With options expiry for equities happening tomorrow it should come as no surprise that the market for a number of commodities have been quiet after having been beaten back earlier in the month. Gold was especially violent today moving down to test $1638 again only to shoot up to $1654 and then be subsequently beaten back into submission to close at $1642. All of this took place within 9 hours of trading. The net effect was that small players on margin were slaughtered intra-day and the media can print the headline that there was no reaction in the gold pits to the pitiful Spanish bond auction.
Oh, by the way, France’s biggest export item so far in 2012 is gold, from French zombie banks to Swiss zombie banks. Real capital continues to be scared of the present and the future, but you would never know it from the financial press.
Brent and West Texas crude did not move much at all today, though the spread looks like it is going to drop below $15 very soon now. Brent closed on Thursday at $118.18 per barrel while WTI crude settled at $103.01 per barrel.
Gasoline futures for May and June deliveries dropped again but the rest of the futures curve did not budge. So, again we can get a headline number that pleases the Obama administration’s plans for re-election but it does nothing for the future. Weak economic data from the U.S. is gong to continue as there is no recovery.
I’d like to believe that pricing will return to something akin to normal on Monday, but who am I kidding at this point.
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