<<``That is what has broken the gold price, not 167 tonnes of Australian reserve gold sold over six months.''>>
Phil, the link to your article has expired. I guess that is why I paste most articles rather than link them.
NY precious metals mostly weaker midday
NEW YORK, July 14 (Reuter) - COMEX and NYMEX precious metals futures were mostly weaker midday Monday, but volumes were very light.
``There was some trade and bullion bank selling silver, but volumes were light and there's no real feature to the activity today,'' one COMEX floor trader said.
COMEX August gold was down 90 cents at $321.30 an ounce, though intraday and daily momentum indicators have been recovering in the past few sessions, while 20-day historical volatility has steadied around 14 percent, up from six percent back in mid-June.
For now, August gold is seen in a $320.00-323.00 range, traders said, as funds continue to take profits on record net short positions.
COMEX gold open interest fell 1,969 lots Friday to 214,421 contracts, but open interest is at its highest levels in 18 months.
When gold was trading at $343 an ounce on June 10, the net speculative short position on COMEX was 33,272 lots, but four weeks later, when gold prices were down to $335, the net speculative short position, including funds and small traders, was 70,665 lots, according to the CFTC Commitments of Traders data, and since then COMEX open interest has risen further.
``The net speculative short position on COMEX is probably now 90,000-100,000 lots, more than 50 percent above the prior record,'' one analyst said.
Including OTC short sales, ``over the last five weeks, fund short sales have probably been on the order of 500 tonnes ore more,'' he said.
``That is what has broken the gold price, not 167 tonnes of Australian reserve gold sold over six months.''
Gold fixed at a 12 year low last week at $315.75 in London, after news of a sale of 167 tonnes of gold by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which encouraged more short selling by hedge funds.
In the bullion market midday Monday, spot gold was quoted $320.50/00, compared to the London Monday afternoon fix at $321.70 and the New York close Friday around $321.60/10.
COMEX September silver was down 8.0 cents at $4.315 an ounce. Last week September silver saw a contract low at $417.50.
COMEX silver open interest fell 1,705 lots Friday to 96,667 contracts.
NYMEX October platinum was down $4.20 at $391.50 an ounce, but spot platinum in the physical market remained above $400 an ounce, quoted $405.50/409.50 midday.
NYMEX September palladium was up 50 cents at $153.50, with spot palladium around $165.50/169.50.
One month lease rates in platinum eased a little Monday to around 40-50 pct, but palladium lease rates remained firm around 80-90 pct, dealers said.
Japanese trade houses reported last week that some Russian palladium had arrived in Japan, but platinum was not due to arrive until this week.
Russian PGM exports had been suspended for six months. Russia supplies about 60 percent of the world's palladium and 20 percent of its platinum. |
