"Those entrapped by the herd instinct are drowned in the deluges of history. But there are always the few who observe, reason, and take precautions, and thus escape the flood.
For these few gold has been the asset of last resort."
Antony C. Sutton
"Like liberty, gold never stays where it is undervalued."
J. S. Morrill
Gold and silver were being capped most of the day on rather light volumes.
The CME inventory report for yesterday shows JPM was again the reaper for the bullion banks, bringing in 32,150 ounces of gold bullion to customer storage. It appears that 1 bar each left the customer vaults of HSBC and Scotia Mocatta. There was no change to the deliverable category.
As a reminder, next Monday the 28th is an expiration for November options on the Comex. November is not a particularly big month for the gold and silver futures.
The mining stocks were hit today along with a general pullback in equities. That often concerns those who watch them because it can signal a bear raid in the metals, with wiseguys positioning in related markets ahead of the hit. But let's see what happens.
There seems to be a seasonal manipulation in gold and silver during December, most likely tied into year end shenanigans perhaps. You can read prior articles about this here.
If they do that sort of thing again this year, I think they might be setting themselves up for a difficult first quarter with regard to available physical supply for delivery. It seems that the wiseguys will hit the wall again, taking it just a bit too far in short term greed, but one can always hope that wiser heads might prevail. If they do something and it doesn't break, the immature tend to double down and do it again. And again. And then it ends, badly.
Despite the antics, the structure of the physical gold bullion holdings in the US markets looks a bit stretched on the downside. I am growing ever more persuaded that higher prices will be required to bring more metal to meet market delivery demands. But since there has been a massive drawdown in the ETFs in the face of unrelenting demand for physical gold out of Asia, it could be a good trick.
Better that they start earlier rather than later. An exchange failure is not a desirable event. And if a major scandal hits the Fed, it could not come at a worse time for them since they will be facing a massive confidence game next year with regard to tapering.
Gold is flowing from West to East. This is something that obtain very little recognition in the mainstream media, and certainly not on from the financial media spokesmodels who appear as though they would be quite comfortable serving as the jaded but carefree hosts and hostesses for The Hunger Games.
As for me, I am ready for a perfect Manhattan, up with a twist. It's been a rather long week already. As Chekhov once said, "Any fool can face a crisis; it's the day to day living that wears you out."
Have a pleasant evening.
