From the first paragraph of my Saturday commentary…”I don’t know what it is about that [one hour and change] stretch of time between the Sydney close and the London open…but if there is going to be a down day…it starts right there a large percentage of the time.” Any questions? Actually, both gold and silver got sold off the moment that the New York bullion banks opened for business 6:00 p.m. on Sunday night…which is very early Monday morning in Far East trading. Shortly before 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, gold had almost made it back to unchanged…and silver was actually up a couple of cents when the hammer fell. The bottom for gold came very shortly after the London a.m. gold fix at 5:30 New York time…and in silver, shortly after the Comex open. The ‘rally’ in the US dollar that started at the same time as the precious

It was another stellar day for all the precious metals yesterday…gold, silver platinum and palladium. Gold was up a hair over two percent…and the other three metals were up four percent plus.

Gold rose almost from the Globex open at the start of Friday morning trading in the Far East…and really moved to the upside the moment that Sydney closed for the weekend. From there, it rose steadily through London and the Comex open…with the peak price coming at the 4:00 p.m. London close…11:00 a.m. in New York. However, gold managed to close very close to its highs of the day [for a gain of almost $20] by the time electronic trading on the Globex system was over at 5:15 p.m. late Friday afternoon. The usual N.Y. commentator added this…”Aggregate estimated volume was only 100,104 lots and less than 25,000 contracts traded in the last three hours.”

However, the star performer was

The top gold price in Hong Kong on Friday was at 4:00 p.m. in their afternoon…which was 8:00 a.m. in London…and 3:00 a.m. in New York. As soon as London opened, gold began drifting slightly lower. 

Once London was closed for the weekend…4 p.m. London/11:00 a.m. New York…the gold price rose a bit and nearly finished on its high of the day. It was a hugely bullish performance occurring as it did on Comex option expiry. The Comex floor session close was up $7.50 on an estimated volume of 77,210 contracts…including a switch effect of 4,878.

Silver did practically nothing…and spent most of Friday within a dime of its Thursday close.

But having said that, the shares turned in a one of their best days of the last year or so. Both silver and gold shares sparkled…with the HUI up 6.94%! That’s a lot considering that Friday’s price action was almost not worth

Pack a lunch and blow the froth off a cool one…as I’ve got three days of gold and silver market activities to talk about…and lots of fascinating reading as well.

Wednesday, November 26th

This was the last day for all parties to get their gold and silver contracts switched to the 2009 year…or they would have to stand for delivery on Friday. With the U.S. in holiday mode almost from the beginning of trading, the tiny rally at the Comex open was stepped on and never recovered. But it hardly mattered…as volume was virtually non-existent. Silver was the same. Call the day a big zero. However, the shares reacted otherwise. Even though gold was down ten bucks at the close of the equity markets, the HUI still managed a surprising 6% increase…the second day in a row that gold has been flat or down…and the HUI up. Hmmm!

Open interest on Tuesday showed