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Print Gold at a good day rising by $33.30 to $1757.80 by comex closing time. Silver also had a stellar day rising by $1.21 to $34.41. As many of you heard the European summit announced a "settlement" on the Greek bailout. I will go over details in the body of my commentary. But first let's have a look at comex gold and silver details.
end
The total gold comex open interest fell by 885 contracts today with a reading of 439,791 and Friday's level of 440,676. The reading today is of course basis Friday. The front delivery month of February saw its OI fall from 376 to 346 for a loss of 30 contracts. We had only 6 delivery notices filed on Friday so again we lost 24 contracts to cash settlements. It seems that many contracts were settled by the bankers this month with fiat bonus cash. The next delivery month is April and here the Oi fell from 238,397 to 235,877.
The estimated volume today was very good at 191,974. The volume is understandable due to the President's day holiday so we had two days of pent up demand. The registered volume on Friday was very tame at 129,945. It certainly appears that the comex is losing some business to London England.
The total silver comex continues in its very narrow width of OI. Today's reading was 106,962 a fall of 308 contracts from Friday's reading of 107,270. The front month of February (an option's expiry month only)
saw its open interest fall from 217 to 130 for a loss of 87 contracts. However we had 124 deliveries on Friday so again we had an increase in silver ounces standing by 37 contracts or 185,000 oz.
This Friday, I believe options, and the Feb. silver contract, go off the board. First day notice will be on Feb 29.2012. Delivery notices will be filed late on the 28th of February. The front delivery month of March
has its OI registered at 29,314 falling by about 1700 contracts from Friday's level of 31,030. The contraction in OI has been smaller than in other months as we enter the first day notice. The estimated volume today was quite good at 80,505 whereas on Friday, the volume was also good at 51,079.
Now let us begin with February inventory movements in Gold
February 21.2012 :
|
Gold
|
Ounces
|
|
Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz
|
nil
|
|
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz
|
387 (HSBC,Manfra)
|
|
Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz
|
nil
|
|
Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz
|
846 (Brinks)
|
|
No of oz served (contracts) today
|
1 (100)
|
|
No of oz to be served (notices)
|
345 (34,500)
|
|
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month
|
2800 (280,000)
|
|
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Dealers inventory this month
|
4381
|
|
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month
|
136,775
|
We had very little activity in the gold vaults today. Again we had no dealer activity whether by deposit or by withdrawal.
We did have the following customer deposit into Brinks:
846 oz.
we had the following customer withdrawal:
1. Out of HSBC 65 oz
2. Out of Manfra: 322 oz
total customer withdrawal: 387 oz
we had a tiny 96 oz adjustment out of Scotia where the customer lent silver to the dealer.
The total registered gold rests tonight at 2.448 million oz or 76.14 million oz.
The CME notified us that we only had one delivery notice for 100 oz. I guess China is having a toll at the comex as this nation is taking all available physical gold and loading its shores. The total number of notices filed so far this month total 2800 for 280,000 oz. To obtain what is left to be served, I take the OI standing (346) and subtract out today's deliveries (1) which leaves us with 345 notices or 34,500 oz left to be served upon.
Thus the total number of gold oz standing in this official delivery month is as follows:
280,000 oz (served) + 34500 (oz to be served) = 314,500 oz or 9.78 tonnes.
we lost another 2400 oz of gold to cash settlements.
end
the silver chart: February 21. 2012:
| Silver |
Ounces
|
| Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory | 434,656 (Brinks) |
| Withdrawals fromCustomer Inventory | 23,220 (HSBC) |
| Deposits to theDealer Inventory | 300,307 (Brinks) |
| Deposits to the Customer Inventory | 630,401 (Scotia) |
| No of oz served (contracts) | 57 (285,000) |
| No of oz to be served (notices) | 73 (365,000 oz) |
| Total monthly oz silver served (contracts) | 766 (3,830,000 oz) |
| Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealersinventory this month | 2,722,435 |
| Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month | 6,843,946 |
We witnessed more activity in silver vaults than gold.
The dealer at Brinks received the following: 300,307 oz
The customer at Scotia received the following: 630,401 oz
The dealer at Brinks removed 434,656 oz.
The customer at HSBC removed 23,220 oz.
We had a tiny adjustment of 1035 oz where a customer leased some silver to the dealer.
The registered silver inventory rests tonight at 34.939 million oz
The total of all silver inventory rests at 129.28 million oz.
The CME notified us that we had another chunky delivery of 57 contracts for a total of 285,000 oz.
The total number of notices filed so far this month which originates from options exercised on calls or exercised upon contracts being put upon total 766 contracts for 3,830,000 oz To obtain what is left to be served I take the Oi standing for February (130) and subtract out today's delivery notices (57) which leaves us with 73 notices or 365,000 oz left to be filed upon.
Thus the total number of silver oz standing in this non delivery month is as follows:
3,830,000 (served) + 365,000 oz (to be served) =4,195,000 oz
we are advancing to the 5 million oz mark.
Ted Butler weighs in as to the huge increase in movement of silver at registered silver vaults.
(courtesy Ted Butler/Ed Steer commentary
Silver analyst Ted Butler had a few things to say in his weekend commentary to paying subscribers...and here are three free paragraphs...
"Conditions in the wholesale physical silver market still appear tight, although retail demand may be cooling off. There is still unusually high turnover or movement of metal into and out from the COMEX approved silver warehouses, as the total level of inventory was mostly unchanged for the week. Although there is little sign of widespread attention to this silver movement, it still resonates with me. That’s because, up until a year or so ago, such consistent turnover didn’t exist."
"The vision of daily large truck deliveries, being loaded and unloaded in and around New York City (not the most traffic-friendly environment) is one I often think about. Having some familiarity with that NYC traffic, I can’t help but ask - who would subject themselves to that experience unnecessarily? What's so important about moving metal so feverishly in those traffic conditions and congestion? The most plausible explanation to me is that most of the near 130 million oz already there is unavailable and new stuff must be brought in to satisfy consistent withdrawal demands. Again, this turnover pattern didn’t exist over the past quarter century."
"Sure, there were times over the past 25 years when many tens of millions and even a hundred million ounces came into and out from the COMEX silver warehouses over varying periods of time. But I don’t ever remember this daily in and out on the COMEX. Also adding to the signs of physical tightness was the withdrawal of 3.5 million oz from the big silver ETF, SLV, this week. Price patterns and trading volume did not suggest that the withdrawal was due to plain-vanilla investor liquidation. The most plausible explanation was that SLV shares were converted to metal and that metal was removed because it was needed somewhere more urgently than in the London warehouse of the custodian. This tends to confirm the tightness scenario, as does the 600 thousand oz withdrawal from the big Swiss silver ETF, ZKB."
Let us now proceed to our ETF's SLV and GLD and then our physical gold and silver funds:
Sprott and Central Fund of Canada.
The two ETF's that I follow are the GLD and SLV. You must be very careful in trading these vehicles as these funds do not have any beneficial gold or silver behind them. They probably have only paper claims and when the dust settles, on a collapse, there will be countless class action lawsuits trying to recover your lost investment.
There is now evidence that the GLD and SLV are paper settling on the comex.
Thus a default at either of the LBMA, or Comex will trigger a catastrophic event.
Feb 21.2012:
TOTAL GOLD IN TRUST
Tonnes:1,281.59
Ounces:41,204,299.42
Value US$:72,004,175,950.96
FEB 18.2012
TOTAL GOLD IN TRUST
Tonnes:1,281.28
Ounces:41,194,581.96
Value US$:70,960,443,080.79
FEB 16.2012
TOTAL GOLD IN TRUST
Tonnes:1,281.28
Ounces:41,194,581.96
Value US$:70,549,272,793.6
we gained .31 tonnes of gold at the GLD today..
And now for silver Feb 21 2012:
Ounces of Silver in Trust |
308,381,076.800 |
Tonnes of Silver in Trust  |
9,591.72 |
feb 18.2012
| Ounces of Silver in Trust | 308,381,076.800 |
|
Tonnes of Silver in Trust |
9,591.72 |
Feb 16.2012:
| Ounces of Silver in Trust | 308,381,076.800 |
|
Tonnes of Silver in Trust |
9,591.72 |
Feb 15.2012
| Ounces of Silver in Trust | 309,449,951.200 |
|
Tonnes of Silver in Trust |
9,624.97 |
Feb 14.2012
| Ounces of Silver in Trust | 310,518,841.000 |
|
Tonnes of Silver in Trust |
9,658.22 |
Feb 13.2012
| Ounces of Silver in Trust | 311,879,302.200 |
|
Tonnes of Silver in Trust |
9,700.53 |
For a change we lost zero oz of silver at the SLV on Friday.
And now for our premiums to NAV for the funds I follow:
1. Central Fund of Canada: traded to a positive 5.6 percent to NAV in usa funds and a positive 5.5% to NAV for Cdn funds. ( Feb 21 2012.).
2. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): Premium to NAV rose big time today to 8.3% to NAV Feb 21.2012 :
3. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV fell slightly to 2.72% positive to NAV Feb 21. 2012).
end
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