They’re still running this gold show, but from the long side now.

Yesterday In Gold & Silver

Gold [along with the other three precious metals] spiked up a bit between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. Hong Kong time on their Wednesday morning. and then more or less drifted sideways until 11:00 a.m. in London. From that point, the high-frequency traders went to work. and by the 4:00 p.m. BST London close [11:00 a.m. EDT] had sold it down to its low tick of the day, which Kitco recorded at $1,304.90 spot.

From that low, the gold price rallied a bit. and then took off at 2:00 p.m. EDT in the electronic market, only to run into a willing seller within minutes. But fifteen minutes later a larger rally began. and it got capped by a not-for-profit seller at 3:00 p.m. EDT as it was about to run away to the upside and take out Tuesdays closing price. The high tick at that point was $1,335.40 spot.

The gold price got sold down about $15 from its high. and traded sideways for the rest of the day.

Gold closed at $1,323.20 spot. down $3.50 from Tuesdays close. Volume, net of August, was an enormous 244,000 contracts, so its obvious that there was probably big liquidation on the sell-off. and then da boyz had to throw a wall of paper at the late-day rally in New York to squash the price at 3:00 p.m. EDT.

Heres the New York Spot Gold [Bid] chart on its own.

It was virtually the same price pattern in silver as it was in gold. and the only difference that I could see was that the low tick of the day came around 11:45 a.m. EDT. about forty-five minutes after London closed. But both before and after that event, the price action was very similar to golds.

The right-on-the-button 3:00 p.m. EDT high tick was recorded by Kitco at $20.24 spot. and the low tick was $19.32. an intraday move of almost a dollar. The silver price got sold down 45 cents. two percent. after its 3:00 p.m. high tick.

Silver closed the Wednesday trading session at $19.81 spot. up a whole 8 cents from Tuesday. Gross volume was very big. 58,000 contracts. another blizzard of paper silver.

Not surprisingly the platinum and palladium charts are almost carbon copies of the gold and silver charts. right down to the 3:00 p.m. EDT appearance of a short seller of last resort. Here are the charts.

As I keep repeating, it should be completely obvious [except to the willfully blind] that if JPMorgan et al hadnt shown up at 3:00 p.m. EDT. all the precious metals would have finished the Wednesday trading session materially higher.

The dollar index closed on Tuesday afternoon in New York at 81.84. and traded in a very tight range until 8:00 a.m EDT. By 10:00 a.m. EDT it had hit its high of 82.14. and then hit its low tick of 81.45 minutes before 3:00 p.m. in New York. From that low, the index recovered about 20 basis points before trading sideways into the close.

I suppose you could make a case that the dollar index face plant between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. EDT had something to do with the move in the precious metal prices during that time period, but these rallies were out of all proportion to the move in the index. But the move in the currencies doesnt explain the times of the low price ticks in all four precious metals, as the price management at those times is self-evident.

The gold stocks spent most the trading day down about 2 percentage points. but blasted into positive territory on the back of the big afternoon move in the gold price between two and three p.m. EDT. Once the gold price got sold down, the stocks were quick to follow. and the HUI slid into the red, finishing the Wednesday session down 0.53%.

For obvious reasons, Nick Lairds Intraday Silver Sentiment Index followed the same general pattern as the HUI. and it closed in negative territory as well, down 0.27%.

(Click on image to enlarge)

The CMEs Daily Delivery Report for Day 2 of the August delivery month never showed up on their website yesterday evening. and is still not there as I hit the send button at 5:15 a.m. EDT this morning. I dont remember the CME not updating this data on a daily basis. usually around 10:00 p.m. Eastern time. and Ive been posting it for years in this space. Im not sure what to make of it.

There were no reported changes in either GLD or SLV for the second day in a row.

Over at Switzerlands Zrcher Kantonalbank for the week ending July 26th, they reported a tiny decrease of 531 ounces in their gold ETF. and a smallish decline of about 146,000 ounces in their silver ETF.

The U.S. Mint had a smallish sales report for the final day of July. They reported selling 3,500 ounces of gold eagles. and 500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes. and no silver eagles. For the month just past, the mint sold 50,500 ounces of gold eagles. 18,500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes. and 4,406,500 silver eagles. Based on these sales figures, the silver/gold sales ratio from the mint for July was just under 64 to 1.

Over at the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday, they reported receiving 2,600 ounces of gold. and didnt ship any out. The link to that activity is here .

In silver. these same depositories, reported receiving a chunky 1,801,557 troy ounces. and shipped 601,350 troy ounces out the door. The link to that activity is here .

It should be noted once again that the 601,350 troy ounces shipped out, all landed in JPMorgan Chases warehouse. This is the fourth or fifth time in the last couple of weeks that this amount of silver has been moved from Scotia Mocattas warehouse and into JPMorgans. Does it mean anything? I dont know. and Ted says that I shouldnt read a thing into it.

I have the usual number of stories for a mid-week column. and hope that you find a couple that interest you.

Critical Reads

Fed offers No Hint of Stimulus Pullback

The Federal Reserve said on Wednesday the economy continues to recover but is still in need of support, offering no indication that it is planning to reduce its bond-buying stimulus at its next meeting in September.

The central bank said after a two-day meeting that it would keep buying $85 billion in mortgage and Treasury securities per month in its effort to strengthen an economy that it said was still challenged by federal budget-tightening. It also pointed to a recent run up in mortgage rates.

In a post-meeting statement, policymakers described economic activity as having expanded at a modest pace in the first half of the year. They had called the recovery moderate after their last meeting in June.

In another departure, the Feds policy-setting committee signaled some concern about the low level of inflation.

This moneynews.com story was posted on their Internet site just minutes after the news came down from the Feds meeting. Todays first news item now bears the headline Fed Frets Over High Mortgage Rates, Low Inflation Level . and I thank West Virginia reader Elliot Simon for sending it.

Bankrupt Detroit Receives Less U.S. Aid Than Colombia

President Barack Obama proposed giving Colombia about $323 million in aid next year, mostly to combat drug trafficking and violence. Detroit, with an 81 percent higher homicide rate, will get $108.2 million.

This Bloomberg news item was posted on their website early Tuesday evening MDT. and its the first contribution of the day from U.A.E. reader Laurent-Patrick Gally.