Good Thursday Morning Folks,
Gold is again trading lower but barely, in this early morning report, with the trade at $1,241.70, down 90 cents from the Comex close with a high at $1,246.30 and the low at $1,240. Silver seems to be giving the Sell signal with its trade at $14.43, down 15.2 cents within a trading range between $14.415 and $14.59 sometime way before 5 am pst. The US Dollar is also negative with the current value at 96.965 down 4.5 points with its trading range of 97.175 and 96.90 and with the treasuries finally trading again. Todays expected data reports will give us the movements we have to deal with over the next month with the Jobless claims, US Trade Balance, along with the US Factory Orders, which in turn will help us figure out how bad the next few months of Baltic Dry Index may be. Please recall the last time the Baltic collapsed during the holiday season (2011/2012), the precious metals took off. Venezuela’s current price for Gold now stands at 307,341,800 Bolivar losing 308,200 overnight with Silver at 3,569,446 it too losing 34,800 Bolivar.
The Silver deliveries continue with the Christmas count now at 787 contracts demanding receipts for delivery, either here or in London, with the volume so far showing 10 on the board. Silver’s overall Open Interest continues to fall with the count now at 178,649 obligations, projecting more reductions with 1,367 contracts dropping off during yesterday’s 6 cent trading range in the March contract and with the usual heavy volume proving the machines are pumping and dumping at the same time they are extracting themselves from the inherent risk we all see coming. The OI shows that we are getting closer and closer to the 139,000+/- we saw when Silver was last at $49.84. With the Open Interest in Silver Calls out in July and Dec ‘19 exceeding 82,000, with the lion share of purchased strike prices below $30 in both months, and the climb in the March “at the money Call” options, along with the other point that we are some 39,000 contracts away from hitting 139k in the futures OI, things are looking pretty “iffy” in my view (for the shorts that is).
France seems to have disappeared from the main stream news along with Drudge and Zerohedge’s front pages, which to me says “LOOK HERE” and in bold font, as Macron may be facing a no confidence vote as this article claims “the assembly would hold a no-confidence motion within 48 hours of the request”. It seems the Yellow Jackets of France continue to grow in size as “a bid to stop the huge and violent anti-government demonstrations … failed to convince protesters, with trade unions and disgruntled farmers now threatening to join the fray.” Are we seeing a new French Revolution? Vive La France!!
Italy continues to push heavily against the giant as the E-Union Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici stated, the tiny nation needs come up with "an extra effort" to meet the wants of those demanding more from their subjects in order to achieve an agreement. These EU people really do not want to face the fact they are already gone as the Italian representatives claim “Italy's ruling League party will accept only a minor reduction to next year's budget deficit target, … conceding little to Brussels, which says the plan breaks European Union public finance rules”. In short, the EU is saying “I make the rules you don't, therefore,you listen” … try saying that to a pitchfork in the hands of the truly pissed off and see how far it gets you.
Things are coming to a point in the entire global economic arena. Interest rates have reversed in very short order putting pressure on all US Treasury shorts. The Open Interest in both Silver and Gold futures continue to extract those “piled on” shorts, at the same time the misdirection’s from main stream media continue. Deutsche Bank is still a huge issue here too but is no longer on the front page either. It is times like these, that we stress the importance of having physical precious metals in hand, along with keeping a very positive attitude no matter what is going on around you. Please please stay away from the protests,!! As we stressed before, all it takes is one idiot, then boom! … So stay away and as always …
Stay Strong!
J. Johnson