COMEX Registered Gold Falls To Another New Low Ahead of Option Expiration and August Delivery

Registered gold on the COMEX falls to another new low for this bull market, to below 30 tonnes.

I enjoyed the perspective Harvey Organ put on it this evening.

"Tonight, the Comex registered or dealer inventory of gold lowers again and remaining below the 1 million oz mark to 950,441.152 oz or 29.56 tonnes.

This is dangerously low especially when we are coming up to the August delivery month.  Remember in June we had almost 31 tonnes of gold stand for delivery."

Perhaps I am missing something but one has to wonder what goes through someone's mind who is short into a market structure such as this, wherein the ability to deliver into demand appears to be increasingly impractical. Do they think that they are operating on insider information? Are they?

Or is this just another example of reckless disregard, fostered by large bonuses playing with other people's money?

If gold starts to run, the ensuing rush to the exits could be rather impressive.

Nick of Sharelynx.com does a rough calculation of the open interest/registered or dealer's gold. The number of owners per ounce is up to a bull market high of 46 claims for every ounce registered as deliverable.  There is a chart of this below.

Granted that this is not a realistic expectation, that everyone would stand for delivery, but it is an interesting metric that shows the relative balance between paper claims and physical reality.  No wonder the Gold Forwards have been negative for the past nine days. 

Let's see what happens. Confidence in the US commodities business has been racked by scandal after scandal, from price fixing to the theft of customer accounts. Little enough effort seems to have been made to reform it, to make it more transparent and efficient in price discovery.  The attitude seems to be that if you don't trust the markets, so what?

I am not saying that they will not be able to finesse their way through August.  There are plenty of ways to do it, higher prices being the text book example.  But one has to wonder how long they can keep this up, especially if the storms in the currency markets start blowing come November.

Stand and deliver.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - The Gold Yuan Peg - Detroit Files For Bankruptcy

Intraday commentary on the reported desire of China to back the yuan with gold here.

I have not heard anything about this in the US media yet.  How remarkable.  Not.

After the bell the city of Detroit, Michigan filed for bankruptcy.  There are a few more cards like this ready to fall.  Main street is suffering while Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue are coming up roses.   And what's trickling down is not prosperity.

Europe and Asia should have no fear. Jack Lew, US Treasury Secretary, informs us on his way to the G20 finance ministers meeting in Moscow that he has the answers for them on how to fix their economies, as the US has already fixed theirs.   He is coming over on the Hubris Express.

Next week is an option expiration on the COMEX for gold and silver on the 25th.

The week after the August gold contracts start coming home to roost.

I see where 'the good bank,' that paragon of natural market rationality and efficiency, JPM Chase, is about to pay another massive settlement, this time for rigging the energy markets, in the manner of Enron according to Matt Taibbi.   I hear it implicates Blythe Masters who is recently risen to their office of regulatory compliance.

Where is that silver market manipulation study that has been five years in the making anyway? 

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Marked Divergence - Welcome to Hooverville

Even Ben's second day of testimony could not shake the equity markets out of their dog days lull.

Philly Fed came in better than expected as did unemployment claims.

There was a marked divergence as the SP 500 finished higher while the tech heavy NDX dropped almost 30 points.

Things are looking so good that Jack Lew, the new US Treasury Secretary, during an interview on his way to the G20 finance ministers meeting in Moscow, shared his plans to tell the Europeans and Asians how to fix their economic problems by following the US example. China must reform, and Europe must stimulate growth.

GOOG and Microsoft both missed after the bell and the tech sector is slumping in sympathy.  

The City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy.  There are more cities and states that will not be far behind.

But Jack Lew is quite convinced the worst is over, and that the field is won.    Welcome to Hooverville.

China Reported Planning To Back the Yuan With Gold

This is an interesting article for several reasons, not the least of which is that it is from a Russian publication and perspective, reflecting on the possible actions of China in the evolution of the global reserve currency regime.

As you know Russia is promoting a rethinking of the post Bretton Woods monetary system through their chairmanship of the G20 this year.   There are other shoes to drop yet from that.

I suspect that China is playing chess here, or perhaps more appropriately the game of 'Go,' and not checkers. So snap judgements about what they are doing and why they are doing it are probably going to be fairly shallow.  Most professionals and so-called experts are blinded by the status quo, lost in their own jargon and assumptions.  There are many mechanics, but fewer systems thinkers. 

Every action that is public masks a myriad of moves and countermoves done off the board and in quiet.  Most who comment fail to grasp this because of cultural predilections.

Thoughts about capitalists selling rope do come to mind among other things relative to the short term and self-serving, stupidly greedy nature of the markets these days.  But to borrow a phrase, economic power grows out of the barrel of a gun.  It can call most hands.

Among other things the price discovery mechanism for gold currently resides with the Anglo-American financial establishment, which has been fairly shameless of late in shoving prices around the plate using paper leverage, and fixing key prices at will whether they reflect reality or not.   That will have to be addressed.  And I suspect it is well underway.

The terms of 'redeemability,' if any, are obviously of paramount importance in such a value reference to gold, as well as currency markets that are notorious for predatory practices, whether one wishes to acknowledge the rigging or not.

I am giving this more thought and will have other things to say about it in the future.  But these are undeniably interesting times.

China reportedly planning to back the yuan with gold
July 17, 2013 special to RBTH Asia Pacific

Recent media reports suggest that Beijing is considering backing the yuan with gold. This decision, if taken, will likely affect China's economy and may trigger a new wave of the global economic crisis. For Russia, however, such a scenario may have its benefits.

According to media reports of early July, the People's Bank of China is mulling the possibility of phasing out the dollar as the reference currency for the yuan exchange rate, and to start using gold as the reference point.

The reports have not been confirmed officially, but analysts are warning that the step, if taken, will weaken the yuan and destabilise China's already troubled economy, ultimately provoking a new bout of the economic crisis worldwide.

Beijing's possible move to back the yuan with gold would not be meant as a strategic measure to strengthen the national currency and increase its attractiveness as an investment medium. Rather, it would be a flaunt aimed at demonstrating to the world (and to the USA in particular) that China is capable of taking the risks associated with a departure from the dollar standard. Experts warn however that, apart from benefiting no-one, such a decision may actually have catastrophic consequences.

Separating the yuan exchange rate from the US dollar may further weaken the American currency in the long run; in addition, China's monetary policy would become very much restricted, believes Evgeny Nadorshin, chief economist at AFK Sistema.

"The yuan will start fluctuating severely against the dollar and other major reserve currencies. This will affect the Chinese economy, which currently has serious problems as it is: the export revenues are falling, and the statistics for freight traffic and electricity consumption indicate a significant slowdown in business activity," says Aleksandr Golovtsov, head of the research department at UralSib Asset Management.

Given the current economic recession in China, backing the yuan with gold may further worsen the situation. In essence, China is running the risk of launching a new wave of the global economic crisis, experts concur...

Read the rest of the article here.