
BY DEFINITION: US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, is artificially manipulating the silver market as his actions are meant to STOP the upward pressure on the price of silver and support the manipulation actions.
US Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, should be charged for the illegal act of willfully manipulating the silver market!
The bright side of all this: Jack Lew is telegraphing just how long we should expect to see the silver price held down until the next leg up begins – July 27th!
Tick, tick, Tick.
May the Road you choose be the Right Road.
Bix Weir
www.RoadtoRoota.com
end
(courtesy Stephen Leeb/Egon Von Greyerz/Kingowrld news)
At KWN, China’s gold reserves announcement ridiculed by Leeb, von Greyerz, Maguire
Submitted by cpowell on Sat, 2015-07-18 15:35. Section: Daily Dispatches
11:34a ET Saturday, July 18, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
In interviews with King World News, fund managers Stephen Leeb and Egon von Greyerz and London metals trader Andrew Maguire ridicule Friday’s announcement by China about its gold reserves, which, they maintain, are much greater than announced. The interviews are posted here:
http://kingworldnews.com/andrew-maguire-egon-von-greyerz-and-stephen-lee…
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
end
(courtesy John Hathaway/Tocqueville Asset Management/GATA)
Tocqueville’s Hathaway summarizes and updates the gold suppression scheme
Submitted by cpowell on Sat, 2015-07-18 14:55. Section: Daily Dispatches
10:55a ET Saturday, July 18, 2015
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
In his new gold strategy letter, Tocqueville Asset Management’s senior portfolio manager, John Hathaway, updates and summarizes the central bank gold price suppression scheme, which is getting more obvious every day with the counterintuitive behavior of the markets.
Hathaway writes:
“We and others have commented at length about the contradictions between the markets for paper (synthetic) and physical gold. The declining price of paper gold quotes in NY and London doesn’t square with worldwide physical flows that reflect demand far in excess of mine production. It appears to us that gold positions traded in London and New York among bullion banks, high-frequency traders, hedge funds, and commodity traders constitute highly levered derivatives with only distant and notional relationships to the physical substance. The power of synthetic gold markets (COMEX in New York and over-the-counter in London, in conjunction with the London Bullion Market Association fix) to determine gold prices could start to ebb as physical gold migrates to Asian financial centers.
“China has built an institutional infrastructure in the form of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, shortly to be merged with the Hong Kong Gold Exchange, which will facilitate settlement of international transactions in physical, not synthetic, gold, as described by Yao Yudong in his recent LBMA presentation. We expect an increasing percentage of gold transactions to be denominated in renminbi.
“The well-documented disappearance of bullion from Western vaults may mean that credit required for transactions in synthetic gold — that is, some sort of claim on underlying physical gold — will become increasingly difficult to obtain. …
“Evidence of possible stress on this system of credit links between physical gold and derivatives may have been revealed by the first-quarter Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) report, which showed that JPMorgan’s commodities derivative contracts (less than one year) exploded from $131 million to $3.8 trillion in just one quarter — a staggering and unprecedented change.
“The mystery deepens because the OCC for the first time inexplicably obfuscated the reporting categories by eliminating the separate, long-standing category (at least 10 years) for gold by including it together with foreign exchange. This curious retreat from transparency by the OCC suggests to us attempted deception. By whom and for what reasons we can only speculate.
“For our part, it makes us wonder whether we are witnessing the final moments of a second, more sophisticated version of the 1960s London Gold Pool (the ‘Gold Pool’), a scheme organized by the U.S. and European governments to suppress the free-market gold price to camouflage the growing adverse fundamentals for the U.S. dollar. …
“A bit of history is instructive here: The collapse of the 1960s Gold Pool, the aforementioned secret and collusive effort by seven central banks to keep a lid on the gold price, preceded a most difficult decade for financial assets. A lesson to be learned from the 1960s is the unpredictability of government actions, their inherently anti-free-market nature, and the unintended consequences that can arise from them.
“The Gold Pool was, in retrospect, a clumsy attempt by Western democracies to disguise the deteriorating fundamentals of the U.S. dollar stemming from the Vietnam War, rising inflation, and the weakening balance of payments. The dollar had been pegged to gold at $35/ounce since the end of World War II, a number that proved too low in light of the changing fiscal realities for U.S. sovereign credit caused by the escalation of the Vietnam War and the introduction of large scale welfare policies under the umbrella of the Johnson administration’s ‘Great Society’ initiative.
“In retrospect, the scheme was clumsy because the manipulation of the gold price was accomplished by the exchange of physical gold for dollars held by foreign creditors who saw the writing on the wall. The objective of the Gold Pool was to disguise reality. In the long run, that price-suppression scheme did not work. The failure of the Gold Pool of course was resolved by the suspension of dollar/gold convertibility in 1971. When free-market gold trading resumed in 1974, the gold price rose by nearly 20 fold over the next eight years.
“The present-day magnitude of fiscal and monetary irresponsibility in our view exceeds the precedent of the 1960s by multiples. It is only fitting that the elaboration and complexity of disguise required to beautify the underlying realities would be proportional. Government intervention via price suppression (interest rates, currencies) or price inflation (financial assets) seems to pervade all financial markets. Why should gold be exempt?
“At some basic level, all investors are aware of the gold price. Unruly behavior by the metal could render the ‘Truman Show’ dysfunctional. Allowing free-market expression of gold prices may have been seen as a serious risk at the highest policy levels. The strong rise of the gold price amidst liberal doses of QE post-2008 through 2011 would have been a note discordant with an otherwise happy fable. Gold strength might confirm what many investors suspect: QE and ZIRP have failed to produce economic growth and may well have jeopardized future prospects for a return to solid economic footing.
“We hypothesize that, having learned from the misadventures of the 1960s, the policy elites, well-versed in the practice of financial engineering and market manipulation, would have seen no need to dump stocks of government gold reserves onto the market, 1960s style, to keep the price in check. Instead, synthetic gold, sourced in pyramids of credit extended to bullion bankers by central banks with little or no claim on physical substance, have provided a more efficient, better-camouflaged form of intervention. COMEX synthetic gold and related over-the-counter derivatives are traded in macro strategies implemented by hedge funds, high-frequency trades, and commodity funds in pair trades with interest-rate, currencies, equity futures, or even more exotic offsets. The volumes traded are huge, and bear little resemblance to actual flows of physical metal.
“We suspect that shorting gold has come to seem like a riskless proposition as long as there is confidence in the Fed. Synthetic gold is the perfect substance for a carry trade: an easy borrow with very low carrying cost and little upside basis risk. Such a hypothesis, in our opinion, does much to explain the incongruity of a declining gold price while fundamentals for paper currency, and the U.S. dollar in particular, obviously deteriorate; while demand for physical gold has exceeded new mine supply for several years running; and while above-ground 400-ounce .995-gold bars located in London, New York, and other financial capitals (in cohabitation with speculative trading activity in paper markets) have steadily dwindled and disappeared into Asian financial centers reformulated as .9999 kilo bars.”
Hathaway’s letter is posted at the Tocqueville Internet site here:
http://tocqueville.com/insights/tocqueville-gold-strategy-2Q15-partII
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org
end
Sunday night: Flash crash on gold
Gold, Precious Metals Flash Crash Following $2.7 Billion Notional Dump
The last time gold plummeted by just over $30 per ounce (dragging down silver and bitcoin with it) and resulted in a crash so furious it led to a “Velocity Logic” market halt for 10 seconds, was in February 2014. Many said this was just perfectly normal selling, although we explicitly said (and showed) that it was a clear case of an HFT algo gone wild (following an order to do just that and slam all sell stops) when someone manipulated the market and repriced gold substantially lower.
Precisely one month ago, some 18 months after the incident, the Comex admitted as much, when it blamed the collapse on “unusually large and atypical trading activity by several of the Firm’s customers and caused the mass entry of order messages by Zenfire, which resulted in a disruptive and rapid price movement in the February 2014 Gold Futures market and prompted a Velocity Logic event.” Curiously despite the “errant” order, gold did not rebound because the entire purpose of the selling slam was to reset the prevailing price far lower. This is what the Comex said in Disciplinary action 14-9807-BC:
Pursuant to an offer of settlement Mirus Futures LLC (“Mirus” or the “Firm”) presented at a hearing on June 16, 2015, in which Mirus neither admitted nor denied the rule violations upon which the penalty is based, a Panel of the COMEX Business Conduct Committee (“BCC”) found that it had jurisdiction over Mirus pursuant to Exchange Rule 418 and that on January 6, 2014, Mirus failed to adequately monitor the operation of its trading platform (Zenfire), and connectivity of its trading system (Zenfire) with Globex. This failure resulted in unusually large and atypical trading activity by several of the Firm’s customers and caused the mass entry of order messages by Zenfire, which resulted in a disruptive and rapid price movement in the February 2014 Gold Futures market and prompted a Velocity Logic event.
The Panel found that as a result, Mirus violated Rules 432.Q. (Conduct Detrimental to the Exchange) and 432.W.
We bring this up because moments ago, just before 9:30pm Eastern time or right as China opened for trading, gold (as well as platinum, silver, and virtually all precious metals) flashed crashed when “someone” sold $2.7 billion notional in gold, resulting in a 4.2% crash in gold, which tumbled to the lowest level since March 2010.
Gold:
Silver:
Platinum:
Once again, as in February 2014 and on various prior cases, the fact that someone meant to take out the entire bid stack reveals that this was not a normal order and price discovery was the last thing on the seller’s mind, but an intentional HFT-induced slam with one purpose: force the sell stops.
So what caused it?
The answer is probably irrelevant: it could be another HFT-orchestrated smash a la February 2014, or it could be the BIS’ gold and FX trading desk under Benoit Gilson, or it could be just a massive commodity fund unwind, or it could be simply Citigroup, which as we showed earlier this month has now captured the precious metals market via derivatives.
Whatever the reason, gold just had its biggest flash crash in nearly two years, as a targeted stop hunt launched by the dumping of $2.7 billion notional in product, accelerates the capitulation of the momentum buyers (and in this case sellers) pushing gold to a level not seen almost since 2009.
The price appears to have rebounded after the initial shock, up about $20 from the intraday low of $1,086 but we expect that to be retested shortly, and for gold to plunge further into triple digits, at which point gold miners will simply cease to produce the metal show all-in production costs are in the $1200 and higher range, at which point it will be clear that only derivatives and “paper” are in play.
But perhaps the biggest irony of the night is that moments before the flash crash, the PBOC revised its shocking Friday announcement revealing its gold holdings had increased by 57%. As Bloomberg said:
CHINA PBOC REVISES GOLD RESERVES TO 53.32M FINE TROY OUNCES
Previously, this was said to be 53.31 million ounces or 10,000 ounces lower, confirming China is just making up gold inventory “numbers” as it goes along, and clearly buying ever more physical while the price of paper precious metals conveniently plunge ever lower. One thing is certain: the PBOC will be quite grateful to whoever (or whatever) was the catalyst for the latest and greatest gold flash crash as well.
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