"Everybody Knows U.S. Gold Is Leased & Shorted"

The sharp rise in gold and silver prices in Far East and early, ran out of gas pretty quick. By 9:00 a.m. in London, the gold price had flattened out and stayed that way until the London p.m. fix was in at 3:00 p.m. local time [10:00 a.m. in New York].

In the next half hour, gold tacked on a quick four bucks... but at precisely 10:30 a.m. in New York, someone showed up to sell the price down to its [N.Y.] low of the day at $1,110.80 spot. This is exactly what happened at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday as well. Check the chart below.

Once the seller disappeared, gold recovered most of that loss and closed near its high of the day.

The silver price mirrored gold yesterday... with the big difference being the severity of the 10:30 a.m. New York sell off.

For the second day in a row [starting at 10:30 a.m. in N.Y.], silver got smacked out of all proportion to the gold price. The silver chart shows in even more graphic detail, the intervention in the precious metals prices that occurred at that time.

Of course the silver price recovered somewhat and finished up on the day, but one wonders how high it might have risen if JPMorgan hadn't shown up. They also hit the platinum price at the same time as well... but left the palladium price untouched.

Of course the HUI fell in 'sympathy'... starting at precisely 10:30 a.m. as well... with no time lag whatsoever. Does this look suspicious to you...
As for Tuesday's open interest... gold o.i. went one way and silver the other.

Gold open interest rose 4,558 contracts on pretty chunky volume of 175,589 contracts. Total open interest is now up to 526,176 contracts. But silver's open interest took a tumble on Tuesday... falling 3,966 contracts on pretty big volume of 51,080 contracts. Total silver o.i. is now down to 136,309 contracts. Tuesday was the cut-off for tomorrow's Commitment of Traders report... and hopefully all this data will be in it.

Yesterday, the CME reported that 102 gold contracts are to be delivered tomorrow. That's the biggest delivery yet for the month of November... a whole 10,200 ounces worth. December will be much different. There were no changes reported by either the GLD or SLV ETFs... and nothing from the U.S. Mint either.

However, over at the Comex-approved depositories, they reported that a pretty substantial 945,355 troy ounces of silver were withdrawn.

The usual New York commentator had two reports on yesterday's activity, and the first one was filed at 10:40 a.m. Eastern time... "India was an importer today. The rupee was strong... closing up 0.5%. Combined with the big move in world gold, this must have made price discovery by the Indian dealers difficult. But from a global point of view, there is no sign of the biggest gold buyer being evicted from bidding the world market.

Horrible news for the Bears."

Vietnam local gold stood at a $57.50 premium to world gold of $1,106.30 [Tuesday $59.37/$1,102]. Subsequently, apparently, the Vietnam gold market went totally berserk and many dealers stopped selling the metal." [Read the details in this must read story posted at vietnamnet.vn headlined "A crazy day for the gold market"
"In the afternoon, the Vietnamese Central Bank announced announced that legal imports of gold, banned since last May, would once again be permitted."

"Although Vietnamese premiums will now, of course, collapse... this is positive news for gold's friends generally, as it means that the unquestionable appetite for gold in Vietnam will more effectively make itself felt in the world market."

"Somewhat surprisingly, liquidation by the 'general public' on the TOCOM slowed sharply: their long slipped only 0.27 tonnes [1%]. This is interesting because the TOCOM public is quite shrewd in its trading."

"A particularly astute London analyst points out this morning that open interest in the $1,200 December call has risen substantially since late September. There is the view that such a development has a magnetic effect."

"Today, of course, world gold has continued the climb seen in the aftermarket yesterday, with a major acceleration when Europe opened and, apparently, right now. Estimated volume by 9AM was a very heavy 86,852 lots."

"If this goes on, maybe the gold shares will go up."

His second commentary:

"If a profit-motivated short seller was present, Wednesday was not a happy experience: gold surged in Tuesday's aftermarket and never subsequently returned. Even a neat intraday $7 sell-off between 10:30 and 11AM NY time was totally reversed, and December gold closed up $16.20. Estimated volume was high: 165,287 lots."

"However, the actual intraday NY experience was anomalous. At the close, spot gold was actually about $1 below the open."

"Gold shares were extremely mutinous. The HUI closed up only 0.76% and the XAU up 0.57% having been up 2.6% and 2.4% at their highs. This was despite gold having added another $3 or so by the stock market close. Even at the Comex close, gold was up 1.1%"

"Market conditions in Vietnam [Thursday morning] were, of course, turbulent. Reuters reported that afternoon gold stood at a $30.04 premium to world gold of $1,116.90 [Tuesday $57.50/$1,106.30]."

With the afternoon premium north of $30... it doesn't look like premiums have collapsed... at least not yet.

Almaden Minerals