Ed Steers Gold & Silver Daily / Casey Research Ed Steer: GOLD The gold price didnt do a whole lot of anything during the Far East trading day on their Monday. Their was a slight dip going into the London open, with the low of the day coming shortly before 9 a.m. GMT. The subsequent rally was less than impressive, but once the London p.m. gold fix was in at 10 a.m. EST---the gold price blasted higher in a short covering rally that immediately turned into a no ask market. The sellers of last resort were there in an instant---and within a couple of hours, the rally had been crushed. After that, the gold price didnt do much. The CME Group recorded the low and high ticks at $1,240.40 and $1,266.10 in the April contract. Obviously the gold price finished well off its high---and Kitco recorded that at $1,257.10 spot, up $11.20 from the Friday close. Net volume was around 130,000 contracts. One can only fantasize about what the close might have been if JPMorgan et al hadnt put in an appearance. SILVER The chart pattern in silver was identical---and for the same reasons as they were in gold. The CME recorded the low and high as $19.06 and $19.62 in the March contract. Silver closed at $19.335 spot, up 17 cents from Friday. But, if left to its own devices, it could have easily have been up $17. Net volume was around 30,000 contracts. PLATINUM & PALLADIUM The platinum chart was a mini version of the gold and silver charts. But JPMorgan et al began hammering the palladium price about 15 minutes before the Comex open---and instead of finishing the day up a bunch, as it looked like it was going to do, JPMorgan et al closed it unchanged. USDX The dollar index closed on Friday afternoon in New York at 81.25. When it opened in Far East trading on their Monday, it struggled up to 81.32---and then hung on until the 8 a.m. GMT London open. From there it chopped lower, until a not-for-profit buyer showed up to catch the proverbial falling knife at the 81.000 mark about 11:20 a.m. EST---and from there it didnt do much. The index closed the Monday session at 81.07---which was down 18 basis points from Fridays close. GOLD & SILVER STOCKS The gold stocks gapped up a bit at the 9:30 a.m. EST market open---and then spiked higher on the blast off at the London p.m. gold fix. But that was all she wrote, as the stocks chopped lower for the remainder of the session---and a thoughtful soul sold them into negative territory minutes before the 4 p.m. EST close. The HUI finished lower by 0.15%. The chart pattern in the silver stocks was similar, but on much weaker price action---and Nick Lairds Intraday Silver Sentiment Index closed down 1.10%. I would guess that some of the weakness in the latter part of the trading day should be attributed to the fact that the general equity markets got smoked yesterday, so I wouldnt read much into yesterdays declines. The CMEs Daily Delivery Report showed that 253 gold and 141 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Wednesday. In gold, Canadas Scotiabank was the short/issuer on all 253 contracts---and HSBC USA and Barclays were the largest long/stoppers with 162 and 58 contracts respectively. In silver, there were only two short/issuers---ABN Amro with 93 contracts---and JPMorgan Chase out of its in-house [proprietary] trading account with 48 contracts. Canadas Scotiabank stopped 131 of the 141 contracts. Scotiabank which, in my opinion is the only non-U.S. bank thats massively short silver on the Comex futures market, has been taking delivery of a pretty decent amount recently, but I would guess thats its a drop in the bucket compared to what their short position really is. The link to yesterdays Issuers and Stoppers Report is here. There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday. However, there was a fairly chunky deposit into SLV, as an authorized participant added 2,129,673 troy ounces. US MINT The U.S. Mint had a sales report yesterday. They sold 2,000 troy ounces of gold eagles---3,000 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes---and 560,500 silver eagles. There were no changes made to January sales, but Id bet a fair chunk of dough that the sales reported on Monday actually occurred in January---and were withheld until the new month was underway. COMEX Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Friday, they reported a withdrawal of 60,129 troy ounces of gold---and all of it, except for one kilobar---came out of the Scotia Mocatta depository. In silver, there was no silver reported received---and only 111,627 troy ounces were reported removed. #gold #silver #platinum #palladium #preciousmetals #USDollar #USDX #stocks #goldstocks #silverstocks #HUI #GLD #SLV #CME #Comex #contracts #futures #USMint #GoldEagles #SilverEagles #Comex #EdSteer #GoldAndSilverDaily #CaseyResearch
Posted on: Tue, 04 Feb 2014 17:23:28 +0000