Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

The jobs number was SO bad this morning that they had to skip the traditional metals raid, and the bad news bears got stuffed on a quick reversal.

There was intraday commentary regarding a rather large redemption of London Good Delivery Bars from the Sprott Physical Gold Trust here.

Germany's gold, Comex gold, almost half the gold from the western ETFs, seems like quite a bit of gold bullion is making like Jimmy Hoffa, and disappearing these days.  Maybe we should start looking for Jimmy in China.

A fellow might start to think that there sure are a lot of meaningless coincidences going around this place.

Have a pleasant weekend.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Jobs Shock, the Walking Dead

The Jobs number sucked out loud this morning, as the economy added a meager 74,000 jobs, compared to an expected number of 197,000.    That's a swing and a miss.  Both hourly earnings and average workweek missed as well.  Today's box scores are included below.

The good news was that the unemployment percentage dropped hard from 7.0% to 6.7%.   Huzzah!  Stocks rally back, and the VIX plummets.

The fly in that holiday toddy is that they did it by whacking the denominator in the unemployment ratio, declaring about a half million or so able bodied workers to be the new walking dead.  (Hey, I was just kidding about liquidating people as the next move the other day.)

Capping that bit of cheer off, US retailers reported their worst holiday season since 2009.

Let's talk.

Stimulating the economy is not a bad idea when it is in shock from a financial crisis brought on as the result of massive systemic fraud and financial asset bubbles perpetrated by the financial system.   And yes, austerity has been proven wrong, again and again, and is the stuff of puritans and pigmen.

But stimulating the economy by giving more money directly to the same self-serving jokers that caused the problem in the first place, AND failing to correct the massive distortions in the economy that have been growing through horrible policy decisions over a period of years, is not exactly what Lord Keynes might have had in mind, ya think? 

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

Have a pleasant weekend.

Real News: Binney and Hedges On Obama's NSA Guidelines

I know this type of criticism about the current administration upsets a lot of disillusioned (and desperate) liberals who cling to Brand Obama, but at the end of the day, he is no progressive reformer.  He seems more like a moderate Republican, Herbert Hoover, with splash of Nixon.

Yes, he is 'better than' those Luddites and corporate crypto-fascists that scare you, but isn't that really the point? Negotiating away your freedom, bit by bit, out of fear?

NAV Premiums for Precious Metal Trusts and Funds - 83,890 Ounces Redeemed From Sprott Gold

Since the last time I had checked earlier this month there was a redemption of 10,072,357 shares for 83,890 ounces of gold bullion from the Sprott Physical Gold Trust.  That is about 210 London Good Delivery bars.

I have heard some rumours about who has been asking around for delivery, but in checking I do not see anything official from the fund, so why speculate.  But for a redemption of over $103 million, I doubt it is the eBay crowd shuffling up to the window, so it is probably one of the usual suspects, the inside outers, not the big morgue macher. 

But then again, the Morgue has been in an acquisitive mood, and some say it is standing on a corner.

Redemptions at Sprott Gold had been very unusual, until recently it seems. Apparently that is changing, as the scraping of the bottom of the bullion barrel proceeds.  No wonder the fiatscos are getting restless.

Yeah, there is no unusual demand for physical gold bullion in Asia. Nothing to see here, move along. 

At least Sprott runs a fully allocated ship.  If a 'run' on the unallocated pools of gold starts, this could really get interesting.  

Deleveraging in a short squeeze.  Could be some tough love, kitten.

There was no activity in the Sprott Silver Trust.  But the cash levels in the PSLV Trust have gotten back down to the levels where another secondary offering of expansion might be in the offing sometime this year.  That would be a big physical buy in another tight market.  It could help to provide a 'come-to-Jesus' moment, as some have suggested.

But as we know all too well, anything goes in times of general deceit, with frickin' lasers, and the Banks breaking bad.  So let's just see what happens.

From the Sprott website for PHYS.

Unitholders will have the ability, on a monthly basis to redeem their units for physical gold bullion for a redemption price equal to 100% of the NAV of the redeemed units, less redemption and delivery expenses, including:

•the handling of the notice of redemption
•the delivery of the physical bullion for units that are being redeemed (estimated at $5 per troy ounce at the time of the prospectus, Feb. 2010 for delivery anywhere within continental US and Canada)
•and the applicable gold storage in-and-out fees (minimum $50 plus $5 per each additional bar, at the time of the prospectus).

Redemption requests must be for amounts that are at least equivalent to the value of one London Good Delivery bar or an integral multiple thereof, plus applicable expenses. A ''London Good Delivery bar'' weighs between 350 and 430 troy ounces (generally, most bars weigh between 390 and 410 troy ounces).