When I finally fired off yesterday’s commentary (to my editor) in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, I must admit that I wasn’t overly optimistic about what I would find when I turned my computer on after a few hours of shut-eye. I was expecting the worst…but got something entirely different.

Gold bounced off its lows of Tuesday a couple of times during London trading, but starting at lunchtime in London, and continuing right until the London close at 3:00 p.m. (10:00 a.m. in N.Y.)…gold managed to inch its way higher. Once London was done for the day, it wasn’t too long before the gold price made a spirited rally on the Comex in New York, and turned what could have been a very ugly day into a surprise to the upside.

Silver put in an even more powerful rally…with the bottom being in at 9:00 a.m. in London trading…and from there

Just like Friday morning, gold blasted out of the starting gate as soon as Globex trading began in the Far East on Monday morning. And just like Friday morning, this price spike ran into a wall of selling that went on for about four hours. Then there was a respite until 3:00 a.m. New York time when another wave of selling commenced that lasted right through London…and until the Comex open. Then the dealers (mostly JPMorgan, I would think) pulled their bids for the third and last time…and the price of gold cratered another $10…for the third and last time. Silver really got it in the neck on the Comex open. There was nothing free market about this…this was the Gold Cartel…pure and simple. The US$ didn’t even start to rise until after all the damage was done, so you can’t blame it on that.

It was encouraging to see both

Both gold and silver shot up about an hour or so after the Sydney open, only to be smacked into submission very shortly after Hong Kong opened…and that was basically it for the day in both metals. Every rally attempt in gold that got anywhere near $850 got sold…and silver drifted down to around $10.75 before recovering a bit towards the close.

Volume was paper thin yesterday, so it wasn’t difficult for anyone who wanted to, to bend the metal prices to their will. I expect this trading pattern to continue for the balance of the year as the Western world (such as it is) heads into the holiday season. So, unless something totally unexpected appears out of left field over the next two weeks, I don’t expect most markets (including the precious metals) to be any more exciting than watching paint dry.

Open interest in Friday’s trading was as follows…gold o.i.

As per usual lately, there was little action in gold in Far East trading on Friday. The ‘top’…such as it was…was at the London a.m. fix. From there, it was downhill all the way…with the real damage coming on the Comex open…again, as per usual. The bottom was in shortly after the London close. From there, a respectable rally cut the losses on the day to only eleven bucks. The silver chart was similar, but this precious metal made it all the way back to virtually unchanged from its inter-day low yesterday. However, the HUI managed to finish slightly positive on the day.

Gold open interest on Thursday fell another 891 contracts to 263,295. Silver o.i. actually rose 794 contracts to 83,297.

The Commitment of Traders report was a huge surprise…and not what I was expecting at all. After the monster price drops on Monday and all the other declines in

Wednesday’s action in the gold market world-wide was nothing short of a yawner from one end to the other. Ditto for silver. Volume was very low as well…so I wouldn’t read a thing into yesterday’s price action.

With deliveries into the December contract in both gold ands silver still ongoing, it should come as no surprise to anyone that the open interest in both metals was down again on Tuesday. This time gold o.i. fell another 1,938 contracts to 264,796. In silver, the open interest fell another significant chunk…2,609 contracts…to a new low of 82,434. These numbers should be in this Friday’s COT. As Ted Butler said in his commentary on Tuesday, we haven’t been at these levels of open interest for quite a number of years…as JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) et al are breaking every commodity law in the book to cover their short positions.

Two days before Christmas…December 23rd…is options expiry

Gold and silver didn’t do a lot in early Far East trading on Tuesday. The price for both metals bottomed very early in London…and from there a solid rally in both metals ensued…which ended shortly after the Comex opened for business…and that was it for the day.

The usual NY gold commentator had the following yesterday…”News reports indicate that Turkey imported 15 tonnes of gold in November. Considering that the Turkish currency has slumped by some 30% in the last couple of months, this is actually quite remarkable. Probably it reflects the volume of Turkish imports subsequently re-exported to countries to the south…Today’s ECB (European Central Bank) weekly statement of condition reports that ‘gold and gold receivables’ dropped E115 Mm, which ‘reflected’ gold sales by two captive CBs. At 5.7 tonnes, this is somewhat higher than of late (last week’s quantum was 2.83 tonnes), but is still small even compared to

Interesting read. Ted Butler is saying that all of the big long contract holders of silver have been intentionally squeezed out.

COT Extremes

By: Theodore Butler

– Posted 2 December, 2008

It’s been a while since I have commented in detail about the Commitment of Traders Report (COT), since there have been other issues to be discussed. Plus, I know many find the topic confusing. However, there have been some recent developments that should be reviewed.

Long-time readers know that I have studied and written about the COTs for years. I find the report invaluable. This weekly report from the CFTC tells us who has been buying or selling in all U.S. futures and options on futures. The reports don’t tell us the “who” by name, but offer three broad trader categories - large commercial, large non-commercial, and non-reportable. The two large categories must report their positions to the CFTC on essentially a daily basis,

Almost from the moment that trading began in the Far East on Monday morning, there was someone there to sell the gold and silver market down. This pressure really began to accelerate to the down side at one of the usual times of day…2:00 a.m. New York time…which is early Monday evening in Sydney, late afternoon in Hong Kong…and first thing in the morning (7:00 a.m.) in London.

Then, the moment the Comex opened for business, the bullion bank(s) pulled their bids and both metals sank like stones…particularly silver. For style points in silver, I give da boyz a 9.5/10. Any bets that it was mostly JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM)? After that pounding, the metals did nothing for the rest of the day. The shares got creamed.

Ted Butler had this to say about it yesterday…”While I certainly didn’t expect it, explaining Monday’s sell-off is pretty easy. It was a dealer-engineered drop

Almost from the moment that trading began in the Far East on Monday morning, there was someone there to sell the gold and silver market down. This pressure really began to accelerate to the down side at one of the usual times of day…2:00 a.m. New York time…which is early Monday evening in Sydney, late afternoon in Hong Kong…and first thing in the morning (7:00 a.m.) in London.

Then, the moment the Comex opened for business, the bullion bank(s) pulled their bids and both metals sank like stones…particularly silver. For style points in silver, I give da boyz a 9.5/10. Any bets that it was mostly JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM)? After that pounding, the metals did nothing for the rest of the day. The shares got creamed.

Ted Butler had this to say about it yesterday…”While I certainly didn’t expect it, explaining Monday’s sell-off is pretty easy. It was a dealer-engineered drop

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