http://www.caseyresearch.com/gsd/edition/forget-germany-its-turkeys-central-bank-we-should-be-watching
Forget Germany, Its Turkey's Central Bank We Should Be Watching
Jan
24
"It was obvious that there were not-for-profit sellers about...especially in the silver market."
¤ YESTERDAY IN GOLD AND SILVER
The gold price traded in a very tight range all through Far East and the first part of the London trading day. The several attempts that the price made to break above the $1,695 spot mark, were easily turned back.
The New York high [$1,696.20 spot] came about twenty minutes after the Comex open...and that was it for the day, as a willing seller came along and sold the price down about ten bucks...and it recovered a few bucks after that.
The low price tick of $1,682.80 spot came around 10:40 a.m. Eastern time.
The other eye-opening development was the sudden appearance of the non-U.S. bank with a monster short position in silver. That showed up in October of 2012...and it's my belief that this non-U.S. bank was none other than Bank of Nova Scotia/Scotia Mocatta. Note the blue bars in the last four months of data on Chart #4. I asked them politely on several occasion if they were the new non-U.S. bank that the CFTC mentioned on their website. They wouldn't say they were...but they didn't deny it, either.
* * *
selected news items......
The New York high [$1,696.20 spot] came about twenty minutes after the Comex open...and that was it for the day, as a willing seller came along and sold the price down about ten bucks...and it recovered a few bucks after that.
The low price tick of $1,682.80 spot came around 10:40 a.m. Eastern time.
Gold closes at $1,684.80 spot...down an even $7.00. Net volume was very light...around 96,000 contracts.
Like the Tuesday trading day, silver had a life of its own yesterday. The price mostly chopped sideways in a twenty cent range during Far East trading. The low of the day appeared to come shortly after the London open...and rallied from there. It really took off at the Comex open...got smacked...and then rallied strongly again after the London p.m. gold fix was in. The high tick was $32.58 spot...and that came around 10:25 a.m. Eastern.
That rally got hit even harder by a not-for-profit seller...and fifteen minutes later, silver hit its low price tick of $32.04 spot. The subsequent forty cent rally lasted right up until very shortly before the Comex close and, like Tuesday, got sold off in the electronic trading that followed.
That rally got hit even harder by a not-for-profit seller...and fifteen minutes later, silver hit its low price tick of $32.04 spot. The subsequent forty cent rally lasted right up until very shortly before the Comex close and, like Tuesday, got sold off in the electronic trading that followed.
When the smoke cleared, silver was up the magnificent sum of 2 cents...closing the Wednesday session at $32.23 spot. Volume was around 33,000 contracts.
I thought I'd include the New York Spot Silver [Bid] chart on its own, so you can see the details of the New York trading day with more clarity. The footprints of JPMorgan et al are more than obvious.
The dollar index opened at 79.87 in early Far East trading on their Wednesday...and had another wild day like it had on Tuesday. It traded as low as 79.71...and as high as 80.08...and closed 79.86, basically unchanged. Except for the fifteen minute sell-offs in both silver and gold that accompanied a small portion of the morning dollar index rally in New York, there was virtually no co-relation between the precious metal prices and the currencies yesterday.
Here's the 3-day chart so you can see the bit of a ride the dollar index has had since the Tuesday morning open in the Far East...
Here's the 3-day chart so you can see the bit of a ride the dollar index has had since the Tuesday morning open in the Far East...
* * *
The CME's Daily Delivery Report is hardly worth mentioning, as only 7 silver contracts were posted for delivery on Friday.
Over at GLD they reported a withdrawal of 58,089 troy ounces of gold...and there were no reported changes in SLV.
There was no sales report from the U.S. Mint.
It was a very busy day over at the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday. They reported receiving 1,017,030 troy ounces of silver...and shipped 1,942,672 troy ounces out the door. However...417,547 troy ounces of the activity on both sides of the ledger was a transfer out of the CNT Depository...and into Brink's, Inc. The big withdrawal [1.52 million ounces] was from Scotia Mocatta. Tuesday's activity is definitely worth a look...and the link is here.
Over at GLD they reported a withdrawal of 58,089 troy ounces of gold...and there were no reported changes in SLV.
There was no sales report from the U.S. Mint.
It was a very busy day over at the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday. They reported receiving 1,017,030 troy ounces of silver...and shipped 1,942,672 troy ounces out the door. However...417,547 troy ounces of the activity on both sides of the ledger was a transfer out of the CNT Depository...and into Brink's, Inc. The big withdrawal [1.52 million ounces] was from Scotia Mocatta. Tuesday's activity is definitely worth a look...and the link is here.
There was a story out last night that the Royal Canadian Mint went on allocation with its silver maple leaf bullion coin yesterday morning. At 1:05 a.m. Eastern time this morning, I went on the RCM's Media Room page and looked under News Releases...and saw nothing about it. Maybe the story was posted elsewhere on the RCM's site...but until I see the hard copy confirmation somewhere, I'll stick this in the 'hearsay category. However, I just wanted you to know that the story was out there.
Unbeknownst to silver analyst Ted Butler, I stole a couple of paragraphs from his mid-week commentary to his paying subscribers yesterday...which he'll discover when he runs through my column this morning. The linked essays embedded in it..."Life After Bear Stearns"...is amust read.
"It’s just a fact of life that we can’t usually see the full picture on any significant silver development at the time. That’s because all the details aren’t available or visible when we first learn of something new. The best example I can give you was of JPMorgan’s takeover of Bear Stearns in 2008. I even wrote an article about it back then titled “Life After Bear Stearns” in which I talked about many of my usual themes, COMEX, COT, SLV and the first sell-out of Silver Eagles by the US Mint. I stand by everything I wrote in that article, but I admit that I had no clue at the time that Bear was the big COMEX silver short. Nor did I know that Bear Stearns most likely failed because of its giant silver short position and its inability to meet a $1 billion margin call on silver. It was only when the August 2008 Bank Participation Report was released and subsequent correspondence from the CFTC that the full facts became known."
"I feel similarly about the big SLV deposit in that we know it is significant, but all the details are missing. At this stage of the game, I feel confident that if and when the full story is known it will parallel and confirm the silver manipulation story to date, just as the real story on Bear Stearns did. The central conclusion of just about everything that comes out in silver is that this has been a manipulated market that is destined to end at some very high final price, no matter what is thrown at it in the interim."
Ted mentioned the August 2008 Bank Participation Report in silver in the above commentary. Here's Nick Laird's chart of that monthly report in silver going back twelve years. A cursory glance at the red bars on charts #4 and #5 for August 2008 shows the sudden appearance of Bear Stearns' mega-short position...now on the books of JPMorgan Chase. Bear Stearns didn't have to report this position to the CFTC on a monthly basis, because it wasn't classified as a bank. It was, in fact, an investment house. But that certainly wasn't the case for JPMorgan. They are a bank...and they had to report. And they did. [The'click to enlarge' feature is a must here.]
"It’s just a fact of life that we can’t usually see the full picture on any significant silver development at the time. That’s because all the details aren’t available or visible when we first learn of something new. The best example I can give you was of JPMorgan’s takeover of Bear Stearns in 2008. I even wrote an article about it back then titled “Life After Bear Stearns” in which I talked about many of my usual themes, COMEX, COT, SLV and the first sell-out of Silver Eagles by the US Mint. I stand by everything I wrote in that article, but I admit that I had no clue at the time that Bear was the big COMEX silver short. Nor did I know that Bear Stearns most likely failed because of its giant silver short position and its inability to meet a $1 billion margin call on silver. It was only when the August 2008 Bank Participation Report was released and subsequent correspondence from the CFTC that the full facts became known."
"I feel similarly about the big SLV deposit in that we know it is significant, but all the details are missing. At this stage of the game, I feel confident that if and when the full story is known it will parallel and confirm the silver manipulation story to date, just as the real story on Bear Stearns did. The central conclusion of just about everything that comes out in silver is that this has been a manipulated market that is destined to end at some very high final price, no matter what is thrown at it in the interim."
Ted mentioned the August 2008 Bank Participation Report in silver in the above commentary. Here's Nick Laird's chart of that monthly report in silver going back twelve years. A cursory glance at the red bars on charts #4 and #5 for August 2008 shows the sudden appearance of Bear Stearns' mega-short position...now on the books of JPMorgan Chase. Bear Stearns didn't have to report this position to the CFTC on a monthly basis, because it wasn't classified as a bank. It was, in fact, an investment house. But that certainly wasn't the case for JPMorgan. They are a bank...and they had to report. And they did. [The'click to enlarge' feature is a must here.]
(Click on image to enlarge)
* * *
selected news items......
Withdrawn: $114 Billion From Big U.S. Banks
More than $114 billion exited the biggest U.S. banks this month, and nobody’s quite sure why.
The Federal Reserve releases data on the assets and liabilities of commercial banks every Friday. The most current figures, covering the first full week of 2013, show the largest one-week withdrawals since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Even when seasonally adjusted, the level drops to $52.8 billion—still the third-highest amount on record, and one for which bank experts and analysts were reluctant to give a definitive explanation.
The most obvious culprit is the expiration of the Transaction Account Guarantee program, the extraordinary federal effort to shore up the country’s non-gigantic banks during the 2008 financial crisis. Big banks were considered “too big to fail,” while smaller ones were vulnerable to runs. The TAG program backstopped their deposit bases by temporarily offering unlimited insurance on money kept in non-interest-bearing accounts. That guarantee ended on Dec. 31, so a decrease in deposits would be expected first thing in January.
This story appeared on the businessweek.com Internet site yesterday...and our first article of the day is courtesy of Paul Laviers. The link is here.
The Federal Reserve releases data on the assets and liabilities of commercial banks every Friday. The most current figures, covering the first full week of 2013, show the largest one-week withdrawals since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Even when seasonally adjusted, the level drops to $52.8 billion—still the third-highest amount on record, and one for which bank experts and analysts were reluctant to give a definitive explanation.
The most obvious culprit is the expiration of the Transaction Account Guarantee program, the extraordinary federal effort to shore up the country’s non-gigantic banks during the 2008 financial crisis. Big banks were considered “too big to fail,” while smaller ones were vulnerable to runs. The TAG program backstopped their deposit bases by temporarily offering unlimited insurance on money kept in non-interest-bearing accounts. That guarantee ended on Dec. 31, so a decrease in deposits would be expected first thing in January.
This story appeared on the businessweek.com Internet site yesterday...and our first article of the day is courtesy of Paul Laviers. The link is here.
The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions
PBS' Frontline program on Tuesday night broadcast a new one-hour report on one of the greatest and most shameful failings of the Obama administration: the lack of even a single arrest or prosecution of any senior Wall Street banker for the systemic fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis: a crisis from which millions of people around the world are still suffering. What this program particularly demonstrated was that the Obama justice department, in particular the Chief of its Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer, never even tried to hold the high-level criminals accountable.
What Obama justice officials did instead is exactly what they did in the face of high-level Bush era crimes of torture and warrantless eavesdropping: namely, acted to protect the most powerful factions in the society in the face of overwhelming evidence of serious criminality. Indeed, financial elites were not only vested with immunity for their fraud, but thrived as a result of it, even as ordinary Americans continue to suffer the effects of that crisis.
Worst of all, Obama justice officials both shielded and feted these Wall Street oligarchs (who, just by the way, overwhelmingly supported Obama's 2008 presidential campaign) as they simultaneously prosecuted and imprisoned powerless Americans for far more trivial transgressions. As Harvard law professor Larry Lessig put it two weeks ago when expressing anger over the DOJ's persecution of Aaron Swartz: "we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House." (Indeed, as "The Untouchables" put it: while no senior Wall Street executives have been prosecuted, "many small mortgage brokers, loan appraisers and even home buyers" have been).
No surprises here in this excellent must read essay posted in The Guardian yesterday. However, the 1-hour embedded PBS program will take a chunk of your time...and you may want to revisit that part of it later...but I would bet it's worth watching. I thank U.K. reader Tariq Khan for sharing this with us...and the link is here.
What Obama justice officials did instead is exactly what they did in the face of high-level Bush era crimes of torture and warrantless eavesdropping: namely, acted to protect the most powerful factions in the society in the face of overwhelming evidence of serious criminality. Indeed, financial elites were not only vested with immunity for their fraud, but thrived as a result of it, even as ordinary Americans continue to suffer the effects of that crisis.
Worst of all, Obama justice officials both shielded and feted these Wall Street oligarchs (who, just by the way, overwhelmingly supported Obama's 2008 presidential campaign) as they simultaneously prosecuted and imprisoned powerless Americans for far more trivial transgressions. As Harvard law professor Larry Lessig put it two weeks ago when expressing anger over the DOJ's persecution of Aaron Swartz: "we live in a world where the architects of the financial crisis regularly dine at the White House." (Indeed, as "The Untouchables" put it: while no senior Wall Street executives have been prosecuted, "many small mortgage brokers, loan appraisers and even home buyers" have been).
No surprises here in this excellent must read essay posted in The Guardian yesterday. However, the 1-hour embedded PBS program will take a chunk of your time...and you may want to revisit that part of it later...but I would bet it's worth watching. I thank U.K. reader Tariq Khan for sharing this with us...and the link is here.
Central bankers should be brought to heel by elected parliaments
Intellectual fashion is changing. Central bankers around the world no longer command the charisma of a high priesthood.
Nor should they after stoking a global bubble and then tightening just as the money supply was collapsing in mid-2008.
The onus is falling on them to justify why monetary independence is self-evidently a good thing, and why central bankers should operate beyond democratic control.
The humbling of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) this week is just the start, as Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann warned. “It is already possible to observe alarming infringements, for example in Hungary or in Japan, where the new government is massively involving itself in the affairs of the central bank, is emphatically demanding an even more aggressive monetary policy and is threatening an end to central bank autonomy,” he said.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is on a tear...and this commentary was posted on thetelegraph.co.uk Internet site on Tuesday evening. It's Roy Stephens first offering of the day...and the link is here.
Nor should they after stoking a global bubble and then tightening just as the money supply was collapsing in mid-2008.
The onus is falling on them to justify why monetary independence is self-evidently a good thing, and why central bankers should operate beyond democratic control.
The humbling of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) this week is just the start, as Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann warned. “It is already possible to observe alarming infringements, for example in Hungary or in Japan, where the new government is massively involving itself in the affairs of the central bank, is emphatically demanding an even more aggressive monetary policy and is threatening an end to central bank autonomy,” he said.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is on a tear...and this commentary was posted on thetelegraph.co.uk Internet site on Tuesday evening. It's Roy Stephens first offering of the day...and the link is here.
Nigel Farage Couldn't Stop Laughing During David Cameron's Big EU Speech
Last Friday morning, there had been bacon rolls, an enormous pile of them – Nigel Farage's press officer gestured with his hand to show just how enormous – ready for the journalists who would assemble to watch the Ukip leader watch David Cameron's long-trailed speech on Europe.
The prime minister, preoccupied with the hostage crisis in Algeria, was forced to postpone the speech, but not in time for Ukip to cancel breakfast at the European parliament's HQ in London, where Farage has an office. "It was awful," said the aide. "I had to hand them out around the commission building."
After months of postponements and procrastinations from No. 10 on the timing of the speech, Farage's office weren't about to be burned again. And so there was no hospitable snack for the reporters and camera crews who gathered before daybreak on Wednesday, poised to capture every skeptical twitch of the Ukip leader's eyebrow as he followed the prime minister's speech on TV.
This story first appeared in The Guardian...and then was picked up by the businessinsider.com early yesterday afternoon Eastern time. It's fun to read...and also courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.
The prime minister, preoccupied with the hostage crisis in Algeria, was forced to postpone the speech, but not in time for Ukip to cancel breakfast at the European parliament's HQ in London, where Farage has an office. "It was awful," said the aide. "I had to hand them out around the commission building."
After months of postponements and procrastinations from No. 10 on the timing of the speech, Farage's office weren't about to be burned again. And so there was no hospitable snack for the reporters and camera crews who gathered before daybreak on Wednesday, poised to capture every skeptical twitch of the Ukip leader's eyebrow as he followed the prime minister's speech on TV.
This story first appeared in The Guardian...and then was picked up by the businessinsider.com early yesterday afternoon Eastern time. It's fun to read...and also courtesy of Roy Stephens. The link is here.
Yahoo, Dell, swell Netherlands’ $13 trillion tax haven
Inside Reindert Dooves’s home, a 17th-century, three-story converted warehouse along the Zaan canal in suburban Amsterdam, a 21st-century Internet giant is avoiding taxes.
The bookkeeper’s home office doubles as the headquarters for a Yahoo! Inc. offshore unit. Through this sun-filled, white-walled room, Yahoo has taken advantage of the law to quietly funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in global profits to island subsidiaries, cutting its worldwide tax bill.
The Yahoo arrangement illustrates that the Netherlands, in the heart of a continent better known for social welfare than corporate welfare, has emerged as one of the most important tax havens for multinational companies. Now, as a deficit-strapped Europe raises retirement ages and taxes on the working class, the Netherlands’ role as a $13 trillion relay station on the global tax-avoiding network is prompting a backlash.
This very interesting story showed up on the Bloomberg website late on Tuesday evening Mountain Time...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sharing it with us. The link is here.
The bookkeeper’s home office doubles as the headquarters for a Yahoo! Inc. offshore unit. Through this sun-filled, white-walled room, Yahoo has taken advantage of the law to quietly funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in global profits to island subsidiaries, cutting its worldwide tax bill.
The Yahoo arrangement illustrates that the Netherlands, in the heart of a continent better known for social welfare than corporate welfare, has emerged as one of the most important tax havens for multinational companies. Now, as a deficit-strapped Europe raises retirement ages and taxes on the working class, the Netherlands’ role as a $13 trillion relay station on the global tax-avoiding network is prompting a backlash.
This very interesting story showed up on the Bloomberg website late on Tuesday evening Mountain Time...and I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sharing it with us. The link is here.
Tax on financial transactions approved for 11 E.U. states
EU finance ministers on January 22 approved a move by Germany, France and nine other EU nations to introduce a tax on financial transactions to help pay for a bailout of European banks and discourage risky trades.
A group of 11 European Union countries was given the go-ahead Tuesday to work on the introduction of a tax on financial transactions.
The tax is designed to help pay for the rescue of Europe’s banks and discourage risky trading. It would apply to anyone in the 11 countries who makes a bond or share trade or bets on the market using complex financial products called derivatives.
This News Wires story was picked up by the france24.com Internet site yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for this story as well. The link is here.
A group of 11 European Union countries was given the go-ahead Tuesday to work on the introduction of a tax on financial transactions.
The tax is designed to help pay for the rescue of Europe’s banks and discourage risky trading. It would apply to anyone in the 11 countries who makes a bond or share trade or bets on the market using complex financial products called derivatives.
This News Wires story was picked up by the france24.com Internet site yesterday...and I thank Roy Stephens for this story as well. The link is here.
Japan Says a 17th-Century Document Proves it Owns the Disputed Islands
The main point of contention over the disputed East China Sea islands consuming a feud between China and Japan is simply who controlled them first.
China claims to have controlled the area where the islands sit since the Ming dynasty about 600 years ago, but Japan unveiled a report calling that claim into question.
The Tokyo 'paper Yomiuri Shimbun cites a 17th century document from a Chinese official sent to a Japanese envoy explaining the dynasty's control ended far short of the Senkaku Islands.
This very short read showed up on the businessinsider.com Internet site mid-afternoon yesterday Eastern Time...and its Roy Stephens' second-last offering in today's column. The link is here.
China claims to have controlled the area where the islands sit since the Ming dynasty about 600 years ago, but Japan unveiled a report calling that claim into question.
The Tokyo 'paper Yomiuri Shimbun cites a 17th century document from a Chinese official sent to a Japanese envoy explaining the dynasty's control ended far short of the Senkaku Islands.
This very short read showed up on the businessinsider.com Internet site mid-afternoon yesterday Eastern Time...and its Roy Stephens' second-last offering in today's column. The link is here.
Four King World News Blogs
The first is with Keith Barron...and it's headlined "Massive Squeeze Coming as WGC Confirms Gold-Backed Yuan". In second place is this interview withDr. Stephen Leeb. It's entitled "China May Now Have World's Second Largest Gold Reserves". Next comes Kevin Wides...and it bears the title "Final Pulse May Be a Stunning $8,000 for Gold & $5,000 Silver". And lastly comes this blog with an excerpt from the latest Investors' Intelligencereport. It's headlined "Global Stocks May Be Setting Up For a Huge Selloff".
Forget Germany, its Turkey's Central-Bank we should be watching
Amid the brouhaha over Germany's gold reserves at the Bundesbank, there's another central bank using gold actively to bolster its currency and financial stability.
The strategy looks the same – sitting on big stockpiles of the stuff. But the aim differs, because gold is much closer to the everyday financial system. The tactics differ too. Because the central bank hasn't bought and paid for this gold. Private citizens have.
"Although much criticised for its use of 'unconventional measures'," theFinancial Times added in December, "few would argue that the decision last year by Turkey's central bank to allow the country’s banks to buy gold was anything less than a roaring success."
Buying gold isn't quite right. Starting in October 2011, the central bank began allowing commercial banks to hold a portion of their "required reserves" – needed to reassure depositors and other creditors they had plenty of money to hand – in physical gold bullion. Starting at 10%, that proportion was then raised to 30%.
This must read story by the Bullion Vault's Adrian Ash was posted on themineweb.com Internet site early this morning...and the link is here.
The strategy looks the same – sitting on big stockpiles of the stuff. But the aim differs, because gold is much closer to the everyday financial system. The tactics differ too. Because the central bank hasn't bought and paid for this gold. Private citizens have.
"Although much criticised for its use of 'unconventional measures'," theFinancial Times added in December, "few would argue that the decision last year by Turkey's central bank to allow the country’s banks to buy gold was anything less than a roaring success."
Buying gold isn't quite right. Starting in October 2011, the central bank began allowing commercial banks to hold a portion of their "required reserves" – needed to reassure depositors and other creditors they had plenty of money to hand – in physical gold bullion. Starting at 10%, that proportion was then raised to 30%.
This must read story by the Bullion Vault's Adrian Ash was posted on themineweb.com Internet site early this morning...and the link is here.
First ton of SOFAZ physical gold placed today in Central Bank’s safety vaults in Baku
The State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ) has placed today the first ton of physical gold in the safety vaults of the Central Bank in Baku, purchased at the London Stock Exchange of Precious Metals (LBMA) within the SOFAZ investment policy.
According to the Fund, today British company Brink’s Global Services delivered from London to Baku and placed 1 tonne (32,150 ounces) of gold owned by SOFAZ in the CBA vaults.
The Oil Fund has been acquiring physical gold since February 2012 in batches of 10,000 ounces a week. By early 2013 SOFAZ brought its gold assets up to 14,934 kg (480,146 ounces).
Initially London-based warehousing units of JP Morgan were selected for storage, but now all the gold will be gradually transferred to storage in Azerbaijan. Prior to the completion of construction of a new residence of SOFAZ this gold will be stored in the CBA vaults, and then will be transferred to the Fund’s own store in its residence at Heydar Aliyev Avenue in Baku.
This is all there was to this abc.az item from back on January 11th...and the link to the hard copy is here.
According to the Fund, today British company Brink’s Global Services delivered from London to Baku and placed 1 tonne (32,150 ounces) of gold owned by SOFAZ in the CBA vaults.
The Oil Fund has been acquiring physical gold since February 2012 in batches of 10,000 ounces a week. By early 2013 SOFAZ brought its gold assets up to 14,934 kg (480,146 ounces).
Initially London-based warehousing units of JP Morgan were selected for storage, but now all the gold will be gradually transferred to storage in Azerbaijan. Prior to the completion of construction of a new residence of SOFAZ this gold will be stored in the CBA vaults, and then will be transferred to the Fund’s own store in its residence at Heydar Aliyev Avenue in Baku.
This is all there was to this abc.az item from back on January 11th...and the link to the hard copy is here.
* * *
¤ THE WRAP
When the white missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible...and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible...and they had the land. - Desmond Tutu
Even though volume was light yesterday, it was obvious that there were not-for-profit sellers about...especially in the silver market. Heaven only knows how high the price would have gone if left to its own devices. The fact that "da boyz" stepped in three times during the Comex trading session should tell you a lot.
I was also less than amused about the performance of the shares, as they stunk up the place once again. And as I mentioned further up, this counterintuitive price action in the shares is, at times, a precursor to a bear raid in the metal itself. We'll see if this is the case this time...as the charts in both gold and silver are potentially set up to 'fail' at their respective 50-day moving averages.
One other thing about that big deposit into SLV last week. Ted Butler pointed out that it was made on the morning of January 16th. The cut-off for the bi-monthly short position report posted over at shortsqueeze.com Internet site is at the end of trading on January 15th.
Ted mentioned in his bi-weekly commentary yesterday that the latest report fromshortsqueeze.com will most likely be posted on their Internet site tomorrow...and because that big deposit was carefully made after the cut-off date, it won't be in that report.
It's my opinion that this was a deliberate act...but maybe I'm looking for black bears in dark rooms that aren't there.
If one were of a suspicious nature, you would have to ask yourself what might happen during the next couple of weeks in the silver market that required the precise timing of the monstrous surprise deposit in SLV. Based on my suspicion, I'd guess that it was made to cover a short position...and that they wanted to hide what they were doing for as long as humanely possible. As they say, we will find out in the fullness of time.
Even though volume was light yesterday, it was obvious that there were not-for-profit sellers about...especially in the silver market. Heaven only knows how high the price would have gone if left to its own devices. The fact that "da boyz" stepped in three times during the Comex trading session should tell you a lot.
I was also less than amused about the performance of the shares, as they stunk up the place once again. And as I mentioned further up, this counterintuitive price action in the shares is, at times, a precursor to a bear raid in the metal itself. We'll see if this is the case this time...as the charts in both gold and silver are potentially set up to 'fail' at their respective 50-day moving averages.
One other thing about that big deposit into SLV last week. Ted Butler pointed out that it was made on the morning of January 16th. The cut-off for the bi-monthly short position report posted over at shortsqueeze.com Internet site is at the end of trading on January 15th.
Ted mentioned in his bi-weekly commentary yesterday that the latest report fromshortsqueeze.com will most likely be posted on their Internet site tomorrow...and because that big deposit was carefully made after the cut-off date, it won't be in that report.
It's my opinion that this was a deliberate act...but maybe I'm looking for black bears in dark rooms that aren't there.
If one were of a suspicious nature, you would have to ask yourself what might happen during the next couple of weeks in the silver market that required the precise timing of the monstrous surprise deposit in SLV. Based on my suspicion, I'd guess that it was made to cover a short position...and that they wanted to hide what they were doing for as long as humanely possible. As they say, we will find out in the fullness of time.
It was also quite a coincidence that this HSBC USA purchase of Polish silver occurred within a very short time of the SLV deposit. It may be nothing in the grand scheme of things, but the fact that it wasn't public knowledge until KGHM was forced to report it, is just another data point for consideration.
In overnight action, both gold and silver were sold off a bit in Far East and very early London trading...and then really took a turn for the worse at 10:00 a.m. GMT...as it appears that we may be in the early stages of the engineered price decline that I spoke of earlier. As I hit the 'send' button at 5:35 a.m. Eastern time, gold is down a bit over ten dollars. At one point, silver was down over 50 cents...and has recovered only slightly since. Gold volumes, which had been a little heavier than normal at the London open, have now blow out quite a bit...and there are considerable roll-overs out of the February contract, which hasn't been the case lately...at least not this early in the trading day. Silver's net volume was already very heavy by the open in London...and is now heavier still...around 11,000 contracts.
I note that this price pressure is confined to gold and silver...because platinum and palladium appear to be trading without much interference. The dollar index is bouncing around the 80.00 mark pretty good at the moment...but what it means, if anything, is hard to tell. It could get interesting when Comex trading begins at 8:20 a.m. Eastern time.
That's all for today...and I'll see you here on Friday.
In overnight action, both gold and silver were sold off a bit in Far East and very early London trading...and then really took a turn for the worse at 10:00 a.m. GMT...as it appears that we may be in the early stages of the engineered price decline that I spoke of earlier. As I hit the 'send' button at 5:35 a.m. Eastern time, gold is down a bit over ten dollars. At one point, silver was down over 50 cents...and has recovered only slightly since. Gold volumes, which had been a little heavier than normal at the London open, have now blow out quite a bit...and there are considerable roll-overs out of the February contract, which hasn't been the case lately...at least not this early in the trading day. Silver's net volume was already very heavy by the open in London...and is now heavier still...around 11,000 contracts.
I note that this price pressure is confined to gold and silver...because platinum and palladium appear to be trading without much interference. The dollar index is bouncing around the 80.00 mark pretty good at the moment...but what it means, if anything, is hard to tell. It could get interesting when Comex trading begins at 8:20 a.m. Eastern time.
That's all for today...and I'll see you here on Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment