Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Thursday’s trading activity was another one of those days that made no sense whatsoever, or at least no sense in free-market terms.
For the second day in a row there was a big decline in the dollar. that decline began at 2:00 a.m. Eastern time Thursday and really began to accelerate to the downside shortly before 7:00 a.m. in New York. The bottom arrived at half past lunchtime on the east coast. The drop was an eye-watering 120 basis point in the world’s reserve currency from high to low. That’s 1.5%.
Since Monday, the dollar has lost about 2.75% of its ‘value’. While this is a monstrous decline for any currency, it’s tantamount to a crash for the world’s reserve currency.
Since their Monday lows to their closes yesterday, the CRB is up roughly 3.2% and the CCI is up 2.8%.
What has gold done since its Monday low to its Thursday close at 5:15 p.m. Eastern? It has risen a net $8.70. Silver is up a whole four cents.
If you think that something does not compute here, you would be right.
Both metals should have been screaming to the upside, but they were not. And the sell-offs at 9:00 a.m., plus the ones in electronic trading the moment that Comex trading ended at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time yesterday afternoon, reeked of price management by the ‘usual suspects’.
The gold price was under selling pressure right from the Far East open on Thursday morning. The decline began to accelerate as the dollar decline began at 2:00 a.m. Eastern time. However, at 7:00 a.m. – when the dollar really fell off a cliff – gold began to rise quickly and went parabolic once trading began on the Comex yesterday morning. That rally got hammered at 9:00 a.m. sharp; gold was sold off until about 10:30 a.m. From that low, it was a struggle for it to get back to Wednesday’s closing price and, no, it didn’t quite make it. Then, the moment the Comex closed at 1:30 p.m., someone pulled the pin and that, as they say, was that.
Gold’s high at the 9:00 a.m. peak was $1,394.10 spot…and the low, around 3:40 p.m. Eastern time, was $1,368.60 spot.
As is always the case, the silver price was more ‘volatile’. It, too, got sold off, starting shortly after trading began in the Far East yesterday morning. It was down over 50 cents at noon in London, which is 7:00 a.m. in New York. Silver, too, began to rally, just like gold, but ran into a JPMorgan-constructed wall at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time. After that, the silver price never had a ghost of a chance to recover, and when the Comex closed at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, it was lights out. Silver’s high was $29.81 and it’s low was $28.51 — a $1.30 spread.
Here’s the New York spot silver market on its own. Just look at the precision of the JPMorgan-led bear raids at 9:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The NY spot gold chart looks similar, but the silver chart is more spectacular. There’s nothing free-market to be seen here. And don’t forget that the dollar was down 1.5% yesterday as well.
Platinum and palladium also got smacked at the 9:00 a.m. , but did not get hit after the Comex close. That travesty was only visited upon silver and gold.
I’ve already said everything about the dollar’s Thursday performance that I’m going to. Here’s the graph.
Here’s the one-year dollar chart to put this week’s dollar price action in to some sort of perspective. It ain’t pretty.
The CME’s Thursday delivery report showed that 32 gold contracts were posted for delivery on Monday. JPMorgan was the only issuer out of its client account and the Bank of Nova Scotia was the only stopper.
The GLD ETF showed another decline; this one was reported as 204,951 ounces. SLV showed no change. The U.S. Mint had no sales report on Thursday.
Over at the Comex-approved depositories, they reported receiving a net 530,040 troy ounces of silver on Wednesday. The link to that action is here.
