by Alasdair MacLeod
Gold Money
Gold and silver had a better week, with gold up $67 from last Friday’s close at $2369 in European trading this morning, and silver at $28.60 up $2.10 over the same time frame. There was a little more volume in the Comex gold contract, but silver’s was vanishingly low, as shown below.
[…] Most of the action was yesterday (Thursday) when a poor US jobless claims number sent gold and silver higher, and bond yields lower. This was taken by commentators to imply a greater chance of an early reduction in the Fed Funds Rate, which explains why bond yields declined. Furthermore, a successful 30-year US Treasury bond auction allayed fears of funding difficulties.
This is probably more noise in the background rather than meaningful information because jobless claims are notoriously misleading. A better clue as to what is happening is shown in the lower of the two charts above, for silver’s daily Comex volume. The clear explanation for silver’s performance is it is a bear squeeze on the shorts, rather than bullish buying.