SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Quad Witching Expiry Tomorrow

"Every century is like every other, and to those who live in it seems worse than all times before it... thus much of comfort do we gain from what has been hitherto, not to despond, not to be dismayed, not to be anxious, at the troubles which encompass us. They have ever been; they ever shall be; they are our portion."

John H. Newman

All the gains from yesterday were swept aside.

In a very real sense, I believe that yesterday was a wash and rinse setup for today ahead of the quad witching expiration in stocks tomorrow.

The economic news this morning continued to be dour.

Have a pleasant evening.

NAV Premiums of Precious Metals Funds and Trusts - Quad Witching Expiry Tomorrow

It appears that the Central Gold Trust, Sprott Gold and Sprott Silver have all sold some bullion to return their cash assets back into the black.

The only one that did not have to sell was the Central Fund. Although it has the currently worst discount to NAV, as it generally does, it now has one of the better cash to expense positions perhaps of these.

Weathering the storm and all that.

Darth Trump

And here is where The Donald got his public speaking mannerisms.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Gold and Silver Rally Back From Antic Lows

And so the Fed raised rates, in the manner in which you would have expected if you frequent this site.

We are not quite out of the woods yet since the markets are certainly not transparent and efficient by any means, and this Friday is a quad witch. While it does not directly involve the metals at The Bucket Shop, it certainly has plenty of intermarket connections through the miners and the ETFs.

There was another handoff of gold from the house account of HSBC to the house account of JPM.

I suspect at some point if we get some customer who is willing to stand for delivery, JPM is the designated stopper.

The other day I read a fairly contrived comparison of the Comex Hong Kong to The Bucket Shop that was so twisted out of meaning as to be almost grotesque

To elaborate, as you may notice I often include the 'loco Hong Kong' Comex licensed warehouses in the gold reports each day, of which at this time Brinks is the only one of note.  

And as you may have further noticed, there is no 'registered' category for the gold bullion there, and large quantities of it tend to get taken out of the warehouse(s) on a fairly regular basis.  So obviously comparisons of the 'leverage' feature, or potential claims per ounce at a given price from The Bucket Shop is meaningless.

The reason why is that the Comex Hong Kong, such as it is, is not really in practice a paper market dealing in synthetic gold that fluffs around between players, rarely going anywhere.  Rather, it is significantly an 'over-the-counter' market in which, and such a thing is hard to believe these days, customers actually BUY gold and take it out of the warehouse to be used in some manner other than for wagering.

I am wondering if Harriet H., the Ex-Executive Director of the Comex who just took a permanent and unexpected departure from her position, had set this one up, much to the chagrin of the synthetic gold crowd.  It certainly does most thing in quite the opposite manner from New York.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Obvious

If Yellen had written a personal email to everyone in the markets I do not think what the Fed did today could have been more obvious.

The 'big tickle' was supposed to be the use of the word 'gradual' rather than 'measured.'

If the economic data and the dovishness of the Fed did not make that form for this current 'policy tightening cycle' completely obvious one can only wonder what it would take.

Let's see how the wiseguys, having dissembled their way to mid-week, can figure out new ways to skin the naive and the trading tourists.

Have a pleasant evening.