Gold didn’t do much on Wednesday. It rallied a bit in the Far East and got sold off mid-morning in London. The low of the day [such as it was] came at the London p.m. gold fix at 10:00 a.m. Eastern time. The subsequent rally got capped shortly after the price punctured $890…and then proceeded to get sold off [on big volume] right into the Globex close at 5:15 in New York. Total estimated volume was 87,493 contracts…with a switch effect of 5,876.

Silver was similar. A vertical spike at 8:30 a.m. in New York got squashed…and the low of the day was also at the London p.m. gold fix. And, like gold, the subsequent rally got capped at 1:00 p.m. Eastern before getting sold off to almost unchanged. Nothing to see here folks…please move along.

Open interest changes for Tuesday’s Comex trading showed an increase of 1,653 contracts in gold o.i….now

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Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (

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As I write this on Friday morning, there is scuttlebutt that several central banks could announce rate cuts on Monday morning. Though the rumors are unconfirmed, fed fund futures are pricing in a significantly higher probability of a half-point cut occurring at the late-October meeting.

Alcoa (AA) will "officially" kick off earnings season when it reports on Tuesday afternoon. The aluminum maker is expected to announce profits of 60 cents per share.

Joining AA throughout the week will be fellow S&P 500 members: Costco (COST), Chevron (CVX), General Electric (GE), Host Hotel & Resorts (HST), Monsanto (MON), Progressive (PGR), Safeway (SWY) and Yum! Brands (YUM).

The minutes from the September Fed meeting will be released on Tuesday afternoon. If a rate cut is announced on Monday morning, the significance of these minutes would be reduced. Nonetheless, the notes will be

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