by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money
Gold and silver continue to consolidate in a narrow range this week, with gold up $16 on balance at $1914 in morning London trade, and silver up 26 cents at $24.27 in the same timeframe. Comex volumes were light to moderate.
In the non-active October gold Comex contract, longs totalling 25,165 contracts have been delivered with a further 7,423 to go. Assuming the rest are delivered, it amounts to over 101 tonnes. For the bullion banks, having Comex speculators standing for delivery especially in the non-active months is unwelcome. They will be eyeing December, the next active contract which expires in only seven weeks’ time, with trepidation. For the fact is that while the bullion banks can print paper gold as much as they wish, the physical that underpins all this paper is increasingly scarce.
Furthermore, scraping out the far corners of vaults to find any unclaimed gold to deliver against futures contracts is not the point.