NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - Comex Option Expiry - Bazinga

Just another Comex option expiration.

There are two things that are fascinating at the moment.

The first is watching the declining inventory of registered gold at the Comex. Although keep in mind that there is a much larger store of eligible bullion there that could be switched to registered and available for sale at the right price.

And the second is the worldwide manhunt for Edward Snowden. It is fascinating, especially if you can watch it from some objective distance and see the propaganda campaign that goes with it.   Why is the great reformer possessed by an almost Nixonian desperation for secrecy?

Curiouser and curiouser.

The Search for Edward Snowden

The Daily Show Does the US Ratings Agencies

The Daily Show does the ratings agencies, CNBC, and the opera buffo of the financial markets.

The credibility trap doesn't explain everything, but it does cover quite a bit.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

Upton Sinclair

h/t Matt Taibbi

COMEX Registered Gold Inventory Drops to New Lows

Bullion offered as deliverable inventories at the COMEX has dropped to new lows.

As a reminder, tomorrow is option expiration for gold and silver.

This evening Harvey Organ notes that:

"Tonight, the Comex registered or dealer gold lowers in inventory to 1.359 million oz or 42.27 tonnes. This is still dangerously low. The total of all gold at the Comex rose sightly to 7.681 million oz or 238.9 tonnes of gold.

JPMorgan's customer inventory remains constant tonight at 141,197.86 oz or 4.39 tonnes. Its dealer inventory also remains constant at 408,709.033 oz but it still must settle upon contracts issued in the June delivery month which far exceeds its inventory.

The total of the three major gold bullion dealers (Scotia , HSBC and JPMorgan) in their  gold Comex dealer account registers only 27.76 tonnes of gold."

The Wall

"The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness."

Niels Bohr


"Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity."

John Dalberg Lord Acton