There was surprisingly little note about a dollar body slam that was laid out on silver over the weekend in the quiet hours of trading.
Gold was hit a bit, but recovered quite a bit more of it to finish almost unchanged at 1339.
Fingers were pointing to Stanley Fischer, who looked at the economy and sees employment nearly full and inflation growing to his targets.
Maybe Stanley is trying to tee up Janet for Jackson Hole, and perhaps a Fed 25 bp rate increase in September.
After all, its all perceptions now, right? Since debt doesn't matter and money can be printed at will and without consequences?
Talk about the jawbone of an ass.
There was intraday commentary about the money velocity indicator and the state of the economy
here.
There will be a precious metals option expiration on the Comex this week. It is for the September contract which is no big thing for gold, but is definitely of more interest for silver.
So I am now turning my eye towards silver, which is becoming more attractive as the short sellers and bears talk up its downside, with some calling for prices down to the mid 17's.
There is a lot of small spec money lined up on the long side, and it must be an almost irresistible attraction for the wiseguys.
I remember vividly how the market slugs managed to 'gin up a raid on Silver Wheaton down to nearly $10 in January of this year, using the old boogeyman of the Canadian revenuers against it amongst other things, just before it went steadily up to 30.
And so we might see that sort of thing repeated before the precious metals begin their breakouts. Or not. This could just be an option expiry gambit, and a nice time to try and harvest some specs and pick up some decent mining positions. Or not.
Let's watch the markets closely now.
Have a pleasant evening.
“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. But only say the word, and my soul shall be healed.”
