From Ed Steer:

Gold did practically nothing from the time Globex trading opened in the Far East on Thursday morning, until noon in London [7:00 a.m. in New York]. From there, and until about a half hour after the Comex open, gold tacked on about $12 in two quick spikes. However, what little gains there were, evaporated by the close of New York electronic trading at 5:15 p.m. yesterday afternoon.

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Silver didn't show much activity until 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon. From there, it was an eleven-hour battle for it to add about 35 cents to the price...with the peak coming during lunch time in New York. From there it got sold off hard...and in the next four hours all these gains disappeared as well. One might have thought that there was some sort of prize for the traders from JPMorgan et al, for getting the Thursday closing prices in gold and silver as close as they could to the closing price on Wednesday.

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Yesterday was options expiry on the Comex for the April contract...and I believe that today is options expiry in the Over-the-Counter [OTC] market. That's one of the reasons that volume has been so heavy this week, as traders are rolling their positions out of the April contract into June, in order to avoid having to take delivery. We will find out how many gold contracts are standing for delivery in April, when first notice day rolls around next Tuesday...March 31st...the last day of the month.

The boyz didn't get the gold price down very much into this options expiry date. A lot of options expired in the money...and if these option holders wish, they can now convert their options into futures contracts and stand for delivery. It will be very interesting to see how many contracts will be in that position come Tuesday morning.

Today is also the last delivery day of the month for silver in the March contract. As of this writing, there are still about 180 contracts left to deliver...900,000 ounces. There were 99 contracts delivered yesterday...with the big issuer being Prudential Bache [98]...and there were eight different stoppers...each taking a little chunk.

Open interest changes for Wednesday's big day were as follows. Gold o.i. rose 3,028 contracts...which is not a lot considering the volume and the price action. Silver o.i. actually fell 88 contracts. Upon checking the March 25th price swings [red line] on the silver graph above, I suppose anything was possible. Unfortunately, none of this activity will be in today's Commitment of Traders report. We'll have to wait until the COT report on April 3rd for that.

In other gold and silver news, I've already covered Thursday's deliveries in silver. There were only a handful of contracts delivered in gold...and there might be a small handful delivered today as well. No changes in the U.S. Mint's gold and silver eagles numbers. The Comex silver warehouse stocks were not updated for Thursday. There were no additions to GLD yesterday, but some of the huge amount of silver that's owed to the SLV put in an appearance. The total added yesterday was 116.49 tonnes [3,745,000 ounces troy]...bringing the new record-high total up to 8,296.93 tonnes of silver. According to an e-mail I received from Gene Arensberg..."SLV has now exceeded the amount of silver foreseen in the Custodian Agreement with JPMorgan Chase, London. It currently holds 266,752,671.5 ounces. The custodian agreement was for up to 264,550,265 ounces. As of today, SLV has not filed either an amendment of the current custodian agreement or announced a new custodian or sub-custodian." Gene was also kind enough to provide an updated graph of the current holdings of the SLV ETF since its inception. I thank him for that...and the associated commentary.

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And lastly, from the usual N.Y. Commentator, comes this bit of news..."Giving no particular reason, The Gartman Letter added a 'unit' of gold this morning, explicitly not hedging into the Euro, as its other two units are. Those familiar with the well-informed character of TGL would not have been surprised to see a serious effort to rally gold on the N.Y. open. Most would have been impressed though, by the fury of the selling response: estimated volume was 105,902 lots by 10 a.m., as efforts were underway to reverse the gain." [Which they subsequently accomplished. - Ed]

Today's first story is from the Financial Times in London. The headline reads: "Swiss banks ban top executive travel"..."because of fears they will be detained as part of a global crackdown on bank secrecy." This short article is well worth the read, and I urge you to do so. I thank Craig McCarty for sending it to me. The link is here.

The next story was also sent to me by Craig McCarty. It's a Bloomberg piece with the headline "Brown 'Terribly Fragile' After Bond Auction Flops". "The notion that Brown is leading us to the promised land is laughable. He cannot get to grips with how other people see this country now, as the sick man of Europe," said Ruth Lea, economic adviser to the Arbuthnot Banking Group Plc in Solihull, England. The link is here.

In keeping with the last story, here is an incredible youtube.com video of the European Parliament speech by Daniel Hannan...Conservative MEP for the South East of England...and author of The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain. He absolutely rips Brown a new one right in front of his peers...just destroys the guy. He and Ron Paul would be soul mates. There has to be a way for him to deliver the same speech to Obama et al! I thank Steven Talsness for sending it to me. It's worth the listen....trust me! The link is here.

Today's last offering comes from the website of National Public Radio. The name Frank Partnoy may not mean a lot to you...but it speaks volumes to me. "In his 1997 book FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street, Partnoy detailed how derivatives — financial instruments whose value is determined by another security — were being used and abused by big financial firms. Partnoy used his experiences as a derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley to give the book an insider's perspective." If you really want to know how this derivatives disaster finally brought down Wall Street and the financial system, this is the article to read. I read the book when it first came out, so when the crash happened, it was no surprise to me. This is a long read...but well worth your time...and I thank Ted Butler for sending it to me. It's entitled "Frank Partnoy: Derivative Dangers"...and the link is here.

The intervention we are seeing in the markets right now is blatant and strong -- apparently hoping to convince J.Q. Public that the train is leaving the station. There is a strong and concerted effort by the Fed, the administration and their cooperatives to paint this tape higher and higher, without any pull back. - Dennis Slothower, Stealth Stock Daily...explicity citing Wednesday's last-hour rescue rally at 3:00 p.m.

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Talking about the Dow's Wednesday 'last-hour rescue rally at 3:00 p.m.'...how about the Dow's Thursday 'last-hour rescue rally' at precisely the same time!!! As for gold and silver...with options expiry out of the way...who the hell knows. Something seems to be afoot...but with the U.S. government up to its neck in market management these days...it's anyone's guess. And...if I said for sure one way or another...then I'd be guessing too.

Have a great weekend...and all of us at Casey's Daily Resource Plus look forward to seeing you here on Saturday.

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