From Ed Steer:

Both gold and silver showed a bit of firmness in Far East trading on Monday morning...and a real rally began on the London open. This rally lasted until shortly before the London a.m. fix, when a not-for-profit seller showed up in both metals and capped their respective rallies. Then both metals zig-zagged lower until the London p.m. fix...then both metals recovered and closed on their highs of the day. Volume on the Comex was very light.

No waterfall declines yesterday. The boyz have four more days to do the dirty...if they can.

Despite the drop in the gold price on Friday, open interest actually rose 976 contracts. No signs of tech long liquidation/bullion bank short covering in that number. Silver, which declined quite a chunk on Friday, showed a drop in open interest of 1,046 contracts.

The usual NY gold commentator had this to say about Friday and Monday activity...."UBS notes that the CFTC data as of last Tuesday (Commitment of Traders - Ed) indicated that the net spec long in gold was equal to the all time high. Indicative of the buying power -- or the selling power, depending on one's perspective -- recently deployed.

"Friday’s excursion below $950 early in the Comex day, followed a partial recovery to a loss of $12.70 on the day, was widely described as liquidation. Quite wrong: open interest rose 976 lots (3.04 tonnes). There must surely have been a fair amount of stop loss activity, but once again the predominant feature of the day was fresh selling.

"Today (Monday), support in Asia and some heavy buying in early Europe, could not be entirely suppressed in NY...with a floor session gain of $5.70. The link with Oil’s $2+ gain and the dispersal of Friday's mild euphoria about Iran, should not be ignored."

Because of happenings over the weekend, I have three stories for your perusal. There was just no way I could whittle it down to less, as they are all important.

The first is about something that's going on in Oklahoma of all places. The title of the piece is "Oklahoma Rebellion". We should all face Oklahoma City and pray that this makes it through both houses. I thank Phil S. for drawing it to my attention. The link is here.

The second story is another epistle by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard from The Telegraph in London. It's entitled "The global economy is at the point of maximum danger". He's got that right! The link is here.

And lastly, here's another piece out of Britain...this one from The Independent...and it's all about British retail demand for gold. I must admit it warms the cockles of my heart. The headline reads "The rush for Gold: Sales of bars double". The link is here.

Perhaps it is no surprise that traders in the credit-default swaps market have recently made bets on the unthinkable: that America may default on its debt. - The Economist, 17 July 2008, "End of Illusions"

Not a good start to the week for the US equity markets yesterday...and Freddie had the audacity to close down 4.7% on the day as well. The bad news in the after market about American Express and Apple aren't a good start for today either. Maybe they too will get a Term Auction Facility from the Fed? Anything's possible these days, as it's obvious that the lunatics are running the asylum.

See you tomorrow.

Casey Research correspondent-at-large Ed Steer is a keen observer of the financial scene and a board member of GATA.org.