NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- It was another day where not much happened in gold expect for the price capping at the London open, followed on by the even bigger event ten minutes after the Comex open---and once the spike in gold was capped in New York, the price didn't do much for the remainder of the day. The low and high ticks were reported by the CME Group as $1,310.00 and $1,321.80 in the December contract. Gold closed on Thursday at $1,312.90 spot, up 70 cents on the day. Volume, net of August and September, was 109,000 contracts---and about the same as Wednesday's volume. 
After the obligatory down opening on Wednesday evening in New York, the silver price traded in a very tight range on Thursday everywhere on Planet Earth---and and all rally attempts, no matter how tiny, met the same fate. The high of the day, such was it was, came at the London p.m. gold fix. After that it sold off about a dime into the close. The low and high ticks are barely worth the effort to look up, but here they are. The low was $19.785---and the high was $19.985 in the September contract. Silver finished the Thursday trading session at $19.855 spot, up 4.5 cents from Wednesday. Net volume was very light at only 25,500 contracts. 
Platinum didn't do a lot, or wasn't allowed to do a lot, depending on your interpretation of the chart below---and the metal closed down three bucks on the day. 
Palladium didn't do much for most of the Thursday session, but the rally that began off the 1:45 p.m. Zurich low ran into some selling pressure at the London p.m. gold fix---and wasn't allowed to trade above the $884 spot mark for the remainder of the day. Palladium closed up three bucks. 
The dollar index closed late on Wednesday afternoon in New York at 81.61. It's 'high' tick, such as it was, occurred at precisely 2 p.m. Hong Kong time---and it was all down hill to its 81.42 low which came just before, or at, the London p.m gold fix. From there it rallied back to 81.62 by 2 p.m. EDT, before shedding a few basis points going into the close. The index finished unchanged at 81.61. 
Despite the fact that the spike high in gold occurred an hour prior, the gold stocks rallied until shortly after 10 a.m. EDT---and from there they chopped lower, with the low tick coming about twenty minutes before the equity markets closed in New York---and the HUI finished just off its low, down 0.32%. 
Despite the rather neutral performance in the price of silver---and the positive close, the shares were sold off relentless for almost the entire Thursday trading session, only moderating a bit at the end of the day, just like the gold shares. Nick Laird's Intraday Silver Sentiment Index closed down an eye-watering 3.38%. 
The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that 300 gold and zero silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Monday. The only short/issuer was Jefferies---and the two largest long/stoppers were JPMorgan with 164 contracts for its client account---and 99 contracts for Canada's Scotiabank. The link to yesterday's Issuers and Stoppers Report is here. The CME's Preliminary Report for the Thursday trading session showed that there are still 1,155 gold contracts open in August, from which you can subtract the 300 contracts posted for delivery on Monday, so there's still a bunch to go. There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday---and as of 9:31 p.m. EDT yesterday evening, there were no reported changes in SLV, either. But when I was editing today's column at 3:45 a.m. EDT this morning, I noted that the folks over at the iShares.com had updated their website---and it showed that an authorized participant, which you should assume to be JPMorgan, had deposited 1,007,508 troy ounces. Joshua Gibbons, the " Guru of the SLV Bar List" updated his website with the goings-on within SLV for the week ending on Wednesday---and this is what he had to report: "Analysis of the 13 August 2014 bar list---and comparison to the previous week's list: 2,926,844.7 troy ounces were added, and no bars had a serial number change. The bars added were from: Solar Applied Materials (1.1M oz), Korea Zinc (0.4M oz), Britannia Refined Metals (0.3M oz), KGHM (0.2M oz), and 14 others. As of the time that the bar list was produced, it was overallocated 71.1 oz. All daily changes are reflected on the bar list." The link to Joshua's website is here. There was no sales report from the U.S. Mint. There was decent movement in gold over at the Comex-approved depositories on Wednesday, as 64,003 troy ounces were reported received---and 546 troy ounces were shipped. Virtually all of the activity, both in and out, occurred at Canada's Scotiabank. The link to that is here. There was decent movement in silver as well. 585,950 troy ounces were shipped in---and 4,152 troy ounces were shipped out. The receipt was at the CNT Depository---and the link to that action is here. I was reading some of Mark O'Byrne's comments over at goldcore.com yesterday---and thought they were worth sharing, so here they are: " [It's] important to remember that while gold and silver prices have been in lock down---and only eked out small gains so far in 2014 despite increasing risk, especially geopolitical, gold has seen very strong gains in many non-major currencies." "This is especially the case in Ukraine where the currency has lost more than half of its value versus gold. Gold in Ukraine Hrvynia up 70% since the start of 2014. People who own gold in Ukraine would laugh at you, if you said that gold is not a safe haven." Amen to that! Nick Laird sent around the chart below to all and sundry the other day, including Mark, as it was posted in his column yesterday, so I see no reason why I shouldn't do the same. 
As is usually the case, I have too many stories again today---and I'm always happiest when you do the final edit.
After the obligatory down opening on Wednesday evening in New York, the silver price traded in a very tight range on Thursday everywhere on Planet Earth---and and all rally attempts, no matter how tiny, met the same fate. The high of the day, such was it was, came at the London p.m. gold fix. After that it sold off about a dime into the close. The low and high ticks are barely worth the effort to look up, but here they are. The low was $19.785---and the high was $19.985 in the September contract. Silver finished the Thursday trading session at $19.855 spot, up 4.5 cents from Wednesday. Net volume was very light at only 25,500 contracts. Platinum didn't do a lot, or wasn't allowed to do a lot, depending on your interpretation of the chart below---and the metal closed down three bucks on the day. Palladium didn't do much for most of the Thursday session, but the rally that began off the 1:45 p.m. Zurich low ran into some selling pressure at the London p.m. gold fix---and wasn't allowed to trade above the $884 spot mark for the remainder of the day. Palladium closed up three bucks. The dollar index closed late on Wednesday afternoon in New York at 81.61. It's 'high' tick, such as it was, occurred at precisely 2 p.m. Hong Kong time---and it was all down hill to its 81.42 low which came just before, or at, the London p.m gold fix. From there it rallied back to 81.62 by 2 p.m. EDT, before shedding a few basis points going into the close. The index finished unchanged at 81.61. Despite the fact that the spike high in gold occurred an hour prior, the gold stocks rallied until shortly after 10 a.m. EDT---and from there they chopped lower, with the low tick coming about twenty minutes before the equity markets closed in New York---and the HUI finished just off its low, down 0.32%. Despite the rather neutral performance in the price of silver---and the positive close, the shares were sold off relentless for almost the entire Thursday trading session, only moderating a bit at the end of the day, just like the gold shares. Nick Laird's Intraday Silver Sentiment Index closed down an eye-watering 3.38%. The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that 300 gold and zero silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Monday. The only short/issuer was Jefferies---and the two largest long/stoppers were JPMorgan with 164 contracts for its client account---and 99 contracts for Canada's Scotiabank. The link to yesterday's Issuers and Stoppers Report is here. The CME's Preliminary Report for the Thursday trading session showed that there are still 1,155 gold contracts open in August, from which you can subtract the 300 contracts posted for delivery on Monday, so there's still a bunch to go. There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday---and as of 9:31 p.m. EDT yesterday evening, there were no reported changes in SLV, either. But when I was editing today's column at 3:45 a.m. EDT this morning, I noted that the folks over at the iShares.com had updated their website---and it showed that an authorized participant, which you should assume to be JPMorgan, had deposited 1,007,508 troy ounces. Joshua Gibbons, the " Guru of the SLV Bar List" updated his website with the goings-on within SLV for the week ending on Wednesday---and this is what he had to report: "Analysis of the 13 August 2014 bar list---and comparison to the previous week's list: 2,926,844.7 troy ounces were added, and no bars had a serial number change. The bars added were from: Solar Applied Materials (1.1M oz), Korea Zinc (0.4M oz), Britannia Refined Metals (0.3M oz), KGHM (0.2M oz), and 14 others. As of the time that the bar list was produced, it was overallocated 71.1 oz. All daily changes are reflected on the bar list." The link to Joshua's website is here. There was no sales report from the U.S. Mint. There was decent movement in gold over at the Comex-approved depositories on Wednesday, as 64,003 troy ounces were reported received---and 546 troy ounces were shipped. Virtually all of the activity, both in and out, occurred at Canada's Scotiabank. The link to that is here. There was decent movement in silver as well. 585,950 troy ounces were shipped in---and 4,152 troy ounces were shipped out. The receipt was at the CNT Depository---and the link to that action is here. I was reading some of Mark O'Byrne's comments over at goldcore.com yesterday---and thought they were worth sharing, so here they are: " [It's] important to remember that while gold and silver prices have been in lock down---and only eked out small gains so far in 2014 despite increasing risk, especially geopolitical, gold has seen very strong gains in many non-major currencies." "This is especially the case in Ukraine where the currency has lost more than half of its value versus gold. Gold in Ukraine Hrvynia up 70% since the start of 2014. People who own gold in Ukraine would laugh at you, if you said that gold is not a safe haven." Amen to that! Nick Laird sent around the chart below to all and sundry the other day, including Mark, as it was posted in his column yesterday, so I see no reason why I shouldn't do the same. As is usually the case, I have too many stories again today---and I'm always happiest when you do the final edit. ¤ The Wrap
Twenty five years ago, the thought that any market could be manipulated as I suggested was the case in silver was heresy, pure and simple. The idea was rejected out of hand. In searching for why this was so, the best I’ve been able to come up with was that the mere thought that a silver manipulation might exist was actually offensive to those in the business, which were who I approached with my premise. Maybe this was a defensive reaction, as in how could Ted see it and not me; but I sense it was actually offensive to most that a manipulation could exist in what everyone assumed was a true free market environment. Times were different then, there was an implied assumption that markets were on the up and up. Any suggestion to the contrary was summarily dismissed. That’s not the case today. So many serious manipulations and market misdeeds have been recorded that the silver manipulation deniers have almost been reduced to declaring that silver (and gold) are the only markets not manipulated. Where I once was isolated and alone, I am now in an apparent majority. I am shocked (and heartened) at this turn of event. The important thing is not, of course, how I feel, but the significance of the turnabout. Having been there at the outset, I am simply astounded by the current level of belief that silver is manipulated in price. - Silver analyst Ted Butler: 13 August 2014 It was another day where the rally attempts around the Comex open were met with "da boyz" and their HFT algorithms. This was particularly true in gold and silver, along with palladium, another metal that would take off to the moon and stars if allowed to do so. But, as has been the case all week, volumes weren't particularly heavy, so as I keep saying, it's not hard for those with an agenda to keep precious metal price in check---and they're doing so with ease, but it's oh-so obvious to all, except for the willfully blind, of course. Here are the 6-month gold and silver charts once again---and we continue to mark time in gold, and edge lower in silver. It's still an unknown as to how this will all turn out in the end. But from a Commitment of Traders Report standpoint, it still doesn't look good at all, especially for silver.
As I write this paragraph, London has been open a bit more than ten minutes.---and the precious metals aren't doing much. Silver is down a bit, as usual---and only palladium is showing any signs of life. Volumes in both gold and silver border on nonexistent, so nothing should be read into the current price action, or lack thereof, as it's a Friday in summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Today we get the latest and greatest Commitment of Traders Report for positions held at the close of Comex trading on Tuesday. As I said the other day, I expect we'll see a blow-out in the Commercial net short position in gold---and an up-tick in the Commercial net short position in silver as well. We'll find out soon enough how good my guesses are---and I'll have it all for you in Saturday's column. The other thing that we get today is the first London silver fix under the new 'price fixing' system and, without doubt, there will be plenty of people watching it like a hawk. I'll be sound asleep when it all transpires, so I'll find out how it went when I power up the beast later this morning. And as I sent this off to Stowe, Vermont at 5:08 a.m. EDT, there still isn't much happening in any of the precious metals, although I note that palladium is still running into the $884 spot price ceiling it had during Comex trading yesterday. Volumes in both gold and silver are barely fogging the mirror. The dollar index, which began to head south around 2:30 p.m. Hong Kong time, is now down 13 basis points. That's all I have for today. I hope you're weekend goes well---and I'll see you here tomorrow. 
This is an abbreviated version of Ed Steer's Gold & Silver Daily Sign-up to have to the complete market review delivered to your email inbox each morning for free.
