The gold price stayed within five bucks of $950 in Far East trading on Tuesday morning. The bottom for gold was in at 1:00 p.m. in Hong Kong. From there, it rallied a bit into the London open and then fell five dollars into the London silver fix. From there, a smallish rally began which ran into the usual New York not-for-profit sellers around 9:15 a.m. on the Comex.
Gold was basically comatose all through Far East and European trading…with what activity there was, beginning [as is mostly the case] once floor trading began on the Comex in New York. Volume was decent in both metals, and both gold and silver’s attempts to go vertical shortly before the London close got firmly stopped in their tracks. The usual New York gold commentator noted that a very large 80,482 gold contracts had traded by 11:00 a.m….with a total of 110,979 for the entire day.
Well, the gold chart looked pretty bleak very early Friday morning…with gold touching the $880 level in London as I turned my computer off from writing Friday’s rant. I must admit that I turned the computer back on about lunch time yesterday with some fear and trepidation, but was pleasantly surprised that the price I’d seen last night [just before the London a.m. fix] was the low tick of the day. From there it worked its way a few dollars higher…right into Comex floor trading in New York.
There wasn’t much activity in gold in Far East and early European trading on Wednesday morning. But by the time the Comex opened for business, gold was up a few bucks. However, every time the gold price poked its nose above $900, there was somebody there to take it right back down again.
Tuesday trading in gold turned into a pretty big bear raid. As I mentioned briefly in my rant yesterday…starting shortly after Sydney opened on Tuesday morning…someone bombed the bullion market with a big sell order. The word ‘big’ is relative in this case. In the extremely thin trading that characterizes Far East gold and silver activity…a 1,000 contract sell order would hammer the market…and that’s pretty much what happened in gold. Ditto for silver.
There was a brief flurry of excitement in Globex trading on Sunday evening’s New York open. Both gold and silver were up right out of the starting gate…silver especially so.
The top gold price in Hong Kong on Friday was at 4:00 p.m. in their afternoon…which was 8:00 a.m. in London…and 3:00 a.m. in New York. As soon as London opened, gold began drifting slightly lower.
As I mentioned yesterday, once Monday’s rally was capped in the Comex trading session, both gold and silver traded sideways for the rest of the New York session…and then all day Tuesday in the Far East and early London trading.
Gold didn’t do much of anything in the Far East or Europe on Tuesday morning. There was a smallish rally at the Comex open that got stopped dead in its tracks at 8:30 Eastern. Gold had $10 carved off its price by the time the bottom was in…shortly before London closed for the day. It managed to regain that loss by the time Comex trading was over…but lost half of it by the time electronic trading on the Globex was through at 5:15 p.m. in New York.
Gold was under pressure right from the open in Sydney on Wednesday morning. This pressure accelerated once London was open for business. The bottom was in about fifteen minutes after Comex floor trading began in New York. A rally began that was highlighted by a big spike in the price around the time of the London p.m. fix. Was it that…or Geithner’s lips moving? The top price of the day arrived shortly after Comex trading ended and electronic trading commenced. All in all, a very interesting 24 hours.