European turmoil /Portugal/Illinois/

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today we had the risk is off trade as Europe is in turmoil due to the lack of progress in dealing with
Greece and other PIIGS nations. They announce a deal for the new mechanism for funding yet no deal can be found written anywhere. These will be discussed in the body of the commentary but first let us head over to the comex.


The price of gold closed at the comex at $1664.20 for a loss of 13.80. The price of silver also fell by 32 cents to $31.93. Tonight is the state of the Union message and always the bankers want to make Obama look good so they bomb the precious metals so to make the paper dollar supreme. Options are expiring on Thursday and tomorrow Bernanke deliveries his FOMC two day statement, so again the bankers have their fingers on the sell button.


The total gold comex OI fell by 1800 contracts or so to 436,642 with gold advancing by 14.00 dollars yesterday. We had some banker liquidation. The front options delivery month of January saw its OI fall from 42 to 14 for a loss of 28 contracts. We had 29 delivery notices yesterday so we gained 1 gold contract or 100 oz of additional gold standing. We are now exactly one week away from first day notice and here the OI fell by 9000 contracts as most rolled into April. The new OI for February rests tonight at 139,274 which is on the low side. Of course, we will have to see how many resolute longs we will have willing to take on the likes of the bankers and Blythe Masters. Will they be tempted with bonus fiat dollars to roll or take physical delivery. The estimated volume at the gold comex today came in at 163,849 which is very low for a rollover period. The confirmed volume yesterday was slightly better at 171,616. There is no question that much business has been taken away from the comex to other jurisdictions probably due to the crookedness of the bankers and of course, the MFGlobal scandal.