Gold added about five bucks to its price from the time that trading began in the Far East Thursday…and the London a.m. gold fix. Then from there, it gave back seven dollars going into the p.m. gold fix…and after that, it gained over eight dollars until half past lunchtime in New York. Then a really serious seller showed up taking nine bucks off the price between then and the close of electronic trading in New York. It was pretty choppy trading all around…and it was obvious that every rally ran into serious resistance. The same could be said for silver. But according to the usual New York gold commentator [who is not Dennis Gartman, by the way], volume in gold was heavy…estimated at 140,658 contracts…”which involved a 21.6% surge in the last half-hour. The presence of such determined buyers and sellers during the floor session is unusual.”

Wednesday’s open interest in

Gold declined gently throughout Far East and early European trading on Tuesday…and by shortly after lunchtime in London…had given up around four bucks. From there, a smallish rally developed that made an attempt to continue rallying on the Comex, but got cut off at the knees [at its high of the day] shortly after 9:10 a.m. Eastern time. This decline lasted until 1:15 p.m. in New York…and by the time electronic trading ended at 5:15 p.m. yesterday afternoon…gold was back to virtually unchanged from Monday’s close. Silver didn’t do much. It lost a dime in choppy trading.

I mentioned yesterday that the open interest decline on Friday [in that short-covering rally] would have been somewhat offset by the big rally that we had on Monday. Well, I was only partially right. Open interest for Monday’s big day showed a staggering increase…up 12,999 contracts to 393,536…on big volume of 139,361 contracts. Friday’s

Gold managed to add about three bucks to its price from the beginning of Wednesday morning trading in the Far East…right up until 1:00 p.m. in the London afternoon…which was 8:00 a.m. in New York. At that point, gold tacked on $8 in less than 30 minutes…sat there until lunchtime…then tacked on another $8 in less than 15 minutes. Then one of the usual not-for-profit sellers showed up and that was it for the day. Gold did manage to poke its nose above $940 again…and finally closed above the $940 mark at $940.30.

Does this price have any significance? Who knows, but I can easily tell that ‘da boyz’ have been defending this price with great enthusiasm since June 15th…as the daily market action has been so obvious lately…confirmed by the graph below.

Silver didn’t show up for this party, but

Gold gained about $8 in the first eight hour of trading in the Far East yesterday morning. The top came shortly after 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong…and between that time, and the Comex open, gold gave half of that gain back. Then we were treated to that [by now] familiar chart pattern…with the worst damage occurring once the London p.m. gold fix was in at 10:00 a.m. New York time. Between its high in Hong Kong and its low in New York…gold got hit for around $23. Silver’s flight path was similar to gold’s…with the high at the same Hong Kong time as gold. However, the real sell-off in silver didn’t begin until the London p.m. gold fix at 10:00 a.m. New York time [3:00 p.m. in London]. From that point, silver ‘lost’ about 48 cents in an hour…to go along with the 21 cents it lost between its Hong

Gold price action on Monday looked similar to Friday’s. The bottom for gold in the Far East came shortly after 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong…rose until shortly after London opened, declined a couple of bucks…but once the London a.m. gold fix was in [10:30 a.m. in London...5:30 a.m. in New York], gold rose to its high of the day shortly after 11:00 a.m. This high [once again over $940] lasted until 9:00 a.m. in New York, shortly after the Comex opened…then it got taken down eight bucks to its low of the day at 10:00 a.m. in New York…which just happens to be the London p.m. fix…3:00 p.m. over there.

From that point it rose right into the Comex close…and was taken down and closed below $940 once again in the electronic market.

Silver’s chart pattern was virtually identical to gold’s.

Everything was swell in gold and silver when I went to bed early on Friday morning. I was hoping that when I got up four hours later, that both metals would be much higher in New York trading. They were…until 8:40 a.m…and that was that. From there, gold and silver basically closed on their lows of the day. And for whatever reason, gold was not allowed to close above $940 again. That’s the third day in a row. Silver however, closed above $14 by a magnificent seven cents!

From the start of the trading day on Friday morning in the Far East…and until noon in New York…the dollar lost about 70 basis points. And from the start of precious metals trading in the Far East, gold and silver basically rose as the dollar fell. That relationship ended almost as soon as the New York bullion banks showed up for work.

The lousy

Everything was swell in gold and silver when I went to bed early on Friday morning. I was hoping that when I got up four hours later, that both metals would be much higher in New York trading. They were…until 8:40 a.m…and that was that. From there, gold and silver basically closed on their lows of the day. And for whatever reason, gold was not allowed to close above $940 again. That’s the third day in a row. Silver however, closed above $14 by a magnificent seven cents!

From the start of the trading day on Friday morning in the Far East…and until noon in New York…the dollar lost about 70 basis points. And from the start of precious metals trading in the Far East, gold and silver basically rose as the dollar fell. That relationship ended almost as soon as the New York bullion banks showed up for work.

The lousy

In early Tuesday trading in the Far East, gold didn’t do much of anything until shortly before 11:00 a.m. in the morning in Hong Kong. From that point, gold got sold off about $8 in an hour. Not a lot, but a pretty big move for the usually quiet Far East market. As it turned out, that was the low for world gold for the day. A quick retest of that price at 3:00 p.m. in Hong Kong…and gold was on its way higher…and the US$ much lower. This lasted through London trading, but ran into the usual brick wall at the Comex open in New York. Once the London p.m. gold fix was in at 3:00 p.m. [10:00 a.m. in New York]…down went the price.

This didn’t last long, and minutes before London closed for the day, a rally began that lasted almost until the end of Comex trading…and

Both gold and silver rose and fell together in fits and starts all through Far East and early London trading on Wednesday. Both metals went vertical the moment [or very shortly after] the London silver fix at 12:00 noon in London…7:00 a.m. in New York. Someone obviously didn’t like that, and both metals were under serious selling pressure immediately.

This continued through the Comex open…with the bottom coming at the close of London trading at 4:00 p.m. in their afternoon…11:00 a.m. in New York. Both metals rallied a bit after that, but both finished a bit below their Tuesday closes at the end of electronic trading at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon. Both metals put in what [in technical terms] is called in a ‘key reversal to the downside’. This is not normally a positive development.

Open interest changes for Tuesday’s trading were as follows. Gold o.i. finally fell…this time by 7,719

Both gold and silver hit their high prices of the day during early trading in the Far East on Monday morning. Then, starting about 1:00 p.m. in Hong Kong, both gold and silver began to head south…and by the time I hit the sack shortly after the London open, gold was down about $7 and silver was down about 40 cents. I had visions of a total blow-out when I woke up yesterday morning, but was pleasantly surprised to find the worst was already past. The lows for both gold and silver were at the London p.m. gold fix…10:00 a.m. in New York. After that, gold managed to gain about $5…and silver was steady into the end of Globex trading in New York at 5:15 p.m. on Monday afternoon.

Gold open interest changes in Friday’s huge down day were not a surprise. Gold o.i. fell a steep 9,739 contracts to 391,960…on