The US$ had a huge gain yesterday…and gold got whacked for almost $30 between its high of $990 at 4:00 p.m. in Hong Kong trading yesterday afternoon…and eleven hours later at 3:00 p.m. at its low tick in electronic trading in New York. At three different times yesterday, gold had some help falling that much…the most obvious coming shortly after London closed for the day. I was surprised that the bullion banks didn’t pull their bids on the Comex open…something they normally love to do after the set-up they gave themselves during London trading.

As is almost always the case, gold got sold off a bit when the New York bullion banks were the only show in town early on Tuesday morning in the Far East. From there, gold added about five bucks, with the Far East high coming around lunch time in Hong Kong yesterday. From that point it got sold down into the London open…but from there…a rally began which lasted until London closed for the day at 11:00 a.m. New York time. Gold then got sold off five bucks to around $980…and that’s where the price stayed until the end of electronic trading at 5:15 Eastern time. The usual N.Y. commentator said that “Estimated volume was only 87,230 lots, with barely…

old was taken down a few dollars in Sunday night trading by the bullion banks in New York…but once Sydney and Hong Kong opened for the day, gold [and silver] returned to the plus column. Gold saw its highs moments before Hong Kong closed…and silver shortly after…in early trading in London. From there, both metals got slowly sold off. The real action didn’t start until the Comex open, where every rally attempt in either metal…but gold in particular…got sold off by a not-for-profit seller.

Bonds down. Gold up $17. Someone seems to think there is a whiff of inflation in the air. Sniff…sniff….

It was another stellar day for all the precious metals yesterday…gold, silver platinum and palladium. Gold was up a hair over two percent…and the other three metals were up four percent plus.

Both gold and silver had their lows early in the trading day on Thursday morning. The low in gold was during Globex trading when the New York bullion banks have the run of things…when their counterparty is a gold trader on his cell phone in Western Samoa someplace. Anyway, the low for gold was shortly before Sydney opened on Thursday morning…and the low for silver occurred a few hours later.

Both gold and silver got sold off gently in Far East trading on Wednesday. This slight downward trend lasted until shortly after 12:00 noon in London…and shortly before the Comex opened in New York. From there, rallies in both metals got hit hard the moment that the gold price broke through $960 and silver broke through $15 respectively. Strangely enough, this occurred about 12:05 Eastern time in both metals. From there, the selling pressure was on…and as of this writing, gold has given back $15…and silver about 35 cents. Silver’s chart is particularly interesting, as it was obvious that sellers had virtually vanished and the price was going parabolic before JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) showed up.

With American and British equity markets closed on Monday, there wasn’t a lot of activity in the gold and silver markets either. Both got sold off a tad in Sunday night electronic trading and during Monday in the Far East…but both recovered during European trading hours at, or after, London opened for the day. The highs…such as they were…were after the London close.

Gold slid about four dollars between the Globex open on Thursday night and around 10:00 a.m. in London on Friday morning. From there, gold quietly rallied about $11…with the peak coming shortly after 9:00 a.m. on the Comex in New York…and that was it for the day.

From the Globex open in New York on Wednesday night…and until 3:00 a.m. New York time [4 p.m. Thursday afternoon in Hong Kong trading], gold added about five dollars or so to its price. As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, this is often a time when there are changes in market direction. Thursday was no exception. From there, gold sold off quietly until about 10:40 a.m. in New York. This selling effect was especially pronounced in silver, where it sold off about 32 cents over the same period of time.