From Ed Steer:

Once again, gold and silver mirrored each other's price moves all through Thursday trading around the world. The high in the Far East in both metals was about 3:30 p.m. in Hong Kong...and from there, the trend was down. This trend picked up some steam about 10:00 a.m. in London and continued to accelerate to the down-side right through the Comex open. But around 8:45 a.m. in New York, gold and silver found a savior, as both metals turned on a dime...with gold picking up a hair over $20...and silver up 66 cents...from bottom-to-top during Comex trading.

It was all too good to last of course, as once the Comex floor traders went their merry ways, electronic trading took some of those gains back. However, both metals finished in the plus column yesterday...but gold just barely made it...up a whopping 40 cents!

I've commented before [several times over the last couple of years, actually] that it appears that some bored N.Y. gold trader[s] at JPMorgan seems to be getting some perverse pleasure in seeing how close together he/they can get gold's electronic closing price three days in a row...regardless of the Comex closing price. The Kitco graph below is for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But then...maybe I'm just imagining things.

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Gold open interest changes for Wednesday's trading [the red line on the above Kitco graph] are as follows...o.i. rose again, but only by 1,193 contracts to 388,374...with volume a largish 126,122 contracts...way above estimated volume. In silver, o.i. also rose, but only 710 contracts to a total open interest of 107,157 contracts...on an another big volume day...38,992 contracts.

Thursday's Comex Delivery Report showed another 283 gold contracts [and one silver contract] were delivered yesterday. Subtracting yesterday's deliveries from the total contracts still open, there are about 1,520 gold contracts and 20 silver contracts left to deliver in June. These numbers change daily, of course. But that's the snapshot as of the end of trading yesterday. So far this month, there have been 469,700 ounces of gold and 2,925,000 ounces of silver, delivered in June...and we have many more days to go, so these numbers will keep going up.

There were no changes in GLD or SLV yesterday. After two days of updates, I just knew that the U.S. Mint wouldn't have any changes on Thursday, as that would make it three days in a row. Wrong again! One ounce gold eagle production has risen another 7,000 to 43,000...and silver eagles are up another bunch...73,000 to 930,000 for the month. We still have more than half the month ahead of us, so the numbers are looking encouraging. Over at the Comex-approved warehouses yesterday, silver inventories slid another 112,136 ounces.

In other gold news, I'm one of many hundreds [if not thousands] on Jim Sinclair's mailing list. Yesterday he sent out an e-mail regarding the problems of missing gold and silver at the Royal Canadian Mint in Ottawa. If you remember, I ran that story yesterday in this column. Mr. Sinclair had the following comment on this issue over at his website JSMineset.com..."I have heard rumors for some time, but today it was confirmed to me, that the Canadian Mint's present problems are not unique and that other depositories (vaults) have had an army of auditors descend on them in the last two weeks. Some of these depositories have names so famous that it would scare the hell out of you. The repercussions would be drastic if they turn out to be troubled...I suggest to you now that you take delivery of all gold [and silver - Ed] held in vaults and depositories on your behalf, but this time even from the most prestigious."

Is all of the above true? I sure as hell hope not...but would not be surprised if it was. I've heard some names mentioned on the Internet...but until confirmed...I will not utter them here. BUT, as I [and many others] have said over the years, do NOT have one thin dime in paper gold or silver. I consider GLD and SLV to be paper...as is every pool account on the planet. In the end, only those who have physical metal in hand...or in gold or silver funds with real metal behind them...will survive. Why take the chance...and needless to say, I'll keep you posted on developments.

And lastly...in silver news, I see in a story posted at marketwirecanada.com, that Central Fund of Canada is coming out with a new Silver Bullion Trust...an all silver fund...similar, I would think, to their current gold/silver trust...and to their all-gold Central Gold Trust. All the details are linked here.

I have two more stories today...the first about gold...and the second about real estate.

The first is a Reuters story posted at forbes.com. The headline reads "Central banks could justify sharp rise in gold holdings - WGC"..." 'Central banks are justified in having high gold weightings. They are justified in having a 40-50 percent weighting in gold,' Marcus Grubb, WGC's managing director of investment, research and marketing told delegates at a conference organised by ETF Securities." They could also achieve the same result by repricing the gold they already [allegedly] have, to some new higher price. The article is only about four paragraphs long and is worth the read. The link is here.

This last story is near and dear to my heart. Not only is it about real estate...but it highlights what I've been going on about...long before even sub-prime became an issue. They're called Option ARMs...and will start the second major down-leg in the U.S. real estate market. This Bloomberg story tells all..."About 1 million option ARMs are estimated to reset higher in the next four years..." The headline reads "Option ARMs Threaten Housing Rebound as Resets Peak". The link is here.

Here's a perfect spot for this Credit Suisse chart that came out in January of 2007. My regular readers will recognize it right away, as I've posted it many times. We are currently at month 30...right at the beginning of the Option ARMs debacle...with at least 30 months to go. The graph...and the above Bloomberg story...speak volumes. A clear picture of the U.S. real estate market for the next 3-4 years is staring you right in the face. This is the main reason that I'm not expecting the U.S. real estate market to bottom until 2013.

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Nothing will unnerve the paper gold [and silver] shorts more quickly and do more to undercut their confidence, than to strip them of the real metal and force them to come up with more hard gold [and silver] bullion to make good on deliveries. "Stand and Deliver or Go Home" should be the rallying cry of the gold [and silver] longs to the paper gold [and silver] shorts. - Dan Norcini, jsmineset.com

Despite the poor showing for the U.S. dollar this week...and with oil prices and the CRB climbing...neither gold nor silver prices were allowed to do what they should be doing...going up. It wasn't helped by the fact that the U.S. Treasury had about $127 billion worth of paper to sell, either. That is now behind us. Can the precious metals rise from here? Sure, but only if JPMorgan et al don't go short against any new longs. If they stand aside for a while...prices will rise dramatically. But they can also collectively pull their bids, and prices will drop like a stone. We just have to wait and see which way it turns out.

All of us at Casey's Daily Resource Plus hope you have a great weekend...and we'll see 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.