What The Heck Happened In Silver & Gold On Friday?

The gold price crawled quietly lower in GLOBEX trading in the Far East and London -- and that lasted until shortly after the noon BST silver fix. At that juncture some very serious price pressure commenced, which lasted until about one minute after the latest inflation numbers hit the tape at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. That was its low tick of the day -- and it blasted higher from there, but was capped fifteen minutes later -- and then sold down pretty hard going into the 10 a.m. EDT afternoon gold fix in London. Minutes after that it took off higher until it ran into 'something' at exactly 12:30 p.m. EDT. It then had a quiet down/up/down move going into the 5:00 p.m. close.

The low and high ticks in gold were recorded by the CME Group as $1,826.50 and $1,879.60 in the August contract. The June/August price spread differential in gold at the New York close yesterday was $4.00...August/October was $8.40 -- and October/December was $10.00 an ounce.

Gold was closed on Friday afternoon in New York at $1,872.20 spot, up $23.80 from Thursday. Net volume was super heavy, relatively speaking, at 244,000 contracts -- and there was a bit under 16,000 contracts worth of roll-over/switch volume out of August and into future months...mostly October and December, but also a bunch into the early delivery months of next year as well.

And here's the New York Spot Gold [Bid] chart from Kitco, so you can see this price action in far more detail. The silver chart for this time period is identical. Click to enlarge.

The silver price wandered very quietly sideways until shortly before 9 a.m. in London -- and shortly after that the big price pressure appeared and, like gold, its low was set at 8:31 a.m. in COMEX trading in New York...a minute after the inflation numbers showed up. After that, its price was managed in a similar fashion as gold's...including running into 'something' at 12 o'clock noon EDT. It was sold down a bit from there -- and then crept quietly and a bit unevenly sideways until trading ended at 5:00 p.m.

The low and high ticks in silver were reported as $21.235 and $22.02 in the July contract. The July/September price spread differential at the close in New York yesterday was 9.3 cents -- and September/December was 18.3 cents an ounce.

Silver was closed in New York on Friday afternoon at $21.905 spot, up 23 cents from its close on Thursday. Net volume was pretty hefty, relatively speaking, at just about 57,500 contracts -- and there was a bit under 20,500 contracts worth of roll-over/switch volume out of July and into future months...mostly into September and December.

Platinum had a quiet and very broad up/down move until shortly after the noon silver fix in London -- and it was then sold lower until around 9:35 a.m. in New York. It was then allowed to rally until around 12:25 p.m. EDT -- and didn't do much of anything after that. Platinum was closed at $972 spot, up a dollar on the day.

Palladium stair-stepped its way very quietly higher until the Zurich open. It ran into selling pressure at that point -- and its low tick was set about 9:40 a.m. in New York, about five minutes after platinum's low tick was set. It was allowed to rally a decent amount until around 1 p.m. EDT -- and then chopped a bit higher going into the 5:00 p.m. EDT close. Palladium was closed at $1,870 spot, up 4 bucks from Thursday.

Based on the kitco.com spot closing prices in silver and gold posted above, the gold/silver ratio worked out to 85.5 to 1 on Friday...compared to 85.3 to 1 on Thursday.

Here's the 1-year Gold/Silver Ratio Chart, courtesy of Nick Laird's website. For whatever reason, Nick's computed 85.45 to 1 closing gold/silver ratio on Friday, doesn't appear on this chart. Click to enlarge.

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