Just Another Day Off the Calendar

Without going into a lot of detail, Thursday's action was almost a carbon copy of Wednesday's trading activity. Nothing happened in Far East and London... and gold's third attempt in a row to break through its 50-day moving average in New York trading, ran into the usual not-for-profit sellers. Nothing to see here, folks.

Silver's action on Thursday was no different than gold's... and the result was exactly the same.

From 3:00 a.m. yesterday morning until 5:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon, the world's reserve currency dropped a bit over 110 basis points... and nowhere in yesterday's price action in gold was there any sign of that.

While I'm on the subject of the U.S. dollar... here's the 6-month dollar graph. You'll note that from its high in early June, the dollar has fallen about 6.1 cents... which is a hair under 7%.

Here's the 6-month gold chart... and it certainly hasn't been tracking the dollar... as gold is down around 2.5% during the same period. This situation was certainly exacerbated by the big gold smack-down on July 1st... but if you see any serious co-relation between the dollar's and gold's price activity since early June, you've got better eyes than I have.

The gold stocks got smacked at the open along with the rest of the equity markets... and stayed down most of the day... almost getting back to unchanged with the rally at the end of the day. The HUI finished down 0.33%.

The CME's Daily Delivery Report showed that 31 gold and 8 silver contracts were posted for delivery on Monday. The link to the action, such as it was, is here. We're half way through July and there are still 715 silver contracts left to deliver in the July contract. I'll as the question once again... what are the issuers waiting for? The silver to deliver, perhaps? Just asking.

The GLD ETF showed a small drop of 19,557 ounces... and there was no change in SLV. The U.S. Mint reported selling 6,500 ounces into the gold eagle program... plus another 2,000 24-K gold buffaloes. The Comex-approved depositories showed another big decline in their silver inventories on Wednesday. This time it was 471,597 ounces... all of it from Brink's Inc.

Here's a story about the U.S. dollar's woes posted in The Telegraph late last night... and, of course, it's by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. The headline reads "Fed's volte face sends the dollar tumbling"... "Rarely before have a few coded words in the minutes of the US Federal Reserve caused such an upheaval in the global currency system, or such a sudden flight from the dollar." I also note that "quantative easing" is mentioned in this article. As I've said all along... it's either print, or die. I thank reader Roy Stephens for sending this story along... and the link to this worthwhile read is here.

I see that Goldman Sachs got slapped on the wrist for its conduct in collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages. The $550 million fine is 14 days earnings for the company... basically a slap on the wrist... and a license to continue doing what it has always done. I thank Washington state reader S.A. for sending the Bloomberg story headlined "Goldman Sachs to Pay $550 Million to Settle SEC Suit"... and the link is here.

Here's a gold-related story from the Wednesday edition of the Houston Chronicle that was sent to me by reader U.D. The headline reads "Higher education fund buys gold over economic worries". Fearing unstable international financial markets and the possibility of high inflation, Texas' higher education investment managers have bought more than $500 million in gold... and the link to the story is here.

Yesterday, reader Markus Ken Moriyama from Tokyo alerted me to the fact that Mitsubishi Corporation had announced that they were launching Japan's first Precious Metals ETF back on June 14th. About 12 hours later I received a Bloomberg story about this fund from Russian reader Alex Lvov headlined "Gold ETF Assets May Grow 8-Fold in Japan, Mitsubishi UFJ Says"... and the link to that story is here.

It appears that the new banking bill has now become law. I have a story about that from Washington state reader S.A. It's an article in yesterday's edition of The Wall Street Journal. But, because it's subscription protected, I'm posting the GATA release on it. The headline reads "How the CFTC got power in financial regulation bill"... and the link is here.

Now that Gensler has all this supposed power, it will be interesting to see what he does with it. What interests me the most is if he's prepared to move against the big U.S. bullion banks and their grotesque short positions in Comex silver and gold. We'll see.

Here's a very interesting essay that was brought to my attention by fellow GATA board member Catherine Austin Fitts yesterday. It's posted over at The American Conservative and bears the title "Inflating War: Central banking and militarism are intimately linked". Here are a couple of sentences to give you the flavour of this article... "As a general rule, the longer a war lasts, the more centrally planned and government-controlled the entire economy becomes. And it remains so to some degree after the war has ended. War is the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne famously declared, and the growth of the state means a decline in liberty and prosperity." The story is a bit of a read, but it's an education about wars and central banking in the United States over the centuries. I consider this a must read... and the link is here.

My last story today is another offering from reader Roy Stephens. This is a story about Iran that was posted in yesterday's English language edition of the German website spiegel.de. Everybody in the Far East wants Iran to get cut off at knees... and they've made no secret of that fact. This story goes a little deeper than that. I'm getting the distinct feeling that a military confrontation with Iran [vs. everyone else] is in the cards... and this story does nothing to change my mind. The headline reads "Persian Isolation: A Quiet Axis Forms Against Iran in the Middle East". It's not overly long... and it's definitely worth your time... and the link is here.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property - until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. - Thomas Jefferson, 1802

The last three days have shown attempts by both gold and silver to close about their respective 50-day moving averages. All three of these days has seen a not-for-profit seller waiting to squash every attempt. I have no idea [at least in the very short term] where prices will go from here.

The U.S. dollar certainly isn't a factor. The Commitment of Traders report shows that the July 1st sell-off in both metals really cleaned out a lot of the technical fund's margined long positions... so, from that perspective, everything looks pretty good. But it's impossible to tell what the U.S. bullion banks are going to do from day to day... and, let's face it, they're running this show at the moment.

However, it's summer... and volumes aren't that high... so it's pretty easy for 'the powers that be' to have their way with these markets... and they are.

Today's Commitment of Traders report will be released at 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, sharp... and if you're interested in what the report has to say, the link is here.

Not much is happened in Far East or early London trading earlier today. Gold took a bit of a nose-dive at the London open... and silver was off a few pennies. Volumes in both metals were very light once again.

I note that the July edition of Casey's Gold and Resource Report was published yesterday. It bears the interesting title of "Calling All Gold Virgins". I've already read this 13-page commentary... and just this one report is worth the entire one year US$39 subscription price. That's a bit over three whole dollars a month. If you're interested, you can read all about it... and the link is here.

I hope you have a great weekend, dear reader... and I'll see you right here on Saturday morning.