All was calm in Far East trading on Friday morning. Both metals began to slip a little starting at 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon in Hong Kong. This lasted through London trading as well…and by the time the Comex opened, gold was down $10 and silver had slid about 23 cents. But once trading started in New York, both gold and silver rallied strongly…but it should be noted that gold ‘ran out of gas’ just before $940 once again. However, silver did better…adding a bit over 30 cents before it, too, ran into ‘resistance’…but managed to close almost on its high of the day.

There wasn’t big volume yesterday, so not too much should be read into this action…but it’s always noteworthy so see that parabolic rises in prices are never allowed to get too far out of hand before the usual ‘not for profit’ sellers show up.

Despite the fact that

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

As I mentioned in my closing comments yesterday, gold hadn’t done much in Far East trading and early London trading…but I also mentioned that this would change as the day wore on in London…and certainly once the Comex opened. Well…I was right about that…unfortunately.

The jobs numbers hit the tape at 8:30 a.m. in New York and the U.S.$ headed south and the precious metals headed north…for about five minutes. Then it was obvious that the President’s Working Group gave the order and the dollar went straight up…and gold and silver went straight down. Nothing free-market about that. From the lows at the London p.m. gold fix, gold and silver made rally attempts…but both got squashed…and were bashed further in electronic trading once the floor trading session was over. The Kitco gold chart tells all.

Open interest numbers for Thursday’s big rally were no

Friday morning trading in gold in the Far East started like every day over there lately…heading lower.

Of course all this ended abruptly at 3:00 a.m. New York time…and about half an hour before the London open. But shortly after London opened, someone put up the sign that said ‘that’s it for the day’…and except for a $4 rise over the next 14 hours of trading…it was. Silver was similar.

However, I guess we should be thankful for small mercies…at least the ‘key reversal to the upside’ I spoke of yesterday managed to bear fruit. But despite gold’s gain of about $28 on the week, the shares actually finished down about one percent. Maybe next week will be better…although the RSIs for both metals are quickly approaching what some people might consider as being overbought.

Below is