by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money
This week, gold convincingly challenged and overcame the $1800 level and silver shot through the $27 barrier. From last Friday’s close, gold rose by $51 to trade at $1820 in European morning trade, while silver rose $1.40 to $27.30 on the same time scale. Open interest on Comex yesterday jumped by 22,866 contracts in gold, and by 11,160 in silver — magnitudes rarely seen.
There is no apparent reason for this development. But in silver, over 40 million ounces of physical metal have been withdrawn from Comex vaults this week, putting the squeeze on the bullion banks which are short.
The table below shows the changes in the positions of the Commitment of Traders categories since the silver price bottomed at $24 on 30 March.