From Ed Steer:

The gold and silver markets added up to a big zero yesterday in all world markets. There was the usual sell-off at the Comex open in both metals...but both recovered by the end of floor trading. With Good Friday and Easter weekend looming, gold volume was a miserable 54,001 lots, with a switch effect of 4,112.

Open interest in gold on Wednesday fell a surprising 10,422 contracts to a new total of 334,507. In silver, o.i. fell again, this time by 490 contracts...down to 92,611. Wednesday's activity certainly didn't appear conducive to this size of fall in o.i. of either metal. If I was the suspicious type, I'd almost think that this was open interest data that was deliberately held back until Wednesday, so that it wouldn't show up in the Commitment of Traders report today. We now have to wait until next Friday.

On Thursday, only 75 gold contracts and one lonely silver contract were delivered on the Comex. Over at the Comex-approved precious metals warehouses, silver inventories increased 536,621 ounces. The SLV showed no change...and the GLD was up an insignificant 9,000 ounces.

By the way, I was interviewed by Al Korelin of Korelin Economics...and if you feel that you might be interested in what I have to say, the link is here.

Alcoa officially kicked off earnings season Tuesday after the close. Alcoa reported a loss of $497 million in the first quarter. For some perspective into the current earnings environment, today's chart compares S&P 500 earning performance during the current economic recession [solid red line] to that of the last recession [dashed gold line] and the average recession from 1936-2006 [dashed blue line]. As today's chart illustrates, the current decline in earnings is several orders of magnitude greater than the average decline during a recession. The current decline is also more severe than what was the most severe earnings decline on record...the decline that began in 2001 [gold dashed line].

click to enlarge

Today's first story [which I 'borrowed' from lemetroplecafe.com] is from the Financial Post in Toronto. It appears that the jointly-owned Cerro Casale gold-copper project has run into a few financial difficulties. The article is entitled "Costs balloon at Barrick, Kinross mine in Chile". The link is here.

In a story filed at Politico.com comes this headline..."Pentagon preps for economic warfare". The GATA headline for the same story reads..."Market manipulation figures in economic war game". "It felt a little bit like 'Dr. Strangelove," one person who was at the previously undisclosed exercise told Politico. The story, which is worth looking at, is linked here.

I see in a Bloomberg story that Barclays' iShares has been sold to CVC Capital Partners Ltd. for $4.4 billion. This means that the silver ETF...SLV will have a new manager. You can read all about it at the link here.

And lastly is this story from the Financial Times out of London. As I always try to do...I save what I think is the best story until the last. This one is no exception and is a 'must read' from one end to the other. The title of the article is "In uncertain times, all that glisters is a gold standard". The direct link to the article may not work for some, so it appears here in the form of a GATA dispatch. Click here.

The government should allow every distressed bank to go bankrupt and set up a fresh banking system under temporary state control rather than cripple the country by propping up a corrupt edifice. - Joseph Stiglitz

The stock market rally continues...but for how much longer? This is a classic bear market rally...that's getting some 'official' PPT help along the way. It can't...and won't last. But hey...it's Easter! Enjoy the rest of your long weekend...and I'll see you here on Tuesday morning.

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