Gold waffled near unchanged in Asia and London, but it then fell back off for most of trade in New York and ended near its late session low of $1649.32 with a loss of 1.14%.Silver slipped to as low as $31.33 and ended with a loss of 2.66%.
Euro gold platinum lost $21.50 to $1578.50, and copper
Gold and silver equities fell about 1.5% in the first half hour of trade and remained near that level for the rest of the day.
Next week’s economic highlights include Retail Sales, Empire Manufacturing, Net Long-Term TIC Flows, Business Inventories, and the NAHB Housing Market Index on Monday, Housing Starts, Building Permits, Industrial Production, and Capacity Utilization on Tuesday, and Initial Jobless Claims, Existing Home Sales, the Philadelphia Fed, and Leading Economic Indicators on Thursday.
Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Goldman Sachs, Apple, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Google.
The Commentary:
“What more is left to say at this point other than the fact that the hedge fund computers and their damnable algorithms have destroyed the integrity of the US futures markets. The sheer size, extent, ferocity and volatility of the moves that these pestilential computers are creating have rendered these markets basically useless for what they originally came into being for, namely, risk management for commercial entities.
Price swings of this magnitude are blowing up hedged positions put on by commercials and other end users/merchants/processors, etc. While margins are reduced for legitimate hedgers, they still must meet any and all margin calls on any hedged position, whether that is a long position or a short position. Some will say that all they need to do is to buy or sell the corresponding physical commodity and while simultaneously lifting the hedge. That might work fine on paper but in the real world it is a fabrication.
A cattle feedlot, a grain elevator owner/operator, a cocoa processor, a cotton mill, etc, may or may not have the actual product ready to sell as it is still maturing or growing in the field or may not be ready yet to actually buy the product but they might have hedges in place while they are waiting. So much for their hedges in this sort of idiotically insane trading environment. Their hedges are getting blasted to kingdom come but they must maintain the thing if it moves against them meaning that they need cash to meet any and all margin calls.
At some point, the cost of doing so, with hedge fund running prices all over the damn planet on a daily basis, is no longer feasible.
I am predicting here and now that unless something is done to corral these hedge funds, the futures market is going to become useless as a risk management tool for non-speculative entities.
Take a look at the following CCI chart (it might as well be copper or silver for that matter) and look at the extent of the daily price swings. Tuesday saw a big sell off across the sector as traders feared European debt woes and that brought about the RISK OFF trades. Commodities were dumped, the Dollar was bid higher and up went the bonds. The next day was relatively tame by comparison as traders were hesitant to do much of anything. Thursday saw the entire losses of the previous two days erased as Fed Governor Dudleys' comments were interpreted as making the case for another round of QE forthcoming sooner rather than later.
Today, news hit that Chinas' growth had slowed in the first quarter to a "pitiful" 8.1%. Yep, such a debacle ( if we could get half of that over here, a lot of our fiscal budget woes and our unemployment problem would actually get better). I am of course being sarcastic but once again the hedge funds and their mindless machines dumped everything in sight since we all know that no one needs to eat when growth is slowing down now do they? The result, YEP - all of the Dudley rally went down in flames with the market right back where it ended Tuesday.
Maybe we all should just go the hell to sleep and wake up in a year and see if the chart has actually gone anywhere besides up and down like a stinking yo-yo.”- Dan Norcini, More at http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/
The Statistics:
Activity from: 4/12/2012
Gold Warehouse Stocks:
10,992,840.641
-32.15
Silver Warehouse Stocks:
141,594,392.538
+985,437.192
Global Gold ETF Holdings
[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]
Product name
Total Tonnes
Total Ounces
Total Value
New York Stock Exchange Arca (NYSE Arca) AND Singapore Exchange (SGX) AND Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) AND Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx)
SPDR® Gold Shares
1286.167
41,351,566
US$68,898m
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND NYSE Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse - Xetra)
Gold Bullion Securities
115.09
3,700,236
US$6,170m
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND NYSE Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse - Xetra) AND NYSE Euronext Amsterdam
ETFS Physical Gold
126.23
4,058,350
US$6,985m
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)
Gold Bullion Securities
14.21
472,484
US$758m
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE)
New Gold Debentures
39.87
1,281,721
US$2,124m
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 180.17: No change from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 9,618.57: -7.55 change from yesterday’s data.
Note: This article may be reproduced provided the article, in full, is used and mention to Gold-Seeker.com is given.
Disclosure:The owner, editor, writer and publisher and their associates are not responsible for errors or omissions.The author of this report is not a registered financial advisor.Readers should not view this material as offering investment related advice. Gold-Seeker.com has taken precautions to ensure accuracy of information provided. Information collected and presented are from what is perceived as reliable sources, but since the information source(s) are beyond Gold-Seeker.com’s control, no representation or guarantee is made that it is complete or accurate.The reader accepts information on the condition that errors or omissions shall not be made the basis for any claim, demand or cause for action.Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results.Any statements non-factual in nature constitute only current opinions, which are subject to change.Nothing contained herein constitutes a representation by the publisher, nor a solicitation for the purchase or sale of securities & therefore information, nor opinions expressed, shall be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any stock, futures or options contract mentioned herein.Investors are advised to obtain the advice of a qualified financial & investment advisor before entering any financial transaction.
Chris Mullen has been the Chief Content Manager of GoldSeek.com, SilverSeek.com, UraniumSeek.com, GoldReview.com, CapitalUpdates.com, and Gold-Seeker.com since 2004. Sign up for free email lists from these sites at http://email.goldseek.com/
-0.3%
-0.12%
Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold and Silver End Mixed on the Week
Close
Gain/Loss
On Week
Gold
$1656.10
-$19.10
+1.56%
Silver
$31.47
-$0.86
-0.63%
XAU
167.64
-1.61%
+1.42%
HUI
453.11
-1.69%
+2.73%
GDM
1313.33
-1.45%
+2.66%
JSE Gold
2286.69
-27.51
-1.10%
USD
79.90
+0.58
-0.21%
Euro
130.77
-1.09
+0.08%
Yen
123.45
-0.20
+1.62%
Oil
$102.83
-$0.81
-0.46%
10-Year
1.998%
-0.051
-8.14%
Bond
141.4375
+0.96875
+0.85%
Dow
12849.59
-1.05%
-1.61%
Nasdaq
3011.33
-1.45%
-2.25%
S&P
1370.26
-1.25%
-1.99%
The Metals:
Gold waffled near unchanged in Asia and London, but it then fell back off for most of trade in New York and ended near its late session low of $1649.32 with a loss of 1.14%.Silver slipped to as low as $31.33 and ended with a loss of 2.66%.
Euro gold platinum lost $21.50 to $1578.50, and copper
Gold and silver equities fell about 1.5% in the first half hour of trade and remained near that level for the rest of the day.
The Economy:
Report
For
Reading
Expected
Previous
CPI
Mar
0.3%
0.3%
0.4%
Core CPI
Mar
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
Michigan Sentiment
Apr
75.7
76.1
76.2
All of this week’s other economic reports:
PPI - March
0.0% v. 0.4%
Core PPI - March
0.3% v. 0.2%
Trade Balance - February
-$46.0B v. -$52.5B
Initial Claims - 4/07
380K v. 367K
Treasury Budget - March
-$198.2B v. -$188.2B
Import Prices - March
1.3% v. -0.1%
Import Prices ex-oil - March
0.5% v. 0.0%
Export Prices - March
0.8% v. 0.4%
Export Prices ex-ag. - March
0.5% v. 0.5%
Wholesale Inventories - February
0.9% v. 0.6%
Next week’s economic highlights include Retail Sales, Empire Manufacturing, Net Long-Term TIC Flows, Business Inventories, and the NAHB Housing Market Index on Monday, Housing Starts, Building Permits, Industrial Production, and Capacity Utilization on Tuesday, and Initial Jobless Claims, Existing Home Sales, the Philadelphia Fed, and Leading Economic Indicators on Thursday.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil fell as the U.S. dollar index and treasuries rose on worries about slower than expected economic growth in China that sent the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P lower.
Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Goldman Sachs, Apple, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Google.
The Commentary:
“What more is left to say at this point other than the fact that the hedge fund computers and their damnable algorithms have destroyed the integrity of the US futures markets. The sheer size, extent, ferocity and volatility of the moves that these pestilential computers are creating have rendered these markets basically useless for what they originally came into being for, namely, risk management for commercial entities.
Price swings of this magnitude are blowing up hedged positions put on by commercials and other end users/merchants/processors, etc. While margins are reduced for legitimate hedgers, they still must meet any and all margin calls on any hedged position, whether that is a long position or a short position. Some will say that all they need to do is to buy or sell the corresponding physical commodity and while simultaneously lifting the hedge. That might work fine on paper but in the real world it is a fabrication.
A cattle feedlot, a grain elevator owner/operator, a cocoa processor, a cotton mill, etc, may or may not have the actual product ready to sell as it is still maturing or growing in the field or may not be ready yet to actually buy the product but they might have hedges in place while they are waiting. So much for their hedges in this sort of idiotically insane trading environment. Their hedges are getting blasted to kingdom come but they must maintain the thing if it moves against them meaning that they need cash to meet any and all margin calls.
At some point, the cost of doing so, with hedge fund running prices all over the damn planet on a daily basis, is no longer feasible.
I am predicting here and now that unless something is done to corral these hedge funds, the futures market is going to become useless as a risk management tool for non-speculative entities.
Take a look at the following CCI chart (it might as well be copper or silver for that matter) and look at the extent of the daily price swings. Tuesday saw a big sell off across the sector as traders feared European debt woes and that brought about the RISK OFF trades. Commodities were dumped, the Dollar was bid higher and up went the bonds. The next day was relatively tame by comparison as traders were hesitant to do much of anything. Thursday saw the entire losses of the previous two days erased as Fed Governor Dudleys' comments were interpreted as making the case for another round of QE forthcoming sooner rather than later.
Today, news hit that Chinas' growth had slowed in the first quarter to a "pitiful" 8.1%. Yep, such a debacle ( if we could get half of that over here, a lot of our fiscal budget woes and our unemployment problem would actually get better). I am of course being sarcastic but once again the hedge funds and their mindless machines dumped everything in sight since we all know that no one needs to eat when growth is slowing down now do they? The result, YEP - all of the Dudley rally went down in flames with the market right back where it ended Tuesday.
Maybe we all should just go the hell to sleep and wake up in a year and see if the chart has actually gone anywhere besides up and down like a stinking yo-yo.”- Dan Norcini, More at http://www.traderdannorcini.blogspot.com/
The Statistics:
Activity from: 4/12/2012
Gold Warehouse Stocks:
10,992,840.641
-32.15
Silver Warehouse Stocks:
141,594,392.538
+985,437.192
Global Gold ETF Holdings
[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]
Product name
Total Tonnes
Total Ounces
Total Value
New York Stock Exchange Arca (NYSE Arca) AND Singapore Exchange (SGX) AND Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) AND Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx)
SPDR® Gold Shares
1286.167
41,351,566
US$68,898m
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND NYSE Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse - Xetra)
Gold Bullion Securities
115.09
3,700,236
US$6,170m
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND NYSE Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse - Xetra) AND NYSE Euronext Amsterdam
ETFS Physical Gold
126.23
4,058,350
US$6,985m
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX)
Gold Bullion Securities
14.21
472,484
US$758m
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE)
New Gold Debentures
39.87
1,281,721
US$2,124m
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU) Total Tonnes in Trust: 180.17: No change from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV) Total Tonnes in Trust: 9,618.57: -7.55 change from yesterday’s data.
The Miners:
WINNERS
1.Eurasian
EMXX+4.44% $2.35
2.Loncor
LON +3.32% $1.24
3.Pretivm
PVG+2.99% $15.82
LOSERS
1.Ivanhoe
IVN-6.30% $12.79
2.Richmont
RIC -5.97% $6.77
3.McEwen
MUX -5.33% $3.91
Winners & Losers tracks NYSE and AMEX listed gold and silver mining stocks that trade over $1.
Please see Yahoo’s Mining/Metals News Wire for all of today’s mining news.
- Chris Mullen, Gold Seeker Report
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Additional Resources for today’s Gold Seeker Report can be found:
©Gold Seeker 2012
Note: This article may be reproduced provided the article, in full, is used and mention to Gold-Seeker.com is given.
Disclosure:The owner, editor, writer and publisher and their associates are not responsible for errors or omissions.The author of this report is not a registered financial advisor.Readers should not view this material as offering investment related advice. Gold-Seeker.com has taken precautions to ensure accuracy of information provided. Information collected and presented are from what is perceived as reliable sources, but since the information source(s) are beyond Gold-Seeker.com’s control, no representation or guarantee is made that it is complete or accurate.The reader accepts information on the condition that errors or omissions shall not be made the basis for any claim, demand or cause for action.Past results are not necessarily indicative of future results.Any statements non-factual in nature constitute only current opinions, which are subject to change.Nothing contained herein constitutes a representation by the publisher, nor a solicitation for the purchase or sale of securities & therefore information, nor opinions expressed, shall be construed as a solicitation to buy or sell any stock, futures or options contract mentioned herein.Investors are advised to obtain the advice of a qualified financial & investment advisor before entering any financial transaction.
About Chris Mullen