Secret Gold Price Suppression Won't Last Much Longer: Jim Rickards
Ed Steer

"It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if China banned the export of silver as well...and that would definitely put the Chinese fox amongst the JPMorgan pigeons."

With the dollar on the rampage to the upside, both gold and silver were under pressure for most of Far East and early London trading.  But it wasn't much pressure...and by 11:30 a.m. in London, gold began to rally...and was well back into positive territory by the time that Comex trading began in New York at 8:20 a.m. Eastern time.

The New York high was not allowed to penetrated the $1,800 the ounce price mark once again...and at 9:00 a.m. the New York bullion banks turned the price lower.  There was an interim low at 10:00 a.m. Eastern at the London p.m. gold fix, before the gold price rallied a bit...and was still a few dollars in the green when Comex trading ended at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time.

But once the thinly-traded New York Access Market [where only the U.S. bullion banks can play] got started, it was lights out...as 'day boyz' pealed about $25 off the price in very short order...and the subsequent smallish recovery also got sold off into the close of electronic trading at 5:15 p.m. in New York.

Gold closed at $1,768.60 spot...down $16.50 on the day.  Net volume wasn't overly heavy at 131,000 contracts.

The silver price was 'volatile' once again.  Although silver made every attempt to rally in Far East trading, that rally gave up the ghost at 1:00 p.m. Hong Kong time...just as the dollar rally got under way.

From there, its price path was very similar to gold's...and every rally got sold hard...and the silver price never made it back over $35 the ounce.  The New York low in Comex trading was at the same time as gold...the London p.m. gold fix.  The subsequent rally got capped...and then silver really got shellacked once trading began in the thinly-traded electronic market.

Silver closed at $34.04 spot...down 86 cents on the day.  Net volume was around 33,000 contracts.

Platinum and palladium weren't spared either...as the bullion banks made sure that there was no safe place except the U.S. dollar yesterday.

Here's the dollar chart from yesterday.  Note the low tick at precisely 1:00 a.m. Eastern time.  The dollar finished the day up about 130 basis points...but over 90 percent of the move was in by 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

What the means is that despite the huge dollar rally yesterday, both gold and silver were in rally mode if they hadn't run into bullion bank interference.  Virtually all of yesterday's decline in gold and silver prices came long after the dollar rally had grown long in the tooth.

The precious metals were obviously given a shove...and in the thinly-traded electronic market, once the sell stops were hit, the inevitable waterfall price decline ensued.  You've seen it all before, dear reader.  It's all so illegal, but as you've already figured out, there's no one out there that is prepared to lift a finger to help us...as the CME and CFTC are obviously complicit in this.

Despite the fact that the general equity markets were getting smoked...the precious metal shares were basically unchanged on the day when the Comex closed at 1:30 p.m...as the gold price was in the plus column.  But once the precious metal prices were given a shove, the stocks quickly followed...as it was obvious that, as I said further up, the 'powers that be' didn't want any hint of a safe haven other than the U.S. dollar.

The silver stocks really got hammered...and Nick Laird's Silver Sentiment Index got hit hard as well...down 6.38% on the day.

As GATA's Chris Powell's famous quote goes..."There are no market anymore, only interventions."  Ain't that the truth!

The CME Daily Delivery Report wasn't very exciting, as only 3 gold and 9 silver contracts were posted for delivery on Friday.

The GLD ETF showed another increase.  This time it was 97,285 ounces...the fourth day in a row that GLD took in metal.  There were no reported changes in SLV.

The U.S. Mint had a small sales report.  They sold 1,500 ounces of gold eagles...and 50,000 silver eagles.

A smallish 32,000 ounces of silver were reported withdrawn from the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday...and no receipts were reported.

Here's a chart titled "Global Sharemarket Sentiment Index" that Nick Laird over at sharelynx.com sent me last night. I've run it before, but here's another chilling update.  This is a very large chart...and the 'click to enlarge' feature will come in handy here.

Nick says that if we are to follow the 2008 model, then we are almost at the tipping point...and he asked in the covering e-mail..."Are we there yet?"

Here's another graph that was sent to me yesterday.  This one from Washington state reader S.A.  Since any IMF vote has to pass with an 85% majority, the United States has total veto power over anything that the rest of the world wants to do.  Aren't empires great?

Here's Washington state reader S.A. second graph for today...and it's a beauty.  France is done like dinner when Italy gets flushed.  Italy is too big to bail...and too big to fail.

Silver analyst Ted Butler posted a Q & A session that he had with Jim Cook over at investmentrarities.com yesterday...and I've cut and paste a few lines for you...

Cook: Does the paper trading on COMEX still control the price?

Butler: For sure, but that control will be less in the future.

Cook: What will change that?

Butler: The rush towards physical. COMEX is designed as a paper derivatives exchange and is not structured for a rush on physical silver.

Cook: What is JPMorgan, the big short, doing now?

Butler: Overall it is reducing its silver short position, but recently has been increasing it. Ask me after the next COT report.

Cook: What price would silver be at without them in the picture?

Butler: Double, at least, but it depends upon what other factors it might set off.

Cook: Will the new position limits on silver begin to impact the price?

Butler: Yes, and I'm sure it already has, both up and down as big players react and influence the market. The main thing is that it will be good in the long term as it promises to end the silver manipulation.

Cook: What do you say to people who bought silver at $45.00 an ounce?

Butler: I guess the same thing that was told to those who happened to buy at previous tops of $8, $12 and $20. Silver wasn't above $45 for a long period of time, so there can't be great numbers who hold silver at that average price. Probably the best thing to do is to take advantage of the lower price and average down.

Cook: Silver always seems to follow gold. A while back you wrote that gold and silver would get a divorce and silver would fly on its own. Why hasn't that happened?

Butler: Because they've had a 5,000 year marriage and the longer you are married, it's harder to get divorced. But given silver's industrial consumption profile, they are incompatible and the marriage is doomed.

And if you missed Ted's audio interview with Dr. Dave Janda over at WAAM 1600 from two Sunday's ago, the link to that is here.

Despite brutal hacking and slashing, the list of stories I have on offer today is still way too big for my liking so, as usual, the final edit is up to you.

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