Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Ol' Man River

Ol' Man River, that Ol' Man River
He must know somethin' but he don't say nothin'
He just keeps rollin', he keeps on rollin' along.

Just like gold, which keeps rolling along, from West to East.

South African headquartered multinational mining company Anglo-American was taken out and beaten with an ugly stick in London on the news that they were suspending the dividend and laying off about 85,000 workers.

Anglo is a member of the FTSE 100. They are one of the world's largest producer of platinum, and a major producer of diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore and metallurgical and thermal coal.

So much for commodities that support the real economies of the world.

Gold held its value rather nicely, with silver given up just a few cents.

And surprise, there was an actual delivery of gold at The Bucket Shop yesterday, even though it was primarily a 'house to house' delivery of gold from GLD custodian HSBC to metals hump JPM.  Let's see if JPM is the big stopper as they were in the last active month, should anyone decide to try to take delivery of something in size.

There was nothing done in silver delivery which is a bit of a change of pace.

As for the warehouses, there was the customary slow leakage in both gold and silver.

In other words, the usual nonsense.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - It's a Small World After All

US stocks slumped hard this morning on the overnight news which was posted here that the Chinese import/export figures for November were simply awful.

If Chinese exports were down sharply, what does that say about US domestic demand and likely retail sales?

Let's see if the US can strike a trend here ahead of the big events of next week.

Have a pleasant evening.

NAV Premiums of Certain Precious Metal Trusts and Funds

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Waiting

"Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.'

When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Joshua Speed, 1855


"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever."

Thomas Jefferson


"When he says peace, he means war, and when he blasphemously uses the name of the Almighty, he means the power of evil, the fallen angel, Satan. His mouth is the foul maw of Hell, and his power is at bottom accursed. True, we must conduct a struggle against the Nazi terrorist state with rational means; but whoever today still doubts the reality, the existence of demonic powers, has failed by a wide margin to understand the metaphysical background of this struggle."

The White Rose, Fourth Leaflet, Munich 1942

Hysteria, like drugs and alcohol, is a way to escape the pain of thought.   Extremism and hatred have their attractions, as they carry the heady scent of power, especially in times of change and trouble.

And for some simple and innocent ones who may fall prey to sick and unscrupulous people, that attraction may prove to be fatally irresistible.   Because all too often, the attraction is to follow them into the abyss.

Gold and silver gave back a little of their gains from last week in lethargic trade.

There was very little delivery activity at The Bucket Shop.

Nova Scotia delivered 4,300 ounces of gold from their house account to the house of JP Morgan.  This brings the monthly gold total to an underwhelming 9,100 ounces.

A pittance of silver was tossed about.

The dollar gained back a little more of what it lost last week.

Let's see if gold and silver can do something more interesting than just roll over in the face of synthetic paper selling amongst the punters in London and New York.

Next week will be much more interesting with the FOMC meeting followed by the December stock option expiration.

I think the Fed is going to raise 50 basis points in two steps and then wait to see how the real economic numbers are coming in next year.

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Eyes Forward

US equities were lackluster in light trading.

Eye are focused largely to the near future, with the FOMC meeting December 15-16, the significant stock options expiration on December 18th, and of course, the traditional 'Santa Claus' rally into year end.

Consumer Credit came in light today.

Have a pleasant evening.

China Understands the Gold Bullion Game - Lars Schall and Koos Jansen

Here is a new interview from Zurich's Lars Schall with Koos Jansen, discussing the Chinese gold market and the patterns of People's Bank of China purchasing for their reserves, both disclosed and otherwise.

You may find a complete transcript of this interview from Lars Schall's site at China Playing the Gold Game Carefully.

The gold bullion game is much broader and more politically charged than most commodity markets, since it cuts into the push and pull between nations and groups of nations and very powerful private groups that seek to use money for their own purposes of power.

Contrary to the very clumsy public relations campaign, gold is hardly a 'pet rock' or something about which the central banks never think.

Related:
Silk Road Gold Demand Taking All New Mine Production and More - A Game of Consquences
Koos Jansen: Renminbi Internationalization and China's Gold Strategy