http://harveyorgan.blogspot.com/2012/10/jobs-report-114000-new-hirings-against.html
We will go over these and other stories, but first....
Now let us head over to the comex and assess the damage on Friday.
The total comex gold open interest rose by a huge 8,419 contracts to rest this weekend at 492,479.
The Thursday close was 483,988. The active gold October contract saw its OI rise by 13 contracts to rest at 741. We had only 2 notices filed on Thursday so again we gained 15 contracts or an additional 1500 oz of gold will stand for physical gold in October. The non active month of November saw is OI fall by 127 contracts from 1392 down to 1265. There is now no question that all eyes are focusing on the big December contract where many feel will be the ultimate battleground between longs and the gold/silver short bankers. The December gold contract saw its OI rise by a huge 7,677 resting this weekend at 357,677.
The estimated volume Friday, at the gold comex came in at a fair level of 143,629. The confirmed level on Thursday was much better at 173,596.
The total silver comex continues to play havoc to our bankers. The total silver complex rose another 1274 contracts to finish the week at 141,109 compared to Thursday's close of 139,835. No doubt the high OI in both silver and gold and the release of the jobs report was ample excuse for the bankers to raid. They had to remove as many gold leaves from the gold tree as possible and likewise for silver. The non active October silver contract saw its OI rise by 8 contracts. We had 11 delivery notices filed on Thursday so in essence we gained another 19 notices or an additional 95,000 oz of silver will stand for delivery in October. The non active November silver contract saw its OI rise by 2 contracts to rest this weekend at 44. The big December contract continues to set record levels rising 825 contracts to finish the week at 88,232. The estimated volume today was rather weak at 36,168. The confirmed volume on Thursday was much the same at 38,670.
Let us first dissect the gold COT:
Our large speculators:Those large specs that have been long in gold continued to pour it on to the tune of an additional long position of 5440 contracts.
Those large specs that have been short in gold added a small 1010 contracts to their short side.
Our commercials:
Those commercials that have been close to the physical scene and also are long in gold pitched a huge 8,256 contracts.
Those commercials that have been short in gold covered a tiny 1341 contracts from their short side.
Small specs:
Those small specs that have been long in gold, added a very tiny 112 contracts to their long side.
Those small specs that have been short in gold covered a huge 2,363 contracts.
Conclusion:
The bankers still went net short this week to the tune of 6915 contracts. It looks like the bankers have difficulty in supplying increasing amounts of the gold paper so they used some of their long side to help out in that department trying to keep gold's price from rising to sharply. The report is still very bearish.And now for our silver COT report:
(quite different than gold.)
The small specs that have been short in silver covered a large 1133 contracts from their short side.
Conclusion; the large and small specs realized that physical silver was in short supply and they loaded the boat. The bankers had no choice to supply the necessary paper. The net short position of the bankers advanced another 6181 contracts and that is very bearish from a commercial standpoint.
Submitted by cpowell on Fri, 2012-10-05 19:36. Section: Daily Dispatches
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2012
Jobs report 114,000 new hirings against expectations of 115,000/unemployment rate falls to 7.8%/gold and silver drop on obvious raid/Implats fires 12,000 miners from their S.Africa mine/
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen:
Gold closed down $15.50 to $1778.60 while silver fell in sympathy down to $34.52 a drop of 52 cents.
It is customary for the bankers to whack gold either the day before the jobs report or immediately after the report is given. This has been going on for years and today they did not disappoint. The bankers are in desperate shape to keep silver below the 35.00 dollar barrier and gold below the 1800 dollar marker. The open interest on both metals have been rising steadily and it has put tremendous pressure on the bankers as they supply the necessary non backed paper to keep gold/silver from skyrocketing. Meanwhile demand for physical metal continues unabated. From South Africa we learned that the big Implats mining corporation decided to fire 12,000 workers. This will surely go over well in South Africa. This nation may be the second one to enter into hyperinflation after Iran as the rand sinks rapidly in value against all other currencies as this country implodes. Over in Germany we witnessed German factory orders fall last month by 1.1%. Fighting is escalating between Syria and Turkey and rioting continues in Greece and now Bahrain.We also see trouble brewing in Cyprus which is discussed in detail by Wolf Richter. However the big story of the day was the release of the jobs numbers which came in at 114,000 instead of the projected 115,000. The USA needs 150,000 new jobs just to keep up with population growth.
Even though the jobs report was bad, the unemployment level fell to 7.8% as supposedly huge numbers of part timers were hired. No president has ever been elected with an unemployment rate over 8% so we must have seen Obama's hand in this. Even Jack Welch of GE found the jobs number report incredulous.Gold closed down $15.50 to $1778.60 while silver fell in sympathy down to $34.52 a drop of 52 cents.
It is customary for the bankers to whack gold either the day before the jobs report or immediately after the report is given. This has been going on for years and today they did not disappoint. The bankers are in desperate shape to keep silver below the 35.00 dollar barrier and gold below the 1800 dollar marker. The open interest on both metals have been rising steadily and it has put tremendous pressure on the bankers as they supply the necessary non backed paper to keep gold/silver from skyrocketing. Meanwhile demand for physical metal continues unabated. From South Africa we learned that the big Implats mining corporation decided to fire 12,000 workers. This will surely go over well in South Africa. This nation may be the second one to enter into hyperinflation after Iran as the rand sinks rapidly in value against all other currencies as this country implodes. Over in Germany we witnessed German factory orders fall last month by 1.1%. Fighting is escalating between Syria and Turkey and rioting continues in Greece and now Bahrain.We also see trouble brewing in Cyprus which is discussed in detail by Wolf Richter. However the big story of the day was the release of the jobs numbers which came in at 114,000 instead of the projected 115,000. The USA needs 150,000 new jobs just to keep up with population growth.
We will go over these and other stories, but first....
Now let us head over to the comex and assess the damage on Friday.
The total comex gold open interest rose by a huge 8,419 contracts to rest this weekend at 492,479.
The Thursday close was 483,988. The active gold October contract saw its OI rise by 13 contracts to rest at 741. We had only 2 notices filed on Thursday so again we gained 15 contracts or an additional 1500 oz of gold will stand for physical gold in October. The non active month of November saw is OI fall by 127 contracts from 1392 down to 1265. There is now no question that all eyes are focusing on the big December contract where many feel will be the ultimate battleground between longs and the gold/silver short bankers. The December gold contract saw its OI rise by a huge 7,677 resting this weekend at 357,677.
The estimated volume Friday, at the gold comex came in at a fair level of 143,629. The confirmed level on Thursday was much better at 173,596.
The total silver comex continues to play havoc to our bankers. The total silver complex rose another 1274 contracts to finish the week at 141,109 compared to Thursday's close of 139,835. No doubt the high OI in both silver and gold and the release of the jobs report was ample excuse for the bankers to raid. They had to remove as many gold leaves from the gold tree as possible and likewise for silver. The non active October silver contract saw its OI rise by 8 contracts. We had 11 delivery notices filed on Thursday so in essence we gained another 19 notices or an additional 95,000 oz of silver will stand for delivery in October. The non active November silver contract saw its OI rise by 2 contracts to rest this weekend at 44. The big December contract continues to set record levels rising 825 contracts to finish the week at 88,232. The estimated volume today was rather weak at 36,168. The confirmed volume on Thursday was much the same at 38,670.
Comex gold figures for Oct:
Oct 5-.2012
Oct 5-.2012
Today, we again had no activity inside the gold vaults.
The dealer had no deposit and no withdrawals.
The customer had no deposit or withdrawal
There was no adjustments.
Thus the dealer inventory rests this weekend at 2.560 million oz
The dealer had no deposit and no withdrawals.
The customer had no deposit or withdrawal
There was no adjustments.
Thus the dealer inventory rests this weekend at 2.560 million oz
The CME reported that we had a rather chunky 192 contracts filed for 19200 oz of gold. The total number of notices filed so far this month is represented by 6569 contracts or 656,900 oz. To obtain what is left to be served upon, I take the OI standing for October (741) and subtract out today's notices (192) which leaves us with 549 notices or 54900 oz left to be served upon our longs.
Thus the total number of gold ounces standing in this active month of October is as follows:
656900 oz (served) + 54900 oz (to be served upon) = 711,800 oz or 22.13 tonnes.
we gained an additional 1500 oz Friday. Also this is the first time in over two years that we have seen in any active month (silver and gold) the amount of metal standing is increasing as the month progresses. In other words, the amount standing today is higher than the amount standing on first day notice. Demand is on fire!!
Thus the total number of gold ounces standing in this active month of October is as follows:
656900 oz (served) + 54900 oz (to be served upon) = 711,800 oz or 22.13 tonnes.
we gained an additional 1500 oz Friday. Also this is the first time in over two years that we have seen in any active month (silver and gold) the amount of metal standing is increasing as the month progresses. In other words, the amount standing today is higher than the amount standing on first day notice. Demand is on fire!!
Silver:
Oct 5.2012:
Again, we had quite a bit of activity inside the silver vaults today.
However we had no dealer deposit but a sizable dealer withdrawal:
1. Out of Brinks: 72,236.88 oz
1. Out of Brinks: 72,236.88 oz
We had the following customer deposit:
1. Into HSBC: 702,262.32 oz
We had the following customer withdrawal;
1. Out of Brinks: 100,007.70 oz
2. Out of Delaware: 1830.60 oz
total withdrawal 101,838.36 oz
we had one adjustment of 978.80 oz at JPMorgan of silver removal due to a counting error.
1. Into HSBC: 702,262.32 oz
We had the following customer withdrawal;
1. Out of Brinks: 100,007.70 oz
2. Out of Delaware: 1830.60 oz
total withdrawal 101,838.36 oz
we had one adjustment of 978.80 oz at JPMorgan of silver removal due to a counting error.
The CME reported that we had 16 notices filed for 80,000 oz. The total number of notices filed so far this month is represented by 186 contracts or 930,000 oz.
To obtain what is left to be filed upon, I take the OI standing for October (320) and subtract out Friday's delivery notices (16) which leaves us with 304 notices or 1,520,000 oz left to be served upon our longs.
Thus the total number of silver ounces standing in this non active month of October is as follows;930,000 oz (served) + 1,520,000 oz (to be served upon) = 2,450,000 oz
To obtain what is left to be filed upon, I take the OI standing for October (320) and subtract out Friday's delivery notices (16) which leaves us with 304 notices or 1,520,000 oz left to be served upon our longs.
Thus the total number of silver ounces standing in this non active month of October is as follows;930,000 oz (served) + 1,520,000 oz (to be served upon) = 2,450,000 oz
we gained another 95,000 oz of silver standing.
The way the October silver month is heading we may reach north of 3 million oz which would be a super showing for silver in this non active month.
The way the October silver month is heading we may reach north of 3 million oz which would be a super showing for silver in this non active month.
***
The CME releases the COT report at exactly 3:30 pm.
The report gives position levels of our major players.Let us first dissect the gold COT:
Gold COT Report - Futures
| ||||||
Large Speculators
|
Commercial
|
Total
| ||||
Long
|
Short
|
Spreading
|
Long
|
Short
|
Long
|
Short
|
239,434
|
31,108
|
26,727
|
136,250
|
405,520
|
402,411
|
463,355
|
Change from Prior Reporting Period
| ||||||
5,440
|
1,010
|
-5,914
|
-8,256
|
-1,341
|
-8,730
|
-6,245
|
Traders
| ||||||
224
|
55
|
68
|
48
|
47
|
302
|
148
|
Small Speculators
| ||||||
Long
|
Short
|
Open Interest
| ||||
78,497
|
17,553
|
480,908
| ||||
122
|
-2,363
|
-8,608
| ||||
non reportable positions
|
Change from the previous reporting period
| |||||
COT Gold Report - Positions as of
|
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
| |||||
Those large specs that have been short in gold added a small 1010 contracts to their short side.
Our commercials:
Those commercials that have been close to the physical scene and also are long in gold pitched a huge 8,256 contracts.
Those commercials that have been short in gold covered a tiny 1341 contracts from their short side.
Small specs:
Those small specs that have been long in gold, added a very tiny 112 contracts to their long side.
Those small specs that have been short in gold covered a huge 2,363 contracts.
Conclusion:
The bankers still went net short this week to the tune of 6915 contracts. It looks like the bankers have difficulty in supplying increasing amounts of the gold paper so they used some of their long side to help out in that department trying to keep gold's price from rising to sharply. The report is still very bearish.And now for our silver COT report:
(quite different than gold.)
Silver COT Report: Futures
| |||||
Large Speculators
|
Commercial
| ||||
Long
|
Short
|
Spreading
|
Long
|
Short
| |
47,236
|
9,118
|
26,027
|
35,788
|
93,628
| |
2,458
|
-1,650
|
1,219
|
1,337
|
7,518
| |
Traders
| |||||
74
|
37
|
42
|
34
|
42
| |
Small Speculators
|
Open Interest
|
Total
| |||
Long
|
Short
|
139,117
|
Long
|
Short
| |
30,066
|
10,344
|
109,051
|
128,773
| ||
940
|
-1,133
|
5,954
|
5,014
|
7,087
| |
non reportable positions
|
Positions as of:
|
133
|
101
| ||
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
|
© SilverSeek.com
| ||||
Our large speculators;
Those large speculators that have been long in silver added a rather large 2458 contracts to their long side
Those large speculators that have been short in silver covered a large 1650 contracts.
Our commercials;
Those commercials that have been long in silver added another 1337 contracts to their long side.
Those commercials that have been short in silver added a monstrous 7518 contracts to their short side and right under the watchful eyes of the regulators.
Our small specs:
The small specs that have been long in silver added a rather large 940 contracts to their long sideThe small specs that have been short in silver covered a large 1133 contracts from their short side.
Conclusion; the large and small specs realized that physical silver was in short supply and they loaded the boat. The bankers had no choice to supply the necessary paper. The net short position of the bankers advanced another 6181 contracts and that is very bearish from a commercial standpoint.
***
Submitted by cpowell on Fri, 2012-10-05 19:36. Section: Daily Dispatches
3:35p ET Friday, October 5, 2012
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Sprott Asset Management's John Embry today tells King World News that gold buyers have figured out how to play the raids staged by the market manipulators and are buying the dips, knowing that supplies are tight and the trend favors them. Embry adds that he won't get really excited about the gold market until there is a $100 up day. An excerpt from Embry's interview is posted at the King World News blog here:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/10/5_Ph...
Also at King World News, Agnico-Eagle Mines CEO Sean Boyd says central bank buying is offsetting weakening gold demand from India. Boyd says central banks will carefully diversify out of paper and into metal, taking pains not to disrupt the markets. An excerpt from Boyd's interview is at the King World News blog here:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/10/5_Ag...
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
Sprott Asset Management's John Embry today tells King World News that gold buyers have figured out how to play the raids staged by the market manipulators and are buying the dips, knowing that supplies are tight and the trend favors them. Embry adds that he won't get really excited about the gold market until there is a $100 up day. An excerpt from Embry's interview is posted at the King World News blog here:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/10/5_Ph...
Also at King World News, Agnico-Eagle Mines CEO Sean Boyd says central bank buying is offsetting weakening gold demand from India. Boyd says central banks will carefully diversify out of paper and into metal, taking pains not to disrupt the markets. An excerpt from Boyd's interview is at the King World News blog here:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/10/5_Ag...
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc
Sovereigns may prove bigger than commercials shorting gold, Fitzpatrick says
Submitted by cpowell on Fri, 2012-10-05 01:19. Section: Daily Dispatches
9:13p ET Thursday, October 4, 2012
Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:
CitiGroup market analyst Tom Fitzpatrick today tells King World News that gold investors may worry too much about the rising open interest in gold futures, which often indicates preparation by the big commercial trading shorts to run small speculative longs out of the market.
Fitzpatrick says: "People are concerned about the commercial shorts in gold, but at the end of the day there are a number of different players in the gold market. The ones we are most focused on are the players who are taking gold out of the market and are not going to be putting it back onto the market. Those large entities are obviously official authorities, central banks, sovereign wealth funds, etc. So while it is possible to chop around because of commercial speculation, and maybe that worries day-to-day traders, for us it is not really a dynamic we are focused on in the big-picture view."
An excerpt from Fitzpatrick's interview is posted at the King World News blog here:
CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc
And from Ed Steer's Gold and Silver Report.....
http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/triffins-dilemmaand-end-us-dollar-hegemony
Triffin's Dilemma...and the End of U.S. Dollar Hegemony
Oct
6
"That's not the pressing issue at the moment. It's the obscene, grotesque and utterly dangerous situation that exists in the silver market"
¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD AND SILVER
The gold price didn't do much in either the Far East or London trading yesterday...and the gold price was basically back to unchanged by the 8:30 a.m. Eastern time jobs number release.
The gold price got hit for ten bucks immediately...recovered a bit...and then shortly after 10:30 a.m. the price headed lower once again, hitting what looked like its low of the day shortly after 3:00 p.m. in electronic trading. From that point, the gold price recovered a bit during the next hour, before trading sideways into the close.
The actual low price tick [$1,771.70 spot according to Kitco] came at 8:45 a.m. Eastern, even though it doesn't show up on either Kitco chart below. Only the 1-minute tick chart [courtesy of Nick Laird] shows the absolute low.
Gold closed the Friday trading session at $1,781.30 spot...down $9.00 from Thursday. Net volume was pretty heavy at 166,000 contracts.
Although it doesn't show it on the Kitco chart below...but it did at one time during the Friday trading session...the silver price got absolutely crushed at the release of the jobs numbers.
According to Kitco, the low price tick around the 8:30-8:45 a.m. price smash, was recorded as $34.19 spot at 8:45 a.m. Eastern time. But sometime during the day, Kitco tampered with both of their silver charts to show that almost nothing happened during that time period...but Nick Laird's 1-minute tick chart shows otherwise.
As a point of interest, here's what the Kitco silver chart looked like shortly after the engineered price decline...and before they massaged it to look like the Kitco silver chart above. I borrowed this chart from a posting over at silverdoctors.com that West Virginia reader Elliot Simon sent me last night.
The dollar index, which opened at 79.36...was up 5 basis points by 8:30 a.m. in New York. Two hours later, it was at 79.13...which was its low tick of the day. From that low, such as it was, the index recovered almost all of its gains, closing down only 3 basis points from its Thursday close.
To hang all of the precious metals price action during the New York trading session on this little blip in the dollar index would be pushing the bounds of credulity to its limits.
The gold price got hit for ten bucks immediately...recovered a bit...and then shortly after 10:30 a.m. the price headed lower once again, hitting what looked like its low of the day shortly after 3:00 p.m. in electronic trading. From that point, the gold price recovered a bit during the next hour, before trading sideways into the close.
The actual low price tick [$1,771.70 spot according to Kitco] came at 8:45 a.m. Eastern, even though it doesn't show up on either Kitco chart below. Only the 1-minute tick chart [courtesy of Nick Laird] shows the absolute low.
Gold closed the Friday trading session at $1,781.30 spot...down $9.00 from Thursday. Net volume was pretty heavy at 166,000 contracts.
According to Kitco, the low price tick around the 8:30-8:45 a.m. price smash, was recorded as $34.19 spot at 8:45 a.m. Eastern time. But sometime during the day, Kitco tampered with both of their silver charts to show that almost nothing happened during that time period...but Nick Laird's 1-minute tick chart shows otherwise.
Why Kitco would do this without any explanation, is beyond me. However, I know that the company...although very reputable...is strong with the dark side of The Force.
After the initial smash, the silver price followed the same general path that the gold price did...with the low price tick in electronic trading coming at the same time as gold's...before rallying a bit into the close.
Silver closed at $34.51 spot...down 46 cents on the day...but the intraday price move was over 90 cents. Volume was decent, but not monstrous, as 44,000 contracts changed hands.
After the initial smash, the silver price followed the same general path that the gold price did...with the low price tick in electronic trading coming at the same time as gold's...before rallying a bit into the close.
Silver closed at $34.51 spot...down 46 cents on the day...but the intraday price move was over 90 cents. Volume was decent, but not monstrous, as 44,000 contracts changed hands.
To hang all of the precious metals price action during the New York trading session on this little blip in the dollar index would be pushing the bounds of credulity to its limits.
To hang all of the precious metals price action during the New York trading session on this little blip in the dollar index would be pushing the bounds of credulity to its limits.
Although opening in the red, the gold stocks rallied until the gold price rolled over at 10:30 a.m. Eastern...and the precise moment that the dollar index turned upwards. How cute is that? From there, the gold stocks drifted lower until the 3:15 p.m. gold rally...and closed slightly off their lows. The HUI finished down 0.93%.
****
The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 80 gold and 28 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday. It was Jefferies and ABN Amro as the only two short/issuers...and JPMorgan and the Bank of Nova Scotia as the only long/stoppers. In silver, it was Jefferies and Deutsche Bank as issuers...and the Bank of Nova Scotia and Jefferies as stoppers. The link to that activity is here.
There were no reported changes in either GLD or SLV.
The U.S. Mint had a tiny sales report. They sold 1,500 troy ounces of gold eagles...and that was it.
Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Thursday they reported receiving 702,262 troy ounces of silver...but only shipped 174,075 ounces of the stuff out the door. The link to that action is here.
Well, the Commitment of Traders Report...for positions held at the 1:30 p.m. Eastern time close of trading on Tuesday, October 2nd...was uglier than even I imagined it could have been.
In silver, the Commercial net short position increased by an eye-watering 6,181 contracts, or 30.91 million ounces during the reporting week. The Commercial net short position now stands at 289.2 million ounces.
Ted Butler told me that, of those 6,200 contracts, the raptors sold about a thousand of their remaining long positions...and the '5 through 8' traders added another thousand contracts to their short positions. But it was the 'Big 4' that sold the rest...about 4,200 contracts worth. Ted said that JPMorgan is now short 34,000 Comex silver contracts...170 million ounces.
The 'Big 4' are short 258.0 million ounces of silver...and JPMorgan is short 170 million of that amount all by itself. The '5 through 8' traders are short an additional 51.4 million ounces. In total, the 'Big 8' bullion banks are short 309.4 million ounces of silver...about 150 days of world silver production!
There were no reported changes in either GLD or SLV.
The U.S. Mint had a tiny sales report. They sold 1,500 troy ounces of gold eagles...and that was it.
Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Thursday they reported receiving 702,262 troy ounces of silver...but only shipped 174,075 ounces of the stuff out the door. The link to that action is here.
Well, the Commitment of Traders Report...for positions held at the 1:30 p.m. Eastern time close of trading on Tuesday, October 2nd...was uglier than even I imagined it could have been.
In silver, the Commercial net short position increased by an eye-watering 6,181 contracts, or 30.91 million ounces during the reporting week. The Commercial net short position now stands at 289.2 million ounces.
Ted Butler told me that, of those 6,200 contracts, the raptors sold about a thousand of their remaining long positions...and the '5 through 8' traders added another thousand contracts to their short positions. But it was the 'Big 4' that sold the rest...about 4,200 contracts worth. Ted said that JPMorgan is now short 34,000 Comex silver contracts...170 million ounces.
The 'Big 4' are short 258.0 million ounces of silver...and JPMorgan is short 170 million of that amount all by itself. The '5 through 8' traders are short an additional 51.4 million ounces. In total, the 'Big 8' bullion banks are short 309.4 million ounces of silver...about 150 days of world silver production!
On a net basis, once all the market-neutral spread trades are removed from the Non-Commercial category...the 'Big 4' are short 45.6% of the entire Comex silver market...and the '5 through 8' are short an additional 9.1% of the Comex silver market. So, adding it all up, the 'Big 8' are short 54.7% of the entire Comex futures market in silver...and JPMorgan is short more than 30% of that all by itself. These are minimum numbers as well. One trader is short almost a third of the entire futures market in silver. ONE TRADER!!!! Where the #$%& are the regulators???
In gold, the Commercial net short position increased by 'only' 6,915 contracts, or 691,500 troy ounces of gold. The Commercial net short position now stands at 26.93 million ounces of gold. But it's what went on under the hood that matters. Ted Butler said that the raptors bought back [at a loss] about 5,000 contracts of their gargantuan short position...and the 'Big 4' went short an equal amount, plus a couple of thousand more, to prevent the price from blowing sky high as the raptors covered...and the '5 through 8' accounted for the other 5,000 contracts sold short.
The 'Big 4' are short 16.83 million ounces of gold...and the '5 through 8' traders add another 6.01 million ounces to that total. The 'Big 8' bullion banks are short 22.84 million ounces of gold.
In percentage terms...and on a net basis...the 'Big 4' are short 37.1% of the Comex futures market in gold...and the '5 through 8' are short another 13.2 percentage points. Add it all up, and the 'Big 8' are short 50.3% of the entire Comex futures market...almost as bad as their collective short position in silver, which is 54.7 million ounces. How obscene and grotesque can you get?
Through all of this...the regulators and your precious metal companies...see nothing, say nothing...and do nothing!
In gold, the Commercial net short position increased by 'only' 6,915 contracts, or 691,500 troy ounces of gold. The Commercial net short position now stands at 26.93 million ounces of gold. But it's what went on under the hood that matters. Ted Butler said that the raptors bought back [at a loss] about 5,000 contracts of their gargantuan short position...and the 'Big 4' went short an equal amount, plus a couple of thousand more, to prevent the price from blowing sky high as the raptors covered...and the '5 through 8' accounted for the other 5,000 contracts sold short.
The 'Big 4' are short 16.83 million ounces of gold...and the '5 through 8' traders add another 6.01 million ounces to that total. The 'Big 8' bullion banks are short 22.84 million ounces of gold.
In percentage terms...and on a net basis...the 'Big 4' are short 37.1% of the Comex futures market in gold...and the '5 through 8' are short another 13.2 percentage points. Add it all up, and the 'Big 8' are short 50.3% of the entire Comex futures market...almost as bad as their collective short position in silver, which is 54.7 million ounces. How obscene and grotesque can you get?
Through all of this...the regulators and your precious metal companies...see nothing, say nothing...and do nothing!
Here's Nick's "Days of World Production to Cover Comex Short Positions" updated with Tuesday's COT data.
(Click on image to enlarge)
And don't forget when looking at the green and red gars for silver, that JPMorgan is short about 85 days of world production all by themselves...and two thirds of the red bar and over half of the green bar. How's that for a concentrated short position?
***
This is a chart that reader David Schonbrunn sent me yesterday evening. He borrowed it from a report by Jurrien Timmer posted over at Fidelity.com on September 16th. I'd seen the chart on the Internet before, but hadn't posted it in this space until David sent it to me just now.
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Selected news items....
Gas Prices In California Are Out of Control, More Stations Now Charging $5 a Gallon
Refinery outages and a unseasonably warm weather caused gas prices to shoot up by 20 cents a gallon overnight in California, prompting some stations to close and others to charge more than $5 a gallon, the AP reports.
Temperatures are expected to head up to at least 79 degrees in L.A., while production disruptions linger at local Chevron and Mobil refineries, according to USA Today.
GasBuddy is registering an average price of $4.53 this morning for the state, near the record of $4.61 from June 2008.
This story is an update of a similar story I ran a couple of days ago...and it's obvious that gas prices have risen substantially since then. You've already read the entire 3-paragraph Bloomberg story...and the link to the hard copy is here. I thank Roy Stephens for sending it.
Temperatures are expected to head up to at least 79 degrees in L.A., while production disruptions linger at local Chevron and Mobil refineries, according to USA Today.
GasBuddy is registering an average price of $4.53 this morning for the state, near the record of $4.61 from June 2008.
This story is an update of a similar story I ran a couple of days ago...and it's obvious that gas prices have risen substantially since then. You've already read the entire 3-paragraph Bloomberg story...and the link to the hard copy is here. I thank Roy Stephens for sending it.
Playing with Fire: Turkey Edges toward War with Syria
War with Syria? Most Turks say no. But the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is aggressively responding to a deadly cross-border attack, having been granted broad military powers by parliament. His hope: After Assad falls, Turkey will gain even more influence in the Middle East.
There's a growing fear among the Turkish public that their country will be sucked further into an armed conflict with Syria. Following the firing of a mortar bomb from Syrian territory that killed five civilians on Wednesday in the Turkish border town of Akcakale, Turkish fighter jets have carried out multiple strikes on Syrian targets, including a military camp belonging to President Bashar Assad. Numerous Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made it clear his armed forces would not let an attack on "our territory" go unanswered. After Syrian anti-aircraft defenses shot down a Turkish surveillance plane in June, Turkey has significantly increased its troop presence along the border it shares with the country.
This story showed up on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and is another story that I've been saving for today's column. It is, of course, courtesy of Roy Stephens...and a must read for any student of the "New Great Game". The link is here.
There's a growing fear among the Turkish public that their country will be sucked further into an armed conflict with Syria. Following the firing of a mortar bomb from Syrian territory that killed five civilians on Wednesday in the Turkish border town of Akcakale, Turkish fighter jets have carried out multiple strikes on Syrian targets, including a military camp belonging to President Bashar Assad. Numerous Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made it clear his armed forces would not let an attack on "our territory" go unanswered. After Syrian anti-aircraft defenses shot down a Turkish surveillance plane in June, Turkey has significantly increased its troop presence along the border it shares with the country.
This story showed up on the German website spiegel.de yesterday...and is another story that I've been saving for today's column. It is, of course, courtesy of Roy Stephens...and a must read for any student of the "New Great Game". The link is here.
India joins the modern world: 'Erroneous trades' cause flash crash
A flash crash on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday morning due to erroneous trades by a dealer in 59 frontline stocks pulled the NSE-50 (Nifty) index down 15.5% to 4,888, raising questions about the robustness of the bourse's software and leaving the exchange red-faced on the eve of a visit by the finance minister to the city. It recovered at the end of day's trade to close at 5,747, down 41, while the Sensex closed 120 points down at 18,938.
Although NSE suspended Emkay Global Financial Services, the broking house where the trades had originated, the incident invited severe criticism from market players about why the trading was not automatically stopped by the exchange given the rules of the Securities and Exchange Board of India that stipulate a circuit filter should kick in when the index goes up or down 10%. In this case the trading was stopped when the index went down 15.5%, which also triggered stop losses for several investors, thus aggravating losses for no fault of theirs. The flash crash also prompted SEBI to start a preliminary investigation into the whole affair.
This story was posted on the indiatimes.com Internet site early this morning India Standard Time. I plucked it from a GATA release late last night...and the link is here.
Although NSE suspended Emkay Global Financial Services, the broking house where the trades had originated, the incident invited severe criticism from market players about why the trading was not automatically stopped by the exchange given the rules of the Securities and Exchange Board of India that stipulate a circuit filter should kick in when the index goes up or down 10%. In this case the trading was stopped when the index went down 15.5%, which also triggered stop losses for several investors, thus aggravating losses for no fault of theirs. The flash crash also prompted SEBI to start a preliminary investigation into the whole affair.
This story was posted on the indiatimes.com Internet site early this morning India Standard Time. I plucked it from a GATA release late last night...and the link is here.
U.S. Abandoning Hopes for Taliban Peace Deal
With the surge of American troops over and the Taliban still a potent threat, American generals and civilian officials acknowledge that they have all but written off what was once one of the cornerstones of their strategy to end the war here: battering the Taliban into a peace deal.
The once ambitious American plans for ending the war are now being replaced by the far more modest goal of setting the stage for the Afghans to work out a deal among themselves in the years after most Western forces depart, and to ensure Pakistan is on board with any eventual settlement. Military and diplomatic officials here and in Washington said that despite attempts to engage directly with Taliban leaders this year, they now expect that any significant progress will come only after 2014, once the bulk of NATO troops have left.
“I don’t see it happening in the next couple years,” said a senior coalition officer. He and a number of other officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the effort to open talks.
“It’s a very resilient enemy, and I’m not going to tell you it’s not,” the officer said. “It will be a constant battle, and it will be for years.”
I heard all this stuff before as the U.S. was heading for the door in Vietnam. This story showed up in The New York Times on Tuesday...and it's also something that I've been saving for today's column. It's from Roy Stephens once again of course...and the link is here.Have you seen Robert Triffin?
The obscure Belgian economist Robert Triffin is not only very dead he also isn't exactly a household name, yet. Triffin, who died in 1993 studied at Harvard, taught at Yale, worked at the Federal Reserve, the IMF, and was a key contributor to the formation of the European monetary system. Triffin exposed serious flaws in the Bretton Woods monetary system and perfectly predicted it's inevitable demise yet his work remains largely ignored and unstudied by today's mainstream economists. This "flaw" became known as the Triffin dilemma, and many believe Triffin's dilemma has as serious implications today as it did 50 years ago. In short, Triffin proposed that when one nations currency also becomes the worlds reserve asset, eventually domestic and international monetary objectives diverge. Have you ever wondered how it's possible that the USA has run a trade deficit for 37 consecutive years? Have you ever considered the consequences on the value of your Dollar denominated assets if it eventually becomes an unacceptable form of payment to our trading partners? Thankfully for those of us trying to navigate the current financial morass, Robert Triffin did.
Triffin's dilemma continues to play an important role in the ongoing financial crisis the world has found itself in since 2008. The governor of the Peoples Bank of China specifically referenced Triffin's Dilemma as the root cause of the current financial disorder and suggested an immediate effort to transition away from the US dollar to avoid more catastrophic consequences.
Well, if I had to pick just one work for you to read out of today's column...this would be the one. It was written by Joe Yasinski and Dan Flynn...and was posted over at the bullioninternational.com Internet site on Tuesday. I'm grateful to reader U.D. for bringing this story to our attention...and the link is here.
Triffin's dilemma continues to play an important role in the ongoing financial crisis the world has found itself in since 2008. The governor of the Peoples Bank of China specifically referenced Triffin's Dilemma as the root cause of the current financial disorder and suggested an immediate effort to transition away from the US dollar to avoid more catastrophic consequences.
Well, if I had to pick just one work for you to read out of today's column...this would be the one. It was written by Joe Yasinski and Dan Flynn...and was posted over at the bullioninternational.com Internet site on Tuesday. I'm grateful to reader U.D. for bringing this story to our attention...and the link is here.
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