gold and silver rise in price open interest rises:

US Mint Reports January Silver Sales Hit 26 Year High

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/18/2011 19:40 -0500

When we had last checked on the total silver sales by the US Mint earlier today, the amount given was 3,407,000 ounces, a number which we had earlier speculated would be a monthly record if sales were maintained at the current pace. And as the number had not been updated we assumed that "either buying interest has ceased overnight (unlikely), that the mint is not updating its numbers (likely), or, worse, that the Mint has now stopped selling any form of silver for reasons unknown." Indeed, the result was the likely one, and following a quick check today on US Mint sales confirms that sales have once again surged following the Mint's delayed update. As of today they stood at a whopping 4,588,000, or nearly 1.2 million ounces sold in a few short days. This represents the biggest monthly total sold by the US Mint going back to 1986 when the Mint disclosed its first monthly sales record... And the month is not even over yet. In other words in just the first three weeks of January, the mint has sold more silver than in any month in its history according to its public records going back 26 years.



Euro HORROR: Ireland discovered to be printing billions of euros out of thin air
"The money is counterfeit in every sense of the word."

gold and silver rise in price open interest rises:

 

GoldCore Comments On Silver Shortages And A Possible Price "Tipping Point"

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/18/2011 15:22 -0500

Our friends at GoldCore have summarized recent shortages in the silver market and provide some observations on what this could mean for future silver prices. Curiously, the lack of inventory has happened even as the spot price of silver has consistently declined over the past week (if nominally the decline has been very modest). Just as curiously after the US Mint reported a massive surge in buying, the number of January sales has been fixed flat at 3,407,000, where it was a week ago, and indicates that either buying interest has ceased overnight (unlikely), that the mint is not updating its numbers (likely), or, worse, that the Mint has now stopped selling any form of silver for reasons unknown. Although at the end of the day the only question worth asking is whether JPM feels lucky (again): as we posted last week, the firm has received "grandfathering" protection from position limits, arguably the biggest reason for the recent drop in the precious metal price.

Inflation expectation up 60% in 6 months – Thanks Ben!

Apple: Selling The News?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/18/2011 17:15 -0500

Update: Steve Jobs is not participating on the earnings call
While Apple's results were surely impressive, and we are waiting for the call Q&A for more details, we may have finally gotten to the proverbial sell the news event in the iconic company. After surging to a high of $357, the stock has since dropped almost back to the pre-halt levels, and at last check was trading at $344.66, granted to after hours volume. The action does beg the question, however: with 190 hedge funds in the name, who will be the marginal buyer especially since with Jobs now gone indefinitely the possibility of another beat's beat is seemingly getting increasingly problematic.

Apple Reports $26.7 Billion In Revenue On $6.43 EPS, Beats Whisper Numbers

 

JPM's Mortgage Unit Sued To Disclose Loan Quality Data, Following Allegations It Misrepresented Over 70% Of Loan Portfolio

 

Guest Post: Tossing The Consumer Under The Bus...And Insanely Expecting An Economic Recovery 

 

In The News Today

Posted: Jan 18 2011     By: Jim Sinclair      Post Edited: January 18, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Filed under: In The News



Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The coming of President Hu is being heralded by the media as if he was the Messiah.
Having had the experience of negotiating with our Chinese brothers, I wish the Administration good luck!


Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
It is the truth of the market, not an error. There is a living to be made here by the disciplined short.

Tradeweb: Talk of bad Treasury trade on system “false”
NEW YORK | Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:33pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Electronic trading platform Tradeweb said on Tuesday that talk of a large erroneous trade of U.S. government securities on its system that sparked a sudden market sell-off is wrong.
U.S. government bond prices dropped suddenly in early trading, which led to speculation of an erroneous trade on the Tradeweb system.
“Reports of a multibillion dollar customer trade error on Tradeweb this morning are completely false. Indeed, Tradeweb has a number of safeguards and warnings incorporated into its electronic markets to prevent ‘fat-finger’ errors of this type,” the company said in a statement.
Tradeweb is a unit of Thomson Reuters.
At the height of the market sell-off, 30-year Treasury bond was down as much as 1-6/32 with a yield of 4.61 percent, which was within striking distance of a near eight-month high set in December.
Traders said the trade was as much as $6 billion.
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
The Formula of 2006 grinds on, guaranteeing QE to infinity and any economic improvement a product of statistical adjustments and not the beginning of good old business.

Camden, NJ braces for deep police, fire cuts
Camden, NJ, poor and crime-ridden, braces for deep cuts, slashing of police, fire staffs
Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press, On Sunday January 16, 2011, 4:21 pm EST
CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — Yet another crisis is upon this burdened city, among the most impoverished and crime-ridden in the country.
Deep layoffs of city workers go into effect on Tuesday — cutting up to 383 jobs, or one-fourth of the city’s employees.
The exact number depends on whether public workers’ unions make last-minute concessions. In any case, the cuts are likely to be deep — and could be a blow to the quality of life in a city where more than half the 80,000 residents, mostly black and Hispanic, live in poverty.
Worst case, the layoffs could slash half the police force and one-third of the fire department for this city just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. Practically every other job in the city is likely to be affected.
“The fear quotient has been raised,” said the Rev. Heyward Wiggins, pastor of Camden Bible Tabernacle in a rough neighborhood on the city’s north side, who constantly hears from his congregants about the layoffs.
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
When considering the situation, I have to agree. The bullies that call themselves hedge fund managers will not win the war. The larger they are the harder they will fall.
When any market group considers themselves the Masters of the Universe, they are close to a spiritual experience without the need of a Guru.

You’re insane if you don’t own gold, investors told
Not owning gold during the current financial turmoil is “a form of insanity”, according to an investment analyst at a leading City firm.
By Richard Evans 5:46PM GMT 11 Jan 2011
Robin Griffiths, a technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, told CNBC: “I think not owning gold is a form of insanity. It may even show unhealthy masochistic tendencies, which might need medical attention.”
He added that the dollar was heading for “oblivion”.
Mr Griffiths predicted that gold’s 10-year bull run would continue and even intensify. “Although it’s been a top performer for each of the last 10 years, it’s still in a linear trend,” he said. “Eventually it will go exponential and make more in the last little bit than the whole of the 10-year trend.”
He said investors should regard any short-term falls in the gold price as a buying opportunity, adding that gold was still not an “over-owned trade”.
His comments come against the background of the US Federal Reserve’s huge monetary stimulus from quantitative easing, which many believe will result in inflation and a fall in the value of the dollar.
More…




Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Politics will always rule. That means Wall Street demonstrates its continuing ownership of Washington.

Deadlines Missed on Financial-Overhaul Rules
BY JEAN EAGLESHAM AND VICTORIA MCGRANE
Regulators have missed or postponed several deadlines to write rules needed to implement the financial overhaul triggered by the Dodd- Frank law.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are straining to keep up with the workload of turning the language in last summer’s law into regulations in time to begin enforcing some of the new rules this summer.
SEC officials postponed at least seven of the agency’s self-imposed deadlines related to the law, including revising the definition of an “accredited investor” to whom higher-risk investments can be sold.
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Keep in mind Zardari is the man who stood up the President who flew in to see him. That is disrespect for the office of the man who controls the most effective military in today’s world.
That was not a wise move on Zardari’s part.
It is not as much disrespect for the man but it is for the office of the Presidency of America. Any leader of any government must be respected even if they are enemies meeting.
Don’t fall for the MOPE that Zardari’s actions were appropriate.

Zardari’s mysterious meetings with Obama, CIA chief
Saturday, January 15, 2011
By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
ISLAMABAD: The meeting between President Barack Obama and President Asif Ali Zardari has taken place without a formal agenda and no official brief account of the bilateral ties was readily available to the visiting president that could help him in the talks.
The Foreign Office was kept in dark about the meeting. President Zardari spoke to the four political leaders on phone about his trip just before his departure for the United States, but without dropping any hint about the one-to-one scheduled encounter with the US president.
This he did because he could claim that he took the political leadership into confidence about the meetings.
The meeting followed by Asif Ali Zardari’s all-important get-together with the CIA chief has made it further convoluted. The subjects, which have reportedly taken up for discussion, are strategic cooperation, economic relations and terrorism.
At the same time it has been speculated that an assurance had also been sought from the US president for further endorsement of the incumbent political set-up back in the country.
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Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This is neither dollar positive, nor bodes well for an economic recovery of merit.
Should the Fed not print the states money then all the printing so far and to come is a wasted effort.
This is terrible for the pensioner.

States Warned of $2 Trillion Pensions Shortfall
Tuesday, 18 Jan 2011 | 4:51 AM ET
By: Nicole Bullock, Financial Times
US public pensions face a shortfall of $2,500 billion that will force state and local governments to sell assets and make deep cuts to services, according to the former chairman of New Jersey’s pension fund.
The severe US economic recession has cast a spotlight on years of fiscal mismanagement, including chronic underfunding of retirement promises.
“States face cost pressure, most prominently from retirement benefits and Medicaid [the health programme for the poor],” Orin Kramer told the Financial Times.
“One consequence is that asset sales and privatisation will pick up. The very unfortunate consequence is that various safety nets for the most vulnerable citizens will be cut back.”
Mr Kramer, an influential figure in the Democratic party and still a member of the investment council that oversees the New Jersey pension fund, has been an outspoken critic of public pension accounting, which allows for the averaging of investment gains and losses over a number of years through a process called “smoothing”.
More…



Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
QE to infinity in the entire Western world is in process.
The EU went bananas when Bernanke went for another round of QE. They are without any doubt full of it as they go to QE with any problem that surfaces.
Do not concern yourself about gold or anything gold.

Central Bank steps up its cash support to Irish banks financed by institution printing own money
Emergency loan programme of €51bn is
By Donal O’Donovan
Saturday January 15 2011
EMERGENCY lending from the ECB to banks in Ireland fell in December, the first decline since January 2010, but only because the Irish Central Bank stepped up its help to banks.
The Irish Independent learnt last night that the Central Bank of Ireland is financing €51bn of an emergency loan programme by printing its own money.
ECB lending to banks in Ireland fell from €136.4bn in November to €132bn at the end of December, according to the figures released by the Irish Central Bank yesterday.
At the same time, the bank increased its emergency lending by €6.4bn, bringing the total it is owed to €51bn.
The latest data does show a levelling off in demand for the loans. Emergency lending to banks shot up €16bn in November, but overall demand for the loans only increased by €2bn in December when ECB and Irish Central Bank figures are combined.
More…