Gold in Europe Closes Over €1,000 for the First Time

All in all, gold didn't do a lot during Tuesday's trading day... and volume wasn't very heavy, either. The low of $1,217 spot was around 2:00 p.m. in Hong Kong trading... and from there, gold rose in fits and starts to its high of the day [$1,229.90 spot] shortly before 11:00 a.m. Eastern time in New York. From that high-water mark, gold got sold off five bucks and stayed at $1,225 spot for the rest of the Tuesday trading session.

However, it appeared that three mini break-out attempts during New York trading were quietly, but firmly, sold off. It didn't appear that gold was going to be allowed over $1,230 spot... and it wasn't. Here's the New York trading session on its own.

Maybe I'm looking for black bears in dark rooms that aren't there? But I don't think so.

Silver's path was similar to gold's... right up until the Zurich and London open at 8:00 a.m. Then silver, platinum and palladium all got it in the neck at precisely the same moment... as gold continued to climb. Coincidence? Not bloody likely.

Anyway, silver got smacked by a not-for-profit seller for over 30 cents to its low just over $18.20 spot shortly before 10:00 a.m. in London. But from there it recovered all its losses from the Tuesday open... and went on to it's spike high of the day [$18.72 spot] at 10:25 a.m. in New York. Then another [the same one, perhaps?] not-for-profit seller showed up and sold silver down to a 14 cent loss on the day. I don't know how you feel about it, dear reader, but I just love to watch free markets in action. It brings tears to your eyes... doesn't it?

How about that sorry excuse for a fiat reserve currency? Every day brings a new delight... and Tuesday's action was no different. Starting about 2:40 a.m. Eastern time... the dollar gained over 80 basis points in less than four hours. Then, in the next five hours, proceeded to drop 130 basis points. Here's the chart... and don't forget that this chart is Central time... and hour behind Eastern time. So 1:40 a.m. Central time on this chart is 2:40 a.m. Eastern time.

You will carefully note that the gold price went about its merry way without a hint that the dollar's price shenanigans made one iota of difference. However, in terms of the silver price... it's price action on Tuesday mirrors this dollar chart almost perfectly. But does it mean anything? Who knows.

The HUI pretty much followed what gold was doing up until about 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. That was the time the general equity markets started rolling over... and I figure that the precious metals shares sort of followed along in sympathy. Consider the rout on the Dow, I think we should just count our blessings that the HUI basically finished flat on the day.

Well, the CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 665 gold and 3 silver contracts were put up for delivery tomorrow. All the "usual suspects" put in an appearance... and the list of issuers and stoppers is here. The GLD added another smallish amount yesterday. This time it was 9,784 ounces. There were no changes in SLV.

Not surprisingly, now that the new month is upon us, the U.S. Mint updated all their eagle sales. They reported 6,000 one-ounce gold eagles... 5,000 24-k gold buffaloes... and 509,000 silver eagles. I'd bet a significant portion of my net worth that those 509,000 silver eagles were actually sold in May... and not reported until June... just because they didn't want the silver world all atwitter that over 4,000,000 silver eagles sold in one month.

The Comex-approved depositories showed that another 390,848 troy ounces of silver were added to their collective inventories on Friday. May month-end silver inventories on the Comex were reported as 119,451,873 ounces troy.

The European Central Bank's weekly statement of condition showed no material changes in either "gold, or gold receivables" for the week that was.

As the headline of my column states... gold closed over the €1,000 mark for the first time ever on June 1st. Here's the graph courtesy of Nick Laird at sharelnyx.com... for which I thank him.

My first story today is courtesy of Dr. Jim Willie over at goldenjackass.com... and was one of the first stories in my in-box yesterday morning. It was posted over at marketwatch.com. The stream of negative news from Spain's savings bank sector continued on Tuesday, with a report that the second largest player, Caja Madrid, will tap the government for 3 billion euros ($3.6 billion) of rescue funds. The headline reads "Caja Madrid said to ask for 3 billion euros of support"... and the link is here.

Here's an item that was in the Monday edition of The New York Times... and it's courtesy of Washington state reader S.A. This is certainly a sign of the times... and I'm totally of the opinion that this sort of real estate situation will become wide-spread in the not-too-distant future. As a matter of fact, I'm sure that this has been going on for a while... and that the press has finally cottoned on to it. The headline reads... "Owners Stop Paying Mortgages, and Stop Fretting". This story is well worth your time... and the link is here.

The next two stories are courtesy of reader, Roy Stephens. The first is an interesting in-depth 2-part story on North Korea that's posted in Monday's edition of the English language website of spiegel.de in Germany. Although a bit on the long side... there's information in this report that you'll never see in any North American publication... and I urge you to spend the time on it. The headline reads "Korean Crisis Puts China in a Quandary"... and the link is here. The link to Part 2 is at the bottom of Part 1.

The second story from Roy Stephens looks at the North Korean situation from a slightly different perspective... and then ends with commentary about Israel's botched operation against a Turkish-flagged relief convoy transporting urgently needed supplied to the Gaza strip. This piece is also well worth your time. It's a UPI story... and the headline reads "Commentary: End of this world?"... and the link is here.

Here's a story from yesterday's edition of The Telegraph in London. I stole this from this morning's King Report... and the headline pretty much says it all... "The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is now turning into a catastrophe". I also noted [in a Bloomberg interview sent to me by Washington state reader, S.A.] that Matt Simmons is talking about the use of a deeply-buried nuclear device to seal the well permanently. The link to the story from The Telegraph is here.

Lastly today, is commentary from James Turk over at goldmoney.com. It's not overly long... and has a wonderful graph. The headline reads "Gold Hurdles to New Record Highs"... and the link to this must read piece is here.

There are no markets anymore... only interventions. - Chris Powell, GATA

I don't know about you, dear reader, but I'm getting the distinct impression that the entire world is about to float off the rails at any moment. Global events are running far ahead of any country's... or group of countries... ability to deal with them all.

Could it be the 'end of the world' as one of my story's today states? Maybe not... but it will certainly be the end of the world as we collectively know it now. Richard Russell said last month that the United States, as it exists today, will be "unrecognizable" by the end of 2010. I, for one, would not want to bet against him at this particular juncture.

I'm all in... but am I ready? Don't know.

I see that Casey Research has just published the June issue of their flagship publication, the International Speculator. The headline reads "Meltdown or Mania – Batten Down the Hatches". That's good solid advice, dear reader... and if you aren't a subscriber to this publication... I urge you to take the plunge. A subscription to this publication doesn't cost... it pays! You can check it out here. Don't forget that our 90-day money-back guarantee applies.

Gold, silver and the U.S. dollar aren't doing much as I write this final paragraph at 5:27 a.m. Eastern time. Volumes in both metals aren't overly heavy. The open interest in both gold and silver has dropped appreciably since last Tuesday's cut-off of Friday's COT report... so, technically, there's room to the upside as far as both gold and silver prices are concerned. But can it happen... or will it be allowed to happen? Don't know that either.

But whatever does happens, all we can do is sit and watch.

See you tomorrow.