Greece "rescued" as Europe forges a deal/Gold and silver advance in price/4.2 million oz of silver standing in Feb

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen:

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.

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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.

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