GOLD: $1352.00 DOWN $11.00

Silver: $17.42 DOWN 21 cents

Closing access prices:

Gold $1350.80

silver: $17.44

SHANGHAI GOLD FIX: FIRST FIX 10 15 PM EST (2:15 SHANGHAI LOCAL TIME)

SECOND FIX: 2:15 AM EST (6:15 SHANGHAI LOCAL TIME)

SHANGHAI FIRST GOLD FIX: $1361.58 DOLLARS PER OZ

NY PRICE OF GOLD AT EXACT SAME TIME: $1352.20

PREMIUM FIRST FIX: $9.38

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SECOND SHANGHAI GOLD FIX: $1368.09

NY GOLD PRICE AT THE EXACT SAME TIME: $1355.75

Premium of Shanghai 2nd fix/NY:$8.30

SHANGHAI REJECTS NY /LONDON PRICING OF GOLD

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LONDON FIRST GOLD FIX: 5:30 am est $1354.35

NY PRICING AT THE EXACT SAME TIME: $1354.35

LONDON SECOND GOLD FIX 10 AM: $1353.15

NY PRICING AT THE EXACT SAME TIME. $1353.10

For comex gold:

JANUARY/

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR JANUARY CONTRACT: 1 NOTICE(S) FOR 100 OZ.

TOTAL NOTICES SO FAR: 696 FOR 69600 OZ (2.1648 TONNES),

For silver:

jANUARY

1 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR

5,000 OZ/

Total number of notices filed so far this month: 728 for 3,640,000 oz

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Bitcoin: BID $10,369/OFFER $10,469  DOWN $722 (morning)

 Bitcoin: BID/   $10,913/   $11,013 offer down $177  (CLOSING/4 PM)

end

Let us have a look at the data for today

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In silver, the total open interest FELL BY A FAIR SIZED 1456 contracts from 205,874 FALLING TO 204,418 DESPITE YESTERDAY’S GOOD 13 CENT GAIN IN SILVER PRICING.  OBVIOUSLY WE HAD SOME COMEX LIQUIDATION. HOWEVER, WE WERE AGAIN NOTIFIED THAT WE HAD ANOTHER HUGE SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONGS TRANSFERRING THEIR CONTRACTS TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE:  2698 EFP’S FOR MARCH AND 50  FOR FEBRUARY(SOMEBODY BADLY NEEDS PHYSICAL AND HAS TO GO TO LONDON TO GET IT) AND ZERO FOR ALL  OTHER MONTHS  AND THUS TOTAL ISSUANCE OF 2748 CONTRACTS. HOWEVER THE MOVEMENT ACROSS TO LONDON IS NOT AS SEVERE AS IN GOLD AS THERE SEEMS TO BE  MAJOR PLAYERS WILLING TO TAKE ON THE BANKS AT THE COMEX. STILL, WITH THE TRANSFER OF 2748 CONTRACTS, WHAT THE CME IS STATING IS THAT THERE IS NO SILVER (OR GOLD) TO BE DELIVERED UPON AT THE COMEX AS THEY MUST EXPORT THEIR OBLIGATION TO LONDON. ALSO KEEP IN MIND THAT THERE CAN BE A DELAY OF 24 HRS IN THE ISSUING OF EFP’S.

ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S/SILVER/ STARTING FROM FIRST DAY NOTICE/FOR MONTH OF JANUARY:

43,410 CONTRACTS (FOR 19 TRADING DAYS TOTAL 43,410 CONTRACTS OR 217.050 MILLION OZ: AVERAGE PER DAY: 2285 CONTRACTS OR 11.423 MILLION OZ/DAY)

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE HUGE SUPPLY THIS MONTH IN SILVER:  SO FAR THIS MONTH:  217.05 MILLION PAPER OZ HAVE MORPHED OVER TO LONDON. THIS REPRESENTS AROUND 30.07% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION

RESULT: A SMALL SIZED LOSS IN OI COMEX DESPITE THE 13 CENT GAIN IN SILVER PRICE.  WE HOWEVER HAD A HUGE SIZED EFP ISSUANCE OF 2748 CONTRACTS WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX AND TRANSFERRED THEIR OI TO LONDON AS FORWARDS. SPECULATORS CONTINUED THEIR INTEREST IN ATTACKING THE SILVER COMEX FOR PHYSICAL SILVER . FROM THE CME DATA 2748 EFP’S WERE ISSUED FOR TODAY  FOR A DELIVERABLE FORWARD CONTRACT OVER IN LONDON WITH A FIAT BONUS. WE REALLY GAINED 1292 OI CONTRACTS i.e. 2748 open interest contracts headed for London (EFP’s) TOGETHER WITH A DECREASE OF 1456  OI COMEX CONTRACTS. AND ALL OF THIS HAPPENED WITH THE RISE IN PRICE OF SILVER OF 13 CENTS AND A CLOSING PRICE OF $17.63 WITH RESPECT TO YESTERDAY’S TRADING. YET WE STILL HAVE A GOOD AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING AT THE COMEX.

In ounces AT THE COMEX, the OI is still represented by just OVER 1 BILLION oz i.e. 1.022 BILLION TO BE EXACT or 146% of annual global silver production (ex Russia & ex China).

FOR THE NEW FRONT JANUARY MONTH/ THEY FILED: 1 NOTICE(S) FOR 5,000 OZ OF SILVER

In gold, the open interest FELL  BY A HUMONGOUS 24,817 CONTRACTS DOWN TO 573,135 DESPITE THE GOOD SIZED RISE IN PRICE OF GOLD WITH YESTERDAY’S TRADING ($5.80). IN ANOTHER HUGE DEVELOPMENT, WE RECEIVED THE TOTAL NUMBER OF GOLD EFP’S ISSUED FOR FRIDAY AND IT TOTALED A GOOD SIZED  8445 CONTRACTS OF WHICH FEBRUARY SAW 7766 CONTRACTS ISSUED AND  APRIL SAW THE ISSUANCE OF 679 CONTRACTS.    The new OI for the gold complex rests at 581,778. ALSO REMEMBER THAT THERE WILL BE A DELAY IN THE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S.  THE BANKERS REMOVE LONG POSITIONS OF COMEX GOLD IMMEDIATELY.  THEN THEY ORCHESTRATE THEIR PRIVATE EFP DEAL WITH THE LONGS AND THAT COULD TAKE AN ADDITIONAL 48 HRS SO WE GENERALLY DO NOT GET A MATCH WITH RESPECT TO DEPARTING COMEX LONGS AND NEW EFP LONG TRANSFERS. DUE TO THE DELAY IN THE RELEASE OF YESTERDAY’S DATA YOU CAN BET THE FARM THAT THEY HAVE DELAYED THE RELEASE OF MANY EFPS. DEMAND FOR GOLD INTENSIFIES GREATLY AS WE CONTINUE TO WITNESS A HUGE NUMBER OF EFP TRANSFERS TOGETHER WITH THE MASSIVE INCREASE IN GOLD COMEX OI  TOGETHER WITH  THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF GOLD OUNCES STANDING FOR JANUARY COMEX. EVEN THOUGH THE BANKERS ISSUED THESE MONSTROUS EFPS, THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH THE BANKERS TO SUPPLY METAL BUT IT TRANSFERS THE RISK TO A LONDON BANKER OBLIGATION AND NOT A NEW YORK COMEX OBLIGATION. LONGS RECEIVE A FIAT BONUS TOGETHER WITH A LONG LONDON FORWARD. THUS, BY THESE ACTIONS, THE BANKERS AT THE COMEX HAVE JUST STATED THAT THEY HAVE NO APPRECIABLE METAL!! THIS IS A MASSIVE FRAUD: THEY CANNOT SUPPLY ANY METAL TO OUR COMEX LONGS BUT THEY ARE QUITE WILLING TO SUPPLY MASSIVE NON BACKED GOLD (AND SILVER) PAPER KNOWING THAT THEY HAVE NO METAL TO SATISFY OUR LONGS. LONDON IS NOW SEVERELY BACKWARD IN BOTH GOLD AND SILVER (BIG RISE IN BOTH GOFO AND SIFO) AND WE ARE WITNESSING DELAYS IN ACTUAL DELIVERIES. IN ESSENCE TODAY WE HAVE A LOSS OF 16,372  CONTRACTS: 24,817 OI CONTRACTS DECREASED AT THE COMEX AND A GOOD SIZED  8445 OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. EXPECT HUGE NUMBERS OF EFP’S TO BE ISSUED AS WE APPROACH FIRST DAY NOTICE IN THE GOLD FEB COMEX CONTRACT, WEDNESDAY JAN 31.2018

YESTERDAY, WE HAD 20,747 EFP’S ISSUED.

ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S/ GOLD(EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY STARTING WITH FIRST DAY NOTICE: 193,663 CONTRACTS OR 19.366 MILLION OZ OR 602.363 TONNES (19 TRADING DAYS AND THUS AVERAGING: 10,192 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY OR 1,019,200 OZ/DAY)

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE HUGE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS :   SO FAR THIS MONTH IN 17 TRADING DAYS: IN  TONNES: 602 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2017, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 2200 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 602/2200 TONNES =  27.36% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION SO FAR IN JANUARY ALONE.

Result: A  STRONG SIZED DECREASE IN OI AT THE COMEX DESPITE THE GOOD SIZED RISE IN PRICE IN GOLD TRADING ON YESTERDAY ($5.80). IT IS WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT MANY OF THE DEPARTED COMEX LONGS ARE WAITING TO RECEIVE A PRIVATE EFP CONTRACT FOR EITHER FEBRUARY OR APRIL AND THESE GUYS ARE STILL NEGOTIATING THEIR DEAL. WE HAD ANOTHER GOOD SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONG TRANSFERRING TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE: 8445 AS THESE HAVE ALREADY BEEN NEGOTIATED.   THERE OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT SEEM TO BE MUCH PHYSICAL GOLD AT THE COMEX AND YET WE ALSO OBSERVED A HUGE DELIVERY MONTH FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER. I GUESS IT EXPLAINS THE HUGE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S…THERE IS HARDLY ANY GOLD PRESENT AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR DELIVERY PURPOSES. IF YOU TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE 8445 EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED, WE HAD A NET LOSS IN OPEN INTEREST OF 16,372 contracts ON THE TWO EXCHANGES:

8445 CONTRACTS MOVE TO LONDON AND  24,817 CONTRACTS DECREASED AT THE COMEX. (in tonnes, the LOSS in total oi equates to 77.19 TONNES). ON MONDAY WE SHOULD SEE A HUGE INCREASE IN EFP’S DUE TO THE HUMONGOUS LONGS THAT HAVE DEPARTED THE COMEX AND THEY AWAIT PATIENTLY FOR THE FIAT BONUS PLUS A LONDON BASED FORWARD CONTRACT.

we had: 1 notice(s) filed upon for 100 oz of gold.

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With respect to our two criminal funds, the GLD and the SLV:

GLD

With gold down $11.00, we had no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/

Inventory rests tonight: 849.32 tonnes.

SLV/ 

A SMALL CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/ WITH SILVER UP TODAY AND YESTERDAY, THEY COULD ONLY MUSTER A GAIN OF 848,00 OZ AT THE SLV /

INVENTORY RESTS AT 313.896 MILLION OZ/

end

First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:

1. Today, we had the open interest in silver FELL BY A SMALL 1456 contracts from 205,874 UP TO 204,418 (AND now A LITTLE FURTHER FROM  THE NEW COMEX RECORD SET ON FRIDAY/APRIL 21/2017 AT 234,787) DESPITE  THE GOOD RISE  IN PRICE OF SILVER  (13 CENTS WITH RESPECT TO  YESTERDAY’S TRADING).   OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE ANOTHER GOOD 2748 PRIVATE EFP’S FOR MARCH AND FEBRUARY  (WE DO NOT GET A LOOK AT THESE CONTRACTS AS IT IS PRIVATE BUT THE CFTC DOES AUDIT THEM) AND 0 EFP’S FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS .  EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. WE HAD ZERO COMEX SILVER COMEX LIQUIDATION. IF WE TAKE THE  OI LOSS AT THE COMEX OF  1456 CONTRACTS TO THE 2748 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S WE OBTAIN A GAIN OF 1292 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS.  WE STILL HAVE A GOOD AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES THAT ARE STANDING FOR METAL IN JANUARY (SEE BELOW). THE NET GAIN TODAY IN OZ ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 6.46 MILLION OZ!!!

RESULT: A SMALL SIZED DECREASE IN SILVER OI AT THE COMEX DESPITE THE GOOD SIZED RISE  OF 13 CENTS IN PRICE (WITH RESPECT TO YESTERDAY’S TRADING). BUT WE ALSO HAD ANOTHER STRONG 2748 EFP’S ISSUED TRANSFERRING COMEX LONGS OVER TO LONDON. TOGETHER WITH THE GOOD  SIZED AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES STANDING FOR JANUARY, DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL SILVER INTENSIFIES AS WE WITNESS MAJOR BANK SHORT COVERING ACCOMPANIED BY INCREASES IN GOFO AND SIFO RATES INDICATING SCARCITY.

(report Harvey)

.

2.a) The Shanghai and London gold fix report

(Harvey)

2 b) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe, Goldcore

(Mark O’Byrne/zerohedge

and in NY: Bloomberg

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)Late THURSDAY night/FRIDAY morning: Shanghai closed UP 9.82 points or 0.28% /Hang Sang CLOSED UP 499.67 pts or 1.53% / The Nikkei closed DOWN 37.61 POINTS OR 0.16%/Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED DOWN 0.07%/Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed  UP at 6.3277/Oil UP to 65.59 dollars per barrel for WTI and 70.35 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL GREED .   ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP AGAINST THE DOLLAR AT 6.3277. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP AGAINST  THE ONSHORE YUAN AT 6.3256//ONSHORE YUAN MUCH STRONGER AGAINST THE DOLLAR/OFF SHORE MUCH STRONGER TO THE DOLLAR/. THE DOLLAR (INDEX) IS  MUCH WEAKER AGAINST ALL MAJOR CURRENCIES. CHINA IS EXTREMELY  HAPPY TODAY.(STRONG CURRENCY AND STRONG MARKETS )

3a)THAILAND/SOUTH KOREA/NORTH KOREA

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

3 c CHINA

4. EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

6 .GLOBAL ISSUES

7. OIL ISSUES

8. EMERGING MARKET

9. PHYSICAL MARKETS

ii)Mike Kosares explains why gold will rise and outpace other prices during a hyperinflation

a must read..

( Mike Kosares/USAgold/GATA)

( zerohedge)

10. USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver

(courtesy zerohedge/Michael Harnett/B of America).

ii)Trading in the dollar today:  it resumes its downward trajectory. The markets are just not buying Trump’s remarks:

iv)Not good! core durable goods orders tumbled .3%month over month.  Core durable goods takes away from aircraft orders and war spending

( zerohedge)

v)Last night:  Trump offers the Democrats a path to citizenship for 1.8 million DACA dreamers in exchange for complete wall funding

( zerohedge)

( zerohedge)

Let us head over to the comex:

The total gold comex open interest  FELL BY A HUGE 24,817 CONTRACTS DOWN to an OI level of 573,135 DESPITE THE GOOD SIZED RISE IN THE PRICE OF GOLD ($5.80 GAIN WITH RESPECT TO YESTERDAY’S TRADING).   WE HAD CONSIDERABLE COMEX GOLD LIQUIDATION. HOWEVER THE CME REPORTS THAT  THE BANKERS ISSUED ANOTHER STRONG COMEX TRANSFER THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE AS THESE LONGS RECEIVED A DELIVERABLE LONDON FORWARD TOGETHER WITH A FIAT BONUS. WE HAD A GOOD SIZED 7766 EFP’S ISSUED FOR FEBRUARY  AND 679 EFP’s  FOR APRIL:  TOTAL  8445 CONTRACTS. THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH THE BANKERS ON THESE TRANSFERS. ALSO REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO DOUBT A HUGE DELAY IN THE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S AND IT PROBABLY TAKES AT LEAST  48 HRS AFTER LONGS GIVE UP THEIR COMEX CONTRACTS FOR THEM TO RECEIVE THEIR EFP’S AS THEY ARE NEGOTIATING THIS CONTRACT WITH THE BANKS FOR A FIAT BONUS PLUS THEIR TRANSFER TO A LONDON FORWARD… THE COMEX IS NOW AN ABSOLUTE FRAUD!!

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE LOST TODAY: 16,372 OI CONTRACTS IN THAT 8445 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE LOST 24,817 COMEX CONTRACTS. NET LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 16,272 contracts OR 1,627,200   OZ OR 50.60 TONNES

Result: A  STRONG  DECREASE IN COMEX OPEN INTEREST DESPITE THE HUGE RISE IN YESTERDAY’S GOLD TRADING ($5.80.) WE HAD CONSIDERABLE COMEX GOLD LIQUIDATION.  TOTAL OPEN INTEREST LOSS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 16,3712 OI CONTRACTS..

We have now entered the active contract month of JANUARY. The open interest for the front month of JANUARY saw it’s open interest FALL by 2 contracts FALLING TO 2.  We had 3 notices served upon yesterday so we GAINED 1  contract or an additional 100 oz of gold will   stand AT THE COMEX in this non active month of January as these guys joined others in obtaining a London based forward contract.

FEBRUARY saw a LOSS of 52,168 contacts DOWN to 105,365.  March saw a GAIN of 164 contracts UP to 1818.  April saw a GAIN of 24,732 contracts UP to 329,502.

We had 1 notice(s) filed upon today for 100 oz

PRELIMINARY VOLUME TODAY ESTIMATED;  not available

FINAL NUMBERS CONFIRMED FOR YESTERDAY:  698,050

comex gold volumes are RISING AGAIN

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And now for the wild silver comex results.

Total silver OI FELL  BY A SMALL 1456  CONTRACTS FROM 205,874 DOWN TO 204,418 DESPITE YESTERDAY’S GOOD SIZED 13 CENT GAIN.  WE WERE ALSO INFORMED THAT WE HAD ANOTHER GIGANTIC SIZED 2698 EMERGENCY EFP’S FOR MARCH ISSUED BY OUR BANKERS (WITH 50 EFP CONTRACTS FOR FEBRUARY..AS SOMEBODY WAS IN URGENT NEED OF METAL AND NEEDED TO GO TO LONDON TO GET IT  AND ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS)  TO COMEX LONGS WHO RECEIVED A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON: THE TOTAL EFP’S ISSUED: 2748.   THE SILVER BOYS HAVE STARTED TO MIGRATE TO LONDON FROM THE START OF DELIVERY MONTH AND CONTINUING RIGHT THROUGH UNTIL FIRST DAY NOTICE JUST LIKE WE ARE WITNESSING TODAY. USUALLY WE NOTED THAT CONTRACTION IN OI OCCURRED ONLY DURING THE LAST WEEK OF AN UPCOMING ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH AS WE HAVE JUST SEEN IN GOLD TODAY. THIS PROCESS HAS JUST BEGUN IN EARNEST IN SILVER STARTING IN SEPTEMBER 2017. HOWEVER, IN GOLD, WE HAVE BEEN WITNESSING THIS FOR THE PAST 2 YEARS. NICK LAIRD WAS KIND ENOUGH TO SUPPLY US THE TOTAL FOR 2017 GOLD EFP’S AND IT WAS 6600 TONNES FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR.  WE HAD  SOME LONG COMEX SILVER LIQUIDATION AND A HUGE SIZED RISE IN TOTAL SILVER OI. WE ARE ALSO WITNESSING A FAIR AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES STANDING FOR COMEX METAL IN THIS NON ACTIVE JANUARY AS WELL AS THAT CONTINUAL MIGRATION OF EFPS OVER TO LONDON. ON A PERCENTAGE BASIS THERE ARE MORE EFP’S ISSUED FOR GOLD THAN SILVER.  ON A NET BASIS WE GAINED 1292 SILVER OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS:

1456 CONTRACT LOSS AT THE COMEX COMBINING WITH THE ADDITION OF 2748 OI CONTRACTS NAVIGATING OVER TO LONDON.

NET GAIN TWO EXCHANGES: 1292 CONTRACTS

We are now in the poor non active delivery month of January and here the OI LOST 0 contracts REMAINING AT 3.  We had 1 notice served upon yesterday, so we GAINED 1 contract or an additional 5,000 oz will stand for delivery  AT THE COMEX  AND QUEUE JUMPING CONTINUES

February saw a GAIN OF 54 OI contracts RISING TO 200. The March contract LOST 3646 contracts DOWN to 138,390.

We had 1 notice(s) filed for NIL 5,000 for the January 2018 contract for silver

For JANUARY:
Today, 0 notice(s) were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 1 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 0 notice(s) was (were) stopped/ Received) by j.P.Morgan customer account.

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To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the JANUARY. contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (696) x 100 oz or 69600 oz, to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of JAN. (4 contracts) minus the number of notices served upon today (1 x 100 oz per contract) equals 69,900 oz, the number of ounces standing in this active month of JANUARY

Thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the JANUARY contract month:

No of notices served (696 x 100 oz or ounces + {(4)OI for the front month minus the number of notices served upon today (1 x 100 oz which equals 69,900 oz standing in this active delivery month of JANUARY (2.1710 tonnes). THERE IS 17.629 TONNES OF REGISTERED GOLD AVAILABLE FOR DELIVERY SO FAR.

WE GAINED 1 CONTRACTS OR AN ADDITIONAL 100 OZ WILL STAND IN THIS NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF JANUARY

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ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOR JANUARY 2017, THE INITIAL GOLD STANDING: 3.904 TONNES STANDING

BY THE END OF THE MONTH: FINAL: 3.555 TONNES STOOD FOR COMEX DELIVERY AS THE REMAINDER HAD TRANSFERRED OVER TO LONDON FORWARDS.

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I have a sneaky feeling that these withdrawals of gold in kilobars are being used in the hypothecating process and are being used in the raiding of gold!
The gold comex is an absolute fraud. The use of kilobars and exact weights makes the data totally absurd and fraudulent! To me, the only thing that makes sense is the fact that “kilobars: are entries of hypothecated gold sent to other jurisdictions so that they will not be short with their underwritten derivatives in that jurisdiction. This would be similar to the rehypothecated gold used by Jon Corzine at MF Global.

IN THE LAST 15 MONTHS 65 NET TONNES HAS LEFT THE COMEX.

end

And now for silver

AND NOW THE DECEMBER DELIVERY MONTH

DECEMBER FINAL standings

we had no inventory movement at the dealer side of things

total inventory movement dealer: nil oz

we had 1 inventory deposits into the customer account

i) JPMORGAN  Deposit:  599,110.110  oz

ii) into Scotia: 587,131.400

total inventory deposits: 1,186,241.510 oz

we had 3 withdrawals from the customer account;

i) out of Brinks: 302,956.900 oz

ii) Out of CNT: 1193,538.740  oz

iii) out of HSBC: 841,551,600 oz

total withdrawals;  2,338,047.240 oz

we had 0 adjustment

total dealer silver:  45.461 million

total dealer + customer silver:  245.996 million oz

The total number of notices filed today for the JANUARY. contract month is represented by 1 contract(s) FOR 5,000 oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in JANUARY., we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 728 x 5,000 oz = 3,640,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of JAN. (3) and the number of notices served upon today (1 x 5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

.

Thus the INITIAL standings for silver for the JANUARY contract month: 728(notices served so far)x 5000 oz + OI for front month of JANUARY(3) -number of notices served upon today (1)x 5000 oz equals 3,650,000 oz of silver standing for the JANUARY contract month. This is VERY GOOD for this NONACTIVE delivery month of JANUARY.  WE GAINED 1 CONTRACT OR AN ADDITIONAL 5,000  OZ WILL  STAND FOR DELIVERY IN THIS NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF JANUARY AS QUEUE JUMPING CONTINUES AS WE PROCEED TO MONTH’S END.

ON FIRST DAY NOTICE FOR THE JANUARY 2017 CONTRACT WE HAD 3.790 MILLION OZ STAND.

THE FINAL STANDING: 3,730 MILLION OZ

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I almost fell from my chair:  we received volumes at the comex and they were on time

ESTIMATED VOLUME FOR TODAY: not available yet

CONFIRMED VOLUME FOR YESTERDAY:  140,940 CONTRACTS

YESTERDAY’S CONFIRMED VOLUME OF 140,940 CONTRACTS EQUATES TO  520 MILLION OZ OR 74.53% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION OF SILVER

COMMODITY LAW SUGGESTS THAT OPEN INTEREST SHOULD NOT BE MORE THAN 3% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION. THE CROOKS ARE SUPPLYING MASSIVE PAPER TRYING TO KEEP SILVER IN CHECK.

The record level of silver open interest is 234,787 contracts set on April 21./2017 with the price at that day at $18.42
The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44

end

NPV for Sprott 

1. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): NAV FALLS TO -2.25% (Jan 24/2018)
2. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV FALLS TO -0.45% to NAV (Jan 24/2018 )
Note: Sprott silver trust back into NEGATIVE territory at -2.25%-/Sprott physical gold trust is back into NEGATIVE/ territory at -0.36%/Central fund of Canada’s is still in jail but being rescued by Sprott.
Sprott WINS hostile 3.1 billion bid to take over Central Fund of Canada

(courtesy Sprott/GATA)

3.SPROTT CEF.A FUND (FORMERLY CENTRAL FUND OF CANADA): NAV FALLS TO 3.42%: NAV 14.08/TRADING 13.60//DISCOUNT 3.42%

END

And now the Gold inventory at the GLD/

jan 26/2018/no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/inventory rests at 849.32 tonnes

jan 25/no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/inventory rests at 849.32 tonnes

Jan 24/A HUGE DEPOSIT OF 2.65 TONNES OF GOLD INTO GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 849.32 TONNES

Jan 23/NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY DESPITE GOLD’S RISE/INVENTORY RESTS AT 846.67 TONNES

Jan 22/a huge deposit of 5.71 tonnes of gold despite a drop in price/inventory rests at 846.67 tonnes. In 3 trading days, the GLD has added 17.71 tonnes/the bankers are now in trouble!!

Jan 19/no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 840.76 tonnes

Jan 18/SHOCKINGLY A HUGE DEPOSIT OF 11.80 TONNES WITH GOLD DOWN ALMOST $12.00/INVENTORY RESTS AT 840.76

Jan 17/no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/inventory rests at 828.96 tonnes

Jan 16/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 828.96 TONNES

Jan 12/no changes in inventory at the GLD despite the rise in gold price/inventory rests at 828.96 tonnes

Jan 11/ANOTHER IDENTICAL WITHDRAWAL OF 2.95 TONNES FROM THE GLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 828.96 TONNES

Jan 10/with gold up today, a strange withdrawal of 2.95 tonnes/inventory rests at 831.91 tonnes

Jan 9/no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 834.88 tonnes

Jan 8/with gold falling by a tiny $1.40 and this being after 12 consecutive gains, today they announce another 1.44 tonnes of gold withdrawal from the GLD/

Jan 5/NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 836.32 TONNES

Jan 4/2018/no change in gold inventory at the GLD/Inventory rests at 836.32 tonnes

Jan 3/a huge withdrawal of 1.18 tonnes of gold from the GLD/Inventory rests at 836.32 tonnes

Jan 2/2018/no changes in gold inventory at the GLD/inventory rests at 837.50 tonnes

Dec 29/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 837.50 TONNES

Dec 28/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 837.50 TONNES

Dec 27/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/ INVENTORY RESTS AT 837.50 TONNES

Dec 26/no change in gold inventory at the GLD

Dec 22/ A DEPOSIT OF 1.48 TONNES OF GOLD INTO GLD INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 837.50 TONNES

Dec 21′ NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 836.02 TONNES

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Jan 26/2018/ Inventory rests tonight at 849.32 tonnes

*IN LAST 316 TRADING DAYS: 91.83 NET TONNES HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE GLD
*LAST 250 TRADING DAYS: A NET 65.48 TONNES HAVE NOW BEEN ADDED INTO GLD INVENTORY.

end

Now the SLV Inventory

Jan 26.2018/inventory rests at 313,896 oz

Jan 25/with silver up today and yesterday, the SLV could only muster a gain of 848,000 oz

Inventory rests at 313.896 oz

jan 24/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY DESPITE THE GOOD ADVANCE IN PRICE/INVENTORY RESTS AT 313.048 MILLION OZ/

Jan 23/ANOTHER HUGE WITHDRAWAL OF 1.131 MILLION OZ OF SILVER DESPITE THE TINY LOSS/THE CROOKS ARE USING THE INVENTORY TO RAID ON SILVER.

JAN 22.2018/with silver down by 5 cents/ the crooks at the SLV liquidate 1.321 million oz of silver/inventory rests at 314.179 million oz/

Jan 19/ no changes in silver inventory at the SLV/inventory rests at 315.500 million oz/

jan 18/A WITHDRAWAL OF 848,000 OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 315.500 MILLION OZ/

Jan 17/no changes in silver inventory at the SLV/inventory rests at 316.348 million oz/

Jan 16/NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 316.348  MILLION OZ

Jan 12/no changes in silver inventory at the SLV/inventory rests at 316.348 million oz/

Jan 11/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 316.348 MILLION OZ/

Jan 10/with silver up again, we had a huge withdrawal of 1.227 million oz from the SLV/inventory rests at 316.348 million oz

Jan 9/a withdrawal of 848,000 oz from the SLV/Inventory rests at 317.575 million oz/

jan 8/no change in silver inventory at the SLV/Inventory rests at 318.423 million oz/

Jan 5/DESPITE NO CHANGE IN SILVER PRICING, WE HAD A HUGE WITHDRAWAL OF 2.026 MILLION OZ/INVENTORY RESTS AT 318.423 MILLION OZ.

Jan 4.2018/a slight withdrawal of 180,000 oz and this would be to pay for fees/inventory rests at 320.449 million oz/

Jan 3/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 320.629 MILLION OZ.

Jan 2/WITH SILVER UP DRAMATICALLY THESE PAST 4 TRADING DAYS, THE FOLLOWING MAKES NO SENSE: WE HAD A WITHDRAWAL OF 2.83 MILLION OZ FROM THE SLV

INVENTORY RESTS AT 320.629 MILLION OZ/

Dec 29/no changes in silver inventory at the SLV/inventory rests at 323.459 million oz/

Dec 28/DESPITE THE RISE IN SILVER AGAIN BY 13 CENTS, WE LOST ANOTHER 1,251,000 OZ OF SILVER FROM THE SILVER.

Dec 27/WITH SILVER UP AGAIN BY 17 CENTS, WE LOST ANOTHER 802,000 OZ OF SILVER INVENTORY/WHAT CROOKS/INVENTORY RESTS AT 324.780 MILLION OZ/

Dec 26/no change in silver inventory at the SLV./Inventory rests at 325.582

Dec 21/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 326.227 MILLION OZ/

.

Jan 25/2017:

Inventory 313.896 million oz

end

6 Month MM GOFO
Indicative gold forward offer rate for a 6 month duration

+ 1.78%
12 Month MM GOFO
+ 2.16%

end

At 3:30 pm we receive a totally useless COT report which gives us position levels of our major players at the comex.  Of course, the liability of the bankers is much greater than indicated due to the huge number of EFP’s issued:

Gold COT Report – Futures
Large Speculators			Commercial		Total
Long	Short	Spreading	Long	Short	Long	Short
305,812	91,128	64,523	161,458	396,010	531,793	551,661
Change from Prior Reporting Period
3,949	976	-8,647	3,256	5,301	-1,442	-2,370
Traders
180	96	87	46	57	269	202
	Small Speculators
	Long	Short	Open Interest
	50,628	30,760	582,421
	1,530	2,458	88
	non reportable positions		Change from the previous reporting period
COT Gold Report – Positions as of				Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Our large speculators

Those large specs that have been long in gold added another 3949 contracts to their long side

those large specs that have been short in gold added a tiny 976 contracts to their short side

Our commercials

those commercials that have been long in gold added (??) a huge 3256 contracts to their long side

those commercials that have been short in gold added another 5301 contracts to their short side and this does not include all the EFP transfers to London.  The obligation still rests with the bankers on these EFP contracts but the obligation now rests in London

Our small specs

those small specs that have been long in gold added  1530 contracts to their long side

those small specs that have been short in gold added another 2458 contracts to their short side and they have been blown up by now.

and now for your silver COT

Silver COT Report: Futures
Large Speculators			Commercial
Long	Short	Spreading	Long	Short
76,193	47,112	24,616	72,086	113,583
-3,673	4,458	2,914	3,730	-4,916
Traders
98	52	40	41	37
Small Speculators		Open Interest		Total
Long	Short	199,985		Long	Short
27,090	14,674			172,895	185,311
503	1,018	3,474		2,971	2,456
non reportable positions		Positions as of:		157	115
		Tuesday, January 23, 2018		© S

if the following is going on at the comex, it is also going on in London

it sure looks like we are getting silver capitulation by our bankers

Our large speculators

those large specs that have been long in silver pitched a surprising 3673 contracts

those large specs that have been short in silver added 4458 contacts to their short side >>??

Our commercials

those commercials that have been long in silver added a huge  3730 contracts to their long side

those commercials that have been short in silver covered a net 4916 contracts and most of these were transferred to London

Our small specs

those small specs that have been long in silver added a small 503 contracts to their long side

those small specs that have been short in silver added 1018 contracts to their short side.

end

Major gold/silver trading /commentaries for FRIDAY

GOLDCORE/BLOG/MARK O’BYRNE.

GOLD/SILVER

 

Davos – My Personal Experience of the $100,000 Event, $60 Burgers, Massive Inequality and the Blockchain Revolution

January 26

– Davos elite hear warnings of complacency akin to 2007 as economic risks growbr /> – Toxic mix of infallible belief, arrogance, megalomania and economic ignorance
– Some express concern economies are vulnerable due to imbalances, trade, geo-political tensions
– Soros: Trump creating ‘mafia state’ & ‘set on a course towards nuclear war’ with N Korea
– Bond bear market, rising interest rates and massive $233 trillion debt are some of the many threats to global stability
– Davos theme explores massive inequality across the globe while eating $60 hamburgers
– Thousand private jets fly as some attendees lecture poor and middle classes about their fossil fuel consumption
– Blockchain has potential to revolutionise the world of money and foster equality – if not co-opted by elites 
– Better spending $100,000 on physical gold stored in vault in Switzerland then $100k to attend Davos

By Jan Skoyles. Editor Mark O’Byrne

Two years ago I was fortunate enough to be invited to the World Economic Forum at Davos. The invite and events were paid for but everything else was not. This gave me an interesting insight into how the other half (read: 1%) live whilst not enjoying all the spoils of the forum.

Davos for 51 weeks of the year is a fairly bog-standard Swiss ski resort, no more special than others in the surrounding areas. But when the World Economic Forum and world’s elites are in town a normal hotel room suddenly costs $500 and you have to hand over $60 for a hamburger.

Needless to say I found myself a hotel room an hour’s drive away from Davos and stocked up at the hotel breakfast.

We hired ourselves a little Vauxhall Astra and set-off for Davos each day. On the drive into Davos you are pulled over at various check- points by armed police who are clearly wondering why someone in their ski gear (it’s the only warm thing I own) and a tiny rental is heading in that direction. You have to prove that you have a access to the WEF events whilst passport and your car are checked to ensure you’re not going to disrupt the air of calm and power.

The cost of securing Davos is reportedly over $9 million. The whole time you are proving that you are not a security threat multiple helicopters are passing over head bringing those that the armed men are protecting, straight into the heart of the mountain village. Here shops have been converted into hubs by big banks and tech companies looking to host the global elite and black town-cars wait in disabled bays for their clients to finish the latest ground-breaking speech or key meeting.

Davos elite jet into Davos while lecturing humanity to cut down on fossil fuel.
Source: Twitter via Europa Guardian (@EuGu_) January 21, 2018

The cost of admission to Davos is made up of the membership fee (over $50,000) and the actual annual ticket (around $20,000). Of course the majority of individuals attending are not covering these costs (or any other costs during the week), they are politicians, wealthy business men and other powerful people hosted by large corporates looking to curry favour.

The 48th Forum of Davos is running under the theme of “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”.

The people who regularly attend Davos are certainly good at talking about those who will never even hear about Davos, let alone attend themselves. But it is tricky to imagine how a group of people who don’t blink at a free ticket worth nearly $100,000 (taking sundries into account) are able to relate to the mass of humanity who have so little.

This is a common criticism of Davos. This year, particular heed should be taken. At the start of the week bank CEOs, Nobel prize wining economists and top investors expressed concern that markets were too complacent about the current state of play. Whilst many market signals suggest we are well-past the financial crisis, cracks are beginning to show. Indeed there are growing signs of “irrational exuberance” and bubbles in stock markets as explored in our podcast released yesterday.

These levels of complacency have not been seen since 2007, about the time that Roubini, Shiller, GoldCore (trading as Go ld and Silver Investments Limited) and a few others were shouting for everyone to wake up. Indeed, we at GoldCore began warning about surging debt levels and the risk of a financial crisis in 2005.

The global elite should pay attention to this given the theme of the year. Since the financial crisis we have seen the number of billionaires more than double. We are also in the worst period of inequality since 1820, according to the OECD. This is disturbing, particularly for those at Davos flying the flag for globalisation, reduced protectionism and increased trade.

“We are seeing a paradox of high returns and high anxiety,” BlackRock chief exec Larry Fink wrote in his annual letter to the heads of the world’s biggest companies. “Since the financial crisis, those with capital have reaped enormous benefits. At the same time, many individuals across the world are facing a combination of low rates, low wage growth, and inadequate retirement systems.”

As Bank of England Chief economist Anthony Haldane reminds us, this is bad news for the Davos Few, there is rising evidence that extreme inequality harms, durably and significantly, the stability of the financial system and growth in the economy.”

Yet, where is the incentive to pay attention? Stock and bond markets are at record highs (as are property markets where most billionaires reside), corporate taxes in the United States and Britain are falling, and every major economy is performing well – superficially at least. Billionaires and leaders of the West have very little to complain about.

Click to listen to podcast

But they must. The financial system can no longer afford to be celebrated whilst simultaneously ignoring the many imbalances and risks. Many are now warning against complacency and urging us to learn the lessons of the past and from financial history – distant and more recent. Of particular concern this year is the rise in populism and how this may hinder attempts to avoid another financial disaster and may create a geo-political disaster in the form of a World War.

Bond bear market is underway 

As we discussed earlier this week, the bond bear market has been signalled by Bill Gross. He has now been joined by Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio who has warned that a rise in yields could spark the biggest crisis for fixed-income investors in almost 40 years. He confirmed that we are now in a bond bear market, that could get worse.

 “A 1 percent rise in bond yields will produce the largest bear market in bonds that we have seen since 1980 to 1981,”

This isn’t the first time Dalio has expressed such a concern about the bond market, Zerohedge were quick to remind us:

Readers may recall that when addressing the NY Fed in October 2016, Dalio made virtually the same prediction when he commented on the bond market’s DV01:

… it would only take a 100 basis point rise in Treasury bond yields to trigger the worst price decline in bonds since the 1981 bond market crash. And since those interest rates are embedded in the pricing of all investment assets, that would send them all much lower.

Dalio is referring to the record DV01 in the bond market, which according to the latest OFR report released in December, has risen to $1.2 trillion: that’s the P&L loss from a 100bps rise in rates.

The watchdog found that “valuations are also elevated” in bond markets. Of particular interest is the OFR’s discussion on duration. Picking up where we left off in June 2016, and calculates that “at current duration levels, a 1 percentage point increase in interest rates would lead to a decline of almost $1.2 trillion in the securities underlying the index.”

The following includes excerpts from a Bloomberg article highlighting the key concerns from some of the Davos attendees this year.

One of the most interesting was Jes Staley, CEO of Barclays expressing concern that we are returning to 2006:

“I do feel it’s a little bit like 2006, when we were all talking whether we’ve solved the riddle of economic crises.” 

CHINA

The world’s second-largest economy surprised on the upside through 2017, but is beginning to show renewed signs of cooling. A plan to reduce risk in the financial system has slowed credit growth, but the country’s debt pile, equivalent to about 264 percent of gross domestic product in 2017, remains a concern.

How the Chinese authorities rein in borrowing without tipping the economy over will be one of the year’s biggest challenges.

“I think of China as probably being the epicenter if we got hit by a global recession,” said Rogoff.

GLOBAL DEBT

It’s not just China. Global debt rose to a record $233 trillion in the third quarter of 2017, more than $16 trillion higher from the end of 2016, according to the Institute of International Finance. Private non-financial sector debt hit all-time highs in Canada, France, Hong Kong, South Korea, Switzerland and Turkey.

As interest rates begin to increase, borrowers might start to feel pain even though the ratio of debt-to-GDP has fallen as growth accelerated.

“We’ve seen the world leverage up,” said Tim Adams, the institute’s president who will be in Davos. “It’s been an incredibly low rate environment which I suspect is going to change.”

INTEREST RATES

The trigger for the end to that environment could be an inflationary surge that forces central banks to dump their piecemeal approach to reversing the emergency stimulus of the past decade.

Staley believes we’re currently in a depression-era style system:

We’ve got a monetary policy that’s still in the remnants of the depression era. We’ve got very little capacity in the capital markets to deal with a real move in interest rates.”

The Bloomberg article goes onto say:

With economies expanding so quickly, commodities prices are picking up and manufacturing gauges are pointing to supply constraints. The U.S. also just slashed taxes, and some big employers, like Walmart Inc., are beginning to lift wages.

“We could start to see inflation rising more than most people think in financial markets which means the Fed and other central banks will have to raise rates sooner and faster,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit. “That could rattle things up.”

Anne Richards, chief executive of M&G Investments, also told Bloomberg separately about her concerns for potential for higher interest rates. “If interest rates go up meaningfully over the next 12 months, there will be a bunch of people who have borrowed money who will not be able to pay it back,” she said. “Those people are out there, and the markets are not, in aggregate, pricing that.”

Rogoff said the “biggest vulnerability” in markets would be a sudden reversal in the trend toward lower inflation-adjusted borrowing costs.

Rogoff also stated:

“If interest rates go up even modestly, halfway to their normal level, you will see a collapse in the stock market…I don’t know how everything from art and bitcoin to stock prices will react as interest rates go up.”

The Doom-sayers of Davos 

Bloomberg also highlights the dangerous collision course that economics and politics are currently on. Sadly, many politicians believe they can manage one without considering the other. Economists are also guilty of this.

But with North Korea affecting sanctions, Brexit as uncertain as ever and Trump’s populist approach driving down the US dollar, there is little that can be ignored.

For all of the geopolitical risks considered below, leaders saw the risks rising:

Blockchain is forcing a wake-up call

Now this year they are being forced to consider how these geopolitical risks are affecting the many who have so little.

One of the main areas being discussed is the role of blockchain, the very technology that first grabbed the world’s attention because of bitcoin’s desire to operate beyond the world of the bankers and monetary and political elites.

Blockchain is the reason I was at Davos. The theme that year was ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’, possibly one of the more forward thinking and interesting topics we’ve seen.

There was a lot of chat about blockchain but a lot more about the dangers of bitcoin. Now both are being seen as a threat, and blockchain also as an opportunity.

Most of the world’s elites, from bank CEOs to central bankers refuse to touch bitcoin. The recent price activity has (they believe) vindicated their concerns about the asset. However, they are all putting in time and money into blockchain. Safe in the knowledge that it could end up disrupting their whole world.

Blockchain really is the leader of the next tech revolution. It has a huge amount of potential. However, the wheel wasn’t much use until you redesigned how you travelled. The same can be said for blockchain.

Blockchain’s potential will come to nothing if the systems, approach and mindset of the Davos elite does not change. Complacency around financial markets is dangerous. The system is clearly broken but until the elites realise that the current status quo is broken then their is little blockchain can do for them.

Blockchain demands accountability, transparency and validation. Can the Davos few cope with this?

No expensive burger will solve the next financial crisis

My memories of Davos are nothing like those of the elite.

No $60 burger passed my lips and I was forced to park in the supermarket rather than have a chauffeur pull-up and rescue me from the bitter cold. I was only given access to satellite events, not the main forum yet even there there was an air of arrogance that we could all fix the world’s problems.

My main takeaway is I’m unsure of the efficiencies achieved in a mountain resort that (at some points) was minus 18 degrees centigrade, takes a real effort to get to and is (financially, geographically and culturally) a world away from the main issues of the day.

This is where my concerns lie. We have not solved the financial crisis that was ultimately borne out of total hedonism, greed, infallibile belief, arrogance and economic ignorance. Yet here we see 2,500 global elite (including 70 heads of state and government) at an event, the cost to attend is well in excess of the average global citizen’s annual wage.

Whilst our leaders and great minds sit pretty in the snowy mountains of Switzerland we can be working to protect ourselves. Let’s be honest 48 years of Davos has not brought a huge amount of benefits to our day-to-day lives. Instead we have been forced to take charge of our finances and protect ourselves from the system.

Physical gold, that is allocated and segregated may well be stored in Switzerland but it cannot be debased or confiscated by the monetary elites. As they work to make the world more connected, more digital and at risk then our cash in the bank and digital assets in our online world are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

Ignore the noise coming out of Davos and focus on what we can control – earn more than we spend, diversify our assets, save with safe counter parties and protect our wealth with the insurance gold.

$100,000 worth of physical gold coins and bars stored in a vault a few miles from Davos is important financial insurance and it only costs the same amount as attending Davos!

END’

A history lesson to us:  why the USA confiscated gold in 1933

(courtesy Alex Pollock/Clear Markets/Washington/GATA)

Alex Pollock: Confiscation of gold by the federal government — a lesson

Mike Kosares explains why gold will rise and outpace other prices during a hyperinflation

a must read..

(courtesy Mike Kosares/USAgold/GATA)

Mike Kosares: Why gold can beat hyperinflation

This is a good one:  The Empire Club is a very prestigious forum and rarely does a gold bug get to present anything.  However Nick Barisheff was invited and he detailed the gold price manipulation to our banker friends (plus others) listening to his talk

(courtesy GATA/Nick Barisheff)

Nick Barisheff: Gold price manipulation isn’t mere conspiracy theory anymore

this ought to be good for cryptocurrencies:  A popular Japanese exchange has halted withdrawals.

(courtesy zerohedge)

---

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i)Late THURSDAY night/FRIDAY morning: Shanghai closed UP 9.82 points or 0.28% /Hang Sang CLOSED UP 499.67 pts or 1.53% / The Nikkei closed DOWN 37.61 POINTS OR 0.16%/Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED DOWN 0.07%/Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed  UP at 6.3277/Oil UP to 65.59 dollars per barrel for WTI and 70.35 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED ALL GREED .   ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP AGAINST THE DOLLAR AT 6.3277. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP AGAINST  THE ONSHORE YUAN AT 6.3256//ONSHORE YUAN MUCH STRONGER AGAINST THE DOLLAR/OFF SHORE MUCH STRONGER TO THE DOLLAR/. THE DOLLAR (INDEX) IS  MUCH WEAKER AGAINST ALL MAJOR CURRENCIES. CHINA IS EXTREMELY  HAPPY TODAY.(STRONG CURRENCY AND STRONG MARKETS )

3 a NORTH KOREA/USA

/SOUTH KOREA

 

3 b JAPAN AFFAIRS

Our bankers were not to thrilled with Kuroda’s optimistic comments as this causes gold/silver to rise despite the obvious raid orchestrated by the crooks

(courtesy zerohedge)

c) REPORT ON CHINA

4. EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

SWITZERLAND

The Swiss balance sheet contains a huge $11,589.01 of American equities.  In total: over 100 billion USA.

This is the riskiest of assets to purchase.  Jordan, chief of SNB did not buy gold because there is none.  He could have bought sovereign bonds but he did not nor did he buy any corporate bonds.

(courtesy Kevin Muir/Macro Tourist blog)

$11,589.01?… Ask The Swiss!

Authored by Kevin Muir via The Macro Tourist blog,

$11,589.01.

That’s the US dollar amount of American stocks the Swiss National Bank owns on behalf of every man, woman and child in Switzerland. Let that sink in.

A Central Bank has taken on itself to expand its balance sheet and invest in the proceeds, not in gold, nor sovereign debt – heck not even in corporate bonds. Nope, the SNB has taken it upon itself to “invest” that money in another country’s most risky part of the capital structure – equity.

And don’t think it’s a small number. It’s almost $100 billion US dollars.

In a strange twist of fate, the Swiss National Bank is not only Switzerland’s Central Bank, but also a publicly traded security. I know, it makes little sense, but in this day and age, what does? Anyways, the financial community is all abuzz with SNB’s rocket ship chart formation.

The SNB’s equity price market capitalization is only 584 million CHF, so when you consider that the S&P 500 is up almost 6% since the start of the year, and that the SNB owns $100 billion of stocks which are up $6 billion USD during the last two months, maybe it makes sense to take a punt of buying some SNB equity. Now, who really knows how to value this security? Those gains should accrue to Swiss citizens as opposed to SNB equity holders, but it’s easy to understand the excitement.

The real problem

It’s all fun and good to speculate on the SNB equity price, but I am more interested in what the SNB’s behaviour means for the global markets going forward.

The real problem is that a Central Bank just monetized their balance sheet against another country’s equity market, and instead of getting punished for this reckless behaviour, the markets are celebrating the Swiss good fortune. And I ask you – have you ever seen Central Bankers not behave like a bunch of antelopes on the Serengeti? It is an amazingly disturbing precedent.

The Swiss National Bank has gone down a rabbit hole from which it will be extremely difficult to surface. Not only does every Swiss citizen own indirectly through the Central Bank more than $10k of US stocks, but their total assets per capita is over $94,000 each!

Since the 2007 Great Financial Crisis, the SNB has taken the size of their balance sheet from 20% of GDP all the way to 125%!

And look at the period from 2014 to today. From 80% to 125%. And that was during a period of relative calm in both the markets and the economy.

What’s going to happen when the global economy rolls over?

This sort of balance sheet expansion, and especially with the corresponding move out the risk curve, is complete madness.

I know many market strategists are issuing warnings about markets due to forecasted global Central Bank asset tapering. I sure hope they are correct that this insanity ends soon. But I worry that we are being naive.

Have you looked at the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet lately? I know they are on a schedule to taper, but it’s at a glacial pace.

I worry that right now, Central Banks are being rewarded for keeping their balance sheets as big and risky as they can stomach. It appears to be a trade with no cost, and in fact, helps out by both keeping their currency weak, and in the meantime, making some money. It encourages them to be extremely slow easing off the accelerator.

The idiocy of Central Banks taking this sort of risk is beyond description, but no sense arguing about it – it is what it is. But make no mistake, it’s like wearing jeans, a denim shirt, and a jean jacket at the same time (the Canadian tuxedo), it just shouldn’t be done (unless you are Ryan Gosling and then somehow the ladies seem to like it – go figure…)

I don’t have any conclusions to draw from this diatribe. I don’t think you should take this as some sort of apocalyptic warning about a coming crash. In fact, it’s probably just the opposite. If this sort of Central Bank insanity continues at this pace even though the global economy is firmly in the green, then it only affirms my belief that Bill Fleckenstein was correct when he said, “the bubbles will continue until the bond market takes away the keys.”

PS: If the Federal Reserve decided to invest $11,589 in the US stock market per American citizen, they would need to buy $3.75 trillion of stocks… That would mean they would have to almost double the already inflated balance sheet. That’s the level of absurdity from the Swiss National Bank.

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

6 .GLOBAL ISSUES

7. OIL ISSUES

Will the huge increase in shall production hurt the Saudi’s oil plans?  Seems that the minister is quite annoyed at all of those questions reporters are asking them on this issue

(courtesy Nick Cunningham/Oil Price.com)

“Leave Us Alone” – Saudi Oil Minister Slams Shale Hype

Authored by Nick Cunningham via OilPrice.com,

“Leave us alone and leave all these issues. We had enough of shale oil and talks of shale. Please talk about anything else,” Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said in Davos, snapping at reporters.

Al-Falih has clearly become annoyed at all the pestering from reporters and market analysts about the prospect of U.S. shale spoiling OPEC’s plans this year. He put on a brave face and dismissed questions about OPEC losing market share as U.S. drillers continue to ramp up. “The market is in an excellent condition, the demand and supply are good, the inventories are good,” he said, according to the WSJ. “I told you I was relaxed, and I’m still relaxed about the meeting.”

His testy response won’t kill rumors about discord growing from within OPEC. In fact, the WSJ reported that a delegate from an unnamed OPEC country said that falling shipments to the U.S. are a concern. The delegate said that OPEC’s leadership “needs to make some progress on addressing shale.”

But al-Falih didn’t want to hear any of it, and he blamed reporters for stirring up controversy where he says there wasn’t any to begin with. “Why are you all excited all of a sudden on shale? You know why, because you like to chit chat … you are an agent of disturbance,” he said, pointing to a reporter.

At a panel event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, al-Falih said that the IEA is overhyping the impact of U.S. shale.

“I was not disputing the amazing revolution of shale … [but] in the overall global supply demand picture it’s not going to wreck the train,” al-Falih said, claiming that the IEA is overstating the role of shale in a global market.

“We should not be scared,” he added. “That’s the core job of the IEA, not to take it out of context.”

The comments come a week after the IEA published its January Oil Market Report, in which it said that “explosive” shale growth, combined with production gains in Canada and Brazil, would “far outweigh” any declines from Venezuela and Mexico. The conclusion was the basis for the IEA predicting non-OPEC supply growth of 1.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2018, a figure that exceeds demand growth of 1.3 mb/d. In other words, the IEA says the oil market will once again be oversupplied, largely because of U.S. shale.

But in Davos, al-Falih was exasperated with those claims. He argued that natural depletion, plus strong demand growth meant that there was plenty of room for new supply, and that shale drillers wouldn’t crash the market. He criticized the IEA for an “oversized focus” on U.S. shale.

With some unfortunate timing for him, the EIA published production figures for the week ending on January 19, which showed a massive jump in output to 9.878, an increase of 128,000 bpd from a week earlier. That puts U.S. production at another record high, although it should be noted that these weekly estimates are subject to revision. Nevertheless, the EIA sees U.S. oil production passing 10 mb/d in February, scaling up to 11 mb/d by the end of 2019.

Still, al-Falih expressed resolve, stating that it would be “very unlikely” that the OPEC/non-OPEC coalition would abandon their production cuts at their upcoming meeting in June. Earlier in the week, al-Falih said that Saudi-Russian cooperation in the oil market would last for “decades and generations,” and that he wanted to work out a more permanent framework for OPEC coordination beyond 2018.

The comments from al-Falih were quickly met with pushback from the IEA’s top officials. IEA executive director tweetedon Thursday a not-so-subtle dig at al-Falih: “Delighted to participate in this stimulating discussion about the future of energy markets. @IEA analysis has been consistent for many years about the shale oil and gas revolution in the United States and its impact on global markets.”

The IEA’s head of oil division, Neil Atkinson, also rejected al-Falih’s characterization that the IEA has overhyped shale. “U.S. shale in the past decade is one of the biggest game changers in oil production history and it’s leading 1.7 mb/d of non-OPEC growth in 2018. Other countries e.g. Brazil and Canada are growing fast too,” he said in a tweet on Thursday.

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With the huge increase in oil price, one would expect rig counts to rise.  The answer is correct, as the the counts rose the most in 10 months and it is now at record highs.

(courtesy zerohedge)

US Rig Count Soars Most In 10 Months As Production Hits Record High

US rig counts rose by 12 in the last week – the biggest rise since March 2017 – as the lagged crude price is sparking more drilling and in turn sending production surging to a new record high… just shy of Saudi Arabia!

US crude production surged back from its weather-impacted plunge to a new record high last week…

And is set to overtake Saudi Arabia very soon…

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8. EMERGING MARKET

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And now your more important USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver

TRADING IN GRAPH FORM FOR THE DAY

(courtesy zerohedge/Michael Harnett.B of America).

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Trump is not going to like this.  He has been tooting his horn that Q4GDP was heading for a 3% gain. However the BEA reported that instead of coming in at 4 to 5%, it missed expectations badly coming in at 2.6% largely due to the soaring deficit which is a negative to GDP

(courtesy zerohedge)

(courtesy zerohedge)

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I will  see you FRIDAY night

HARVEY