http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2012/05/terrible-chicago-pmi-number10-yr-usa.html
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Gold closed down$1.60 to $1563.70. Silver was down 22 cents to $27.74.
Gold was heading northbound and then at 9:50 am : BANG!! Our bankers showed up and down went gold and silver. Gold recovered somewhat and in the end it was only down by $1.60. Silver fared worse as it was down 22 cents.
Today the Chicago's PMI index fell badly and this was enough to send the 10 yr Treasury bill to 1.57%.The Challenger Christmas firm announced huge future layoffs and with both of these poor numbers, the Dow initially fell by over 100 points only to mysteriously rise above par near closing time. However too many sell orders finally drove the Dow into negative territory at minus 26 points. The 10 yr Spanish bond yield opened down in yield (up in price) and that put European bourses originally in the green and that lasted until the announcement of the layoffs and the lousy Chicago PMI. The Italian 10 yr bond also went back up in yield close to where it finished yesterday.
Let us now head over to the comex and assess trading today. As I have indicated to you with week, today is first day notice.
The total gold comex OI rose slightly to the tune of 259 contracts from 419,986 to 420,245. The front delivery month of June saw a rather large 9171 contracts stand for delivery or 917,100 oz of gold. The front month of June dipped 30,095 contracts from a level of 39,266 to tonight's reading of 9171.
The next delivery month is August and here the OI rose by 26,067 contracts rising from 198,212 to 224,279. The estimated volume today was mediocre at 185,103 compared to yesterday's confirmed volume of 371,413 which saw a fair size rollovers into August and some into December.
The total silver comex OI rose by 2082 contracts from 113,945 to 116,027 as we have been witnessing a slow but sure rise these past several weeks. The non official delivery month of June saw its OI fall from 95 to 77 for a loss of 18 contracts. July is the big delivery month for silver and here the OI remains relatively stable rising by 478 contracts from 58164 to 58,642. The estimated volume was quite good at 48,882 as was yesterday's confirmed volume of 52,752.
Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:
Gold closed down$1.60 to $1563.70. Silver was down 22 cents to $27.74.
Gold was heading northbound and then at 9:50 am : BANG!! Our bankers showed up and down went gold and silver. Gold recovered somewhat and in the end it was only down by $1.60. Silver fared worse as it was down 22 cents.
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Today the Chicago's PMI index fell badly and this was enough to send the 10 yr Treasury bill to 1.57%.The Challenger Christmas firm announced huge future layoffs and with both of these poor numbers, the Dow initially fell by over 100 points only to mysteriously rise above par near closing time. However too many sell orders finally drove the Dow into negative territory at minus 26 points. The 10 yr Spanish bond yield opened down in yield (up in price) and that put European bourses originally in the green and that lasted until the announcement of the layoffs and the lousy Chicago PMI. The Italian 10 yr bond also went back up in yield close to where it finished yesterday.
Let us now head over to the comex and assess trading today. As I have indicated to you with week, today is first day notice.
The total gold comex OI rose slightly to the tune of 259 contracts from 419,986 to 420,245. The front delivery month of June saw a rather large 9171 contracts stand for delivery or 917,100 oz of gold. The front month of June dipped 30,095 contracts from a level of 39,266 to tonight's reading of 9171.
The next delivery month is August and here the OI rose by 26,067 contracts rising from 198,212 to 224,279. The estimated volume today was mediocre at 185,103 compared to yesterday's confirmed volume of 371,413 which saw a fair size rollovers into August and some into December.
The total silver comex OI rose by 2082 contracts from 113,945 to 116,027 as we have been witnessing a slow but sure rise these past several weeks. The non official delivery month of June saw its OI fall from 95 to 77 for a loss of 18 contracts. July is the big delivery month for silver and here the OI remains relatively stable rising by 478 contracts from 58164 to 58,642. The estimated volume was quite good at 48,882 as was yesterday's confirmed volume of 52,752.
and items of interest include......
John Embry has delivered a great article on the gold/silver manipulation by the bankers. He gives a good review of the Feb 29.2012 drive by shooting plus comments on the blatant naked shorting of gold/silver equity shares.
(courtesy Investors Digest/Sprott.com/GATA/John Embry)
As always, Gene Arensberg gives a thorough analysis on last Friday's COT report for gold and silver.
He states as I do that the large commercial traders are aggressively covering their short positions:
(courtesy Gene Arensberg/Got GoldReport/GATA)
(courtesy Investors Digest/Sprott.com/GATA/John Embry)
John Embry: Powers that be succeed once again in trashing gold
Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2012-05-31 11:05. Section: Daily Dispatches
end
7a ET Thursday, May 31, Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Writing for Investor's Digest of Canada, Sprott Asset Management's John Embry reviews recent government efforts to suppress gold's price as government market intervention becomes pervasive everywhere. Embry's commentary is headlined "Powers That Be Succeed Once Again in Trashing Gold" and it's posted at the Sprott Internet site here:
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
As always, Gene Arensberg gives a thorough analysis on last Friday's COT report for gold and silver.
He states as I do that the large commercial traders are aggressively covering their short positions:
(courtesy Gene Arensberg/Got GoldReport/GATA)
Big commercials aggressively covering gold and silver shorts, Arensberg says
Submitted by cpowell on Thu, 2012-05-31 04:36. Section: Daily Dispatches
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/31/2012 10:23 -0400
"Mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a Hell to me; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete!"
-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
12:35a ET Thursday, May 31, 2012
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
At the Got Gold Report, Gene Arensberg examines trader positions on the gold and silver futures exchanges and finds them as bullish as they've been in years. He says the large commercial traders are aggressively covering their short positions. This particular report is presented as a video and it's posted here:
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
and......
This Reuters report shows the dire conditions inside Spain.
The markets surely did not respond well to the news of the 23 billion euro shortfall in their
big bank Bankia after weeks earlier, the government stated that this bank does not need any
new funding. Markets have tumbled ever since!
(courtesy Reuters)
Spain cries for help: is Berlin listening ?
MADRID |
(Reuters) - Crisis is the watchword in Madrid. Take your pick - liquidity crisis, debt crisis, banking crisis, economic crisis, confidence crisis, investor crisis, jobless crisis. Spain, the ailing euro zone's latest problem child, has them all.
As the problems pile up, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's five-month-old conservative administration feels like a government under siege. Nervy top officials are reluctant to speak on the record for fear of slipping up. Policymakers contradict one another. Plans keep changing. Financial markets reel amid the uncertainty. The gloom in ministry corridors is palpable.
The latest gaffe: after weeks insisting that one of the country's biggest banks, Bankia, did not need fresh funds, ministers dropped the bombshell last Friday that there was a 23-billion-euro hole in the accounts. They have yet to explain clearly how they will find the money when they are already struggling to finance a spiraling national debt.
The effect of the Bankia news on fragile financial markets was devastating. Spanish shares dived to 9-year lows, the euro sank and investors fled Spanish government debt, pushing the yield towards the 7 per cent level at which fellow eurozone members Ireland and Portugal were forced to seek national bailouts from Brussels.
To hear the government tell it, outsiders have got it all wrong: Spain has lived beyond its means for too long and is now going through a painful but necessary period of adjustment to shrink its state sector, cut spending and boost competitiveness. All the right things are being done. Rajoy's government is serious, committed and enjoys a comfortable parliamentary majority.
Officials say foreigners don't understand that Spain has boosted its exports more than any other European country in the past three years, that it has reformed its labor markets, cut its costs of production and come clean about the problems in its banks, which lent too enthusiastically to finance a huge property bubble that has now burst.
Now, ministers say, Madrid just needs time and some help and support from its European partners to get through the most acute phase of the crisis and give the reforms time to work.
RUNNING OUT OF TIME AND IDEAS
Unfortunately, time is running out.
Despite fresh proposals from Brussels on Wednesday that could go some way towards offering Rajoy what he wants - if they find their way through the Union's tortuous decision-making process into law - Europe's paymaster Germany has yet to fulfill Spain's wish list.
Spanish depositors are jittery. Newspaper editors tell of calls from members of the public unsure what to do with their money, asking for advice. Anecdotes abound of the wealthy moving their money to the relative security of London, Germany or France. London property agents Savills and Knight Frank say the number of Spanish buyers grew 14-21 percent in April compared with the average of the preceding six months.
Official bank deposit figures are published with a big time lag: the latest numbers, for April, are due shortly.
Spanish bankers insist that there will be no bank runs. But ministers in private are clear about their wish to see European-wide bank deposit guarantee measures put in place quickly to avoid the risk of what could be a catastrophic event. There are signs the European Central Bank favors deposit guarantees.
Problems are mounting on other fronts. With the cost of borrowing heading rapidly towards 7 percent and most foreign investors already shunning Spanish debt, the government will find it increasingly difficult to refinance 98 billion euros of debt and find another 52 billion euros to fund its deficit this year.
Local banks are barely lending, or offering loans at prohibitively high rates, squeezing companies and increasing the risk of a chain of bankruptcies which could send the economy into a nosedive. The banking system's total loans to the business sector were 44.6 billion euros at the end of March half of what they were at the end of the boom in 2007, and the contraction continues almost every month, according to Bank of Spain data.
Consumers are postponing big purchases and cutting back spending. Spain's soaring borrowing costs have become a national obsession since the crisis. Taxi drivers opine knowledgeably about the "risk premium" Spain must pay to borrow and TV news bulletins open with the latest number for "la prima de riesgo".
The government acknowledges that the situation is critical.
In private, officials say, Rajoy has been pressing Brussels and Berlin for the European Central Bank to guarantee all bank deposits in the eurozone to prevent bank runs, to buy Spanish sovereign debt to reduce yields and calm markets, for greater European fiscal integration and for allowing the European bailout fund to lend money directly to recapitalize Spain's sickly banks. The ECB is resistant to bond purchases on a massive scale.
"Spain is going through a major crisis of confidence," one diplomat said. "Markets are good at pricing risk but they hate uncertainty - and right now that uncertainty is killing Spain."
COMMUNICATION
Bankers and local media say Rajoy's own stumbles are making matters worse at a critical time. The 56-year-old, like many of his ministers, hails from provincial Spain, has no international experience, lacks deep knowledge of finance and speaks only limited English.
A hastily scheduled press conference by the premier on Monday ended with markets taking fright at his lack of clarity about how to fund the Bankia bailout and his insistence that Spanish banks did not need a European bailout. Government sources expressed frustration that the media had failed to understand the prime minister's "clear message".
"I was expecting that this government would do things better," one senior banker here said. "Instead they are shooting from the hip. You can't say to the market that you are going to do one thing and then do something else."
"Where are the technocrats ?" another banker asked. "What this government needs is a really good technocrat who has the experience and the knowledge to cope with a situation as tough as this one."
Analysts and foreign bankers here say the Madrid government is making a big gamble by assuming that the European Union's paymaster Germany, together with the European Central Bank, will in the end "do the right thing" and come to Spain's rescue.
Germany has led opposition to increasing the size of the EU's bailout fund, to guaranteeing all eurozone bank deposits, to allowing the use of common eurozone bonds to fund governments and to letting the ECB buy more government debt to push down yields.
Instead, Berlin preaches austerity, inviting the mainly southern European crisis countries to follow the same path it took last decade - structural reforms to improve economic competitiveness, tight discipline on spending and reductions in borrowing.
The resentment in Madrid is very apparent.
"Countries which are doing reforms need to find a way to be rewarded, rather than punished," deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz said in a conversation with Reuters. "...it's not possible to explain to citizens that what they save through austerity will then be spent on higher debt interest payments."
Top officials mutter about how today's European Union consists of a "German Union plus the rest" and local businessmen make unflattering comparisons with Berlin's domination of Europe in World War Two.
A commonly heard view among top Spanish bankers, officials and diplomats is that Spain is "too big to fail".
It is inconceivable, they say, to imagine the eurozone without its fourth biggest economy. Spain's future is inextricably linked to Europe's future. So Germany is bound to agree reluctantly to change course and allow the ECB and the bailout fund to support Spain.
"It may go down to the wire, it may get very bad," one senior diplomat here said. "But Germany has to choose. With Greece it did not have to choose. It could allow Greece to fail. But if Spain fails, Europe fails. So in the end we have to believe that Merkel and the Taliban of the Bundesbank (German central bank) will change their minds and do what they need to do to save Europe."
Deputy Prime Minister Saenz says it's about nothing less than the future of Europe. "If the EU doesn't reinforce the eurozone with some sort of mechanism, it's not about who leaves, it's about the EU itself. What is Europe without the euro?"
Whether that is true remains to be seen.
Reuters reported last November that France and Germany had secretly discussed plans for a smaller "core" eurozone consisting of strong nations intent on deeper economic integration.
"They think here that Spain is a very important country and a crucial part of Europe," said one long-time Madrid bank adviser. "But they forget that for the Germans, Spain is a minor country next to Greece and Italy."
and.......
The Monster Has Awakened
Via Mark J. Grant, Author of Out of the Box,
"I was answered through the stillness of night by a loud and fiendish laugh. It rang on my ears long and heavily; the mountains re-echoed it, and I felt as if all Hell surrounded me with mockery and laughter."
-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
The most significant event of yesterday was not the Spanish banking system unlocking the door to the horror chamber and clicking the melt-down button that it found on the wall but what happened at the European Union. That which had been created woke and in its new found consciousness sat upright and staring into the void it turned upon its Master. It should not have come as a surprise, I suppose, but the mockery of the beast was a frightening sight.For thirteen years the nations of Europe had worked, slaved, propped up their egos with their ministrations and yesterday the Creation came into its own mind and threw off the shackles in which it had been bound and leapt up upon the table and announced that it no longer belonged to any man and that the chains that had held it would not enslave it any longer. Brussels turned, and looking Berlin squarely in the eye, it used impolite words and gestures and essentially said:
-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
The most significant event of yesterday was not the Spanish banking system unlocking the door to the horror chamber and clicking the melt-down button that it found on the wall but what happened at the European Union. That which had been created woke and in its new found consciousness sat upright and staring into the void it turned upon its Master. It should not have come as a surprise, I suppose, but the mockery of the beast was a frightening sight.For thirteen years the nations of Europe had worked, slaved, propped up their egos with their ministrations and yesterday the Creation came into its own mind and threw off the shackles in which it had been bound and leapt up upon the table and announced that it no longer belonged to any man and that the chains that had held it would not enslave it any longer. Brussels turned, and looking Berlin squarely in the eye, it used impolite words and gestures and essentially said:
"Stick it."
Those living in Belgium, created and paid for by the nations on the Continent, cast off their shackles and announced themselves free men. To some extent it was the fruition of them believing their own proclamations and to some extent it was their believing the dreams that had been foisted upon them but in the end, which occurred just yesterday, they demanded their own Manifest Destiny and announced it to the world.
Brussels has now called for Eurobonds, has called for the ESM to fund the European banks and it a sign of their new felt independence, has thrown all of this squarely in the face of Germany, the Netherlands, Finland et al who are providing the money. Firstly, and most humorously, there is no ESM at present; it does not exist. The markets spiked initially yesterday when Brussels made its grand pronouncement until the collective mind realized that what was called for was only resident in the imagination of those living in Belgium and was not a reality yet, if ever, in the real world. It was rather humorous to be frank, watching billions of Dollars and Euros change hands based upon a fantasy tossed out and written in officialdom for all to read. This was not even reliance upon some contingent asset or promise to pay because the mechanism, while much discussed and surely endorsed by most, had not yet come into existence so that it was rather like talking about what present you would like to get on your next birthday.
Finland emerged from the thaw first and said, “No,” to be followed by Germany that woke up and said “No” and the markets quickly came back to their senses but Brussels had already let the cat out of the bag and it remains to jump up now at any time and scratch everyone rakishly across the face. The European Union, like some amoeba dividing, is itself dividing with the nations needing funding, joined by the bureaucrats in Belgium, demanding total equality where everyone in Europe is to live exactly the same and with the exact same standards of living. This plays out well in Portugal, Greece, Spain et al but not so much in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. However it all goes down I can assure you, one hundred percent, that in the end Berlin will not allow itself to decline to the extent that their lifestyle is exactly the same as those in Athens and Lisbon. That will NOT be happening in this lifetime!France, the middle player and the supporter of Germany in times past is now firmly aligned with those demanding cohesion. The game has changed. It will no longer be push and shove and muddle through but convictions and ideology that are in stark opposition so that surprises and inflamed statements will become the order of the day and not the exception. If it is to be either Germany for the Germans or Germany for the citizens of Athens, make no mistake in your thinking; Berlin will prevail regardless of the outlying costs to either the nation or to the future of the Union that theoretically governs Europe.
Brussels has now called for Eurobonds, has called for the ESM to fund the European banks and it a sign of their new felt independence, has thrown all of this squarely in the face of Germany, the Netherlands, Finland et al who are providing the money. Firstly, and most humorously, there is no ESM at present; it does not exist. The markets spiked initially yesterday when Brussels made its grand pronouncement until the collective mind realized that what was called for was only resident in the imagination of those living in Belgium and was not a reality yet, if ever, in the real world. It was rather humorous to be frank, watching billions of Dollars and Euros change hands based upon a fantasy tossed out and written in officialdom for all to read. This was not even reliance upon some contingent asset or promise to pay because the mechanism, while much discussed and surely endorsed by most, had not yet come into existence so that it was rather like talking about what present you would like to get on your next birthday.
Finland emerged from the thaw first and said, “No,” to be followed by Germany that woke up and said “No” and the markets quickly came back to their senses but Brussels had already let the cat out of the bag and it remains to jump up now at any time and scratch everyone rakishly across the face. The European Union, like some amoeba dividing, is itself dividing with the nations needing funding, joined by the bureaucrats in Belgium, demanding total equality where everyone in Europe is to live exactly the same and with the exact same standards of living. This plays out well in Portugal, Greece, Spain et al but not so much in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands. However it all goes down I can assure you, one hundred percent, that in the end Berlin will not allow itself to decline to the extent that their lifestyle is exactly the same as those in Athens and Lisbon. That will NOT be happening in this lifetime!France, the middle player and the supporter of Germany in times past is now firmly aligned with those demanding cohesion. The game has changed. It will no longer be push and shove and muddle through but convictions and ideology that are in stark opposition so that surprises and inflamed statements will become the order of the day and not the exception. If it is to be either Germany for the Germans or Germany for the citizens of Athens, make no mistake in your thinking; Berlin will prevail regardless of the outlying costs to either the nation or to the future of the Union that theoretically governs Europe.
"Mingled with this horror, I felt the bitterness of disappointment; dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a Hell to me; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete!"
-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
and......
While European credit markets have been a roller-coaster today - returning back to their wides now - there is one thing that has remained constant. The inexorable flood of money into Switzerland. Rather shockingly 2Y Swiss interest rates have dropped to -26bps (yes, no typo - you pay 26bps to allow the Swiss government to borrow your money). These are obviously record lows and suggest that events are unfolding extremely rapidly (and those bets on the unsustainability of the SNB peg may be gathering pace).
2Y Swiss Government interest rates are accelerating lower...
and intraday it looks even more incredible...
Today saw the single-biggest drop in 2Y swiss interest rates ever as safety flows are clearly increasing very rapidly...
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