From Ed Steer:

Gold didn't do much on Wednesday. It rallied a bit in the Far East and got sold off mid-morning in London. The low of the day [such as it was] came at the London p.m. gold fix at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. The subsequent rally got capped shortly after the price punctured $890...and then proceeded to get sold off [on big volume] right into the Globex close at 5:15 in New York. Total estimated volume was 87,493 contracts...with a switch effect of 5,876.

Silver was similar. A vertical spike at 8:30 a.m. in New York got squashed...and the low of the day was also at the London p.m. gold fix. And, like gold, the subsequent rally got capped at 1:00 p.m. Eastern before getting sold off to almost unchanged. Nothing to see here folks...please move along.

Open interest changes for Tuesday's Comex trading showed an increase of 1,653 contracts in gold o.i....now 344,929 contracts. In silver, o.i. fell 802 contracts to 93,101. All of this [fingers crossed] will be in tomorrow's Commitment of Traders report.

For the first time that I've been reporting Comex gold and silver deliveries, there was not an ounce delivered in either metal yesterday. Nothing happened with GLD or SLV...or at the U.S. Mint. At the Comex-approved precious metals depositories, silver inventories finally rose a bit...but just a bit...208,635 ounces.

The usual N.Y. commentator had the following yesterday..."The European Central Bank's weekly statement of condition marked up consolidated gold holdings with a new book value... €690.186/oz. compared with €621.542/oz. at the year end. One captive CB was reported to have sold €14 million last week, only 0.63 tonnes. The previous week's net sale was 4.13 tonnes. Disappointingly for gold's friends, there was no report of any CB buying. The 35.5 tonne sale by the ECB itself, announced last week, has yet to show up in these weekly statements. Usually it takes over a month."

In other gold and silver news, the Central Fund of Canada's underwriting agreement with CIBC is now complete. Of the $340 million offered...$210 million was taken. That's a huge amount, even more than I was expecting. The closing should occur on or about April 16th. At that time we'll find out how much gold and silver bullion they will have acquired. A back-of-the-envelope calculation based on $195 million in bullion purchased [at yesterday's prices] indicates about 130,000 ounces of gold and 6.5 million ounces of silver will be added to their stash.

Three stories today. The first is from chinadaily.com...China's 'official' newspaper. It appears that China is more than serious about using their currency for international trade. The headline says it all..."Yuan trade settlement to start in five Chinese cities"...and the link is here.

The next story is filed from Johannesburg and is posted at fin24.com. It's noteworthy in the fact that Philip Klapwijk, the chief cook and bottle washer over at Gold Field Mineral Services [GFMS], says that gold prices could "easily re-attain the $1,000 mark and may well push up towards, and perhaps even through, the $1,100 barrier in the coming months." I'm not sure whether to be wildly bullish...or maybe I should phone my broker this morning and tell him to hit the bid on every stock I own! As you have probably already guessed...I'm not a big fan of GFMS. But we'll find out in the fullness of time. The story is entitled "GFMS: Gold can reach $1,100"...and the link is here.

And lastly...Canada's Business News Network yesterday devoted an hour to a program it called "Bear Attack"...which featured interviews with Sprott Asset Management CEO Eric Sprott, New York University economics professor Nouriel Roubini, Long Wave Analyst letter editor Ian Gordon, and financial adviser Meredith Whitney. Gold figured prominently in the discussion. The whole program is well worth watching. The program is broken up into two parts. The link to the second part is easy to find once you get to the first part...and the link for that is here.

The worst is over without a doubt. - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor, 29 August 1930

As I've mentioned before, look out for the upcoming crash in the Commercial real estate market. In a story posted at The Wall Street Journal yesterday..."Commercial landlords continue to lose retail tenants at an accelerating pace, indicating that the industry's troubles are worsening. The amount of occupied space in U.S. shopping centers and malls declined a net 8.7 million square feet in the first quarter of 2009, more than the total amount of space retailers gave back to landlords in all of 2008 and any other year in recent history." And this is just the start.

On that cheery note, all of us here at Casey's Daily Resource Plus would like to wish you a Happy Passover...and an equally Happy Easter.

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