From Ed Steer:

In early Friday morning trading in the Far East, both gold and silver were taken down sharply. Volume was thin in both metals, so it wasn't hard for someone to influence the price. Gold gained most of it back, but once the Sydney close was in...the price pressure showed up again until shortly after London opened...then rose again until the London p.m. fix was in...and it was straight down hill from there. The low price of the day was set at the Comex close. All in all, the gold price was dropped $60 in a thirty four hour period...from a high of $776 at 4:00 a.m. New York time on October 30th...to the low at the Comex close at 1:30 p.m. New York time yesterday. I'm sure that the boyz were proud of their month-end tape-painting...which is exactly what it was.

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Silver followed a very similar path to gold except that silver didn't sell off with gold after London closed for the day at 10:00 a.m. in New York...and put in a very stellar performance all other things considered.

The precious metals stocks put in another very good (but very counterintuitive) performance on Friday...and the HUI was actually in positive territory briefly. But it was obvious (at least to me) that someone did not wish to see them finish that way, and made sure they didn't. However, having said all that...since the HUI bottomed at the close of trading on Monday...and despite the hammering gold took going into month end...the HUI is UP 25% in the last four trading days. That number would have been 30+% if the HUI had been allowed to continue on its winning ways on Friday. It appears to me that someone was buying boatloads of shares as quietly as they could while all the carnage was going on in the gold price itself. Here's the 5-day HUI chart. Kindly compare it to the gold price action of the last five days...and the chart above. You can draw your own conclusions.

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Ted Butler says that the Dec/March spreads in silver widened a tad on Friday, but nothing really significant. Ted has a new theory as to why JPMorgan and HSBC have set such razor-thin spreads. I know he's going to be writing about it on Monday, so I'll leave it to him to talk about, as I don't want to steal his thunder. I'll post his commentary on Tuesday.

Open interest on Thursday's big action showed that gold o.i. increased 3,577 contracts to 306,795...while silver o.i. dropped another 374 contracts to 94,409.

The Commitment of Traders report (which I must admit that I was anxiously waiting for) was a big disappointment in the silver category. The report showed that the bullion banks actually increased their short position by 1,244 contracts. Based on the 'action' of the silver price during the last reporting period...and its new low of $8.30 in London trading early Tuesday morning...I find this number simply preposterous. Something does not jibe at all. I would suspect that not everything was reported. But having said that, we're still at the bottom of the silver barrel, and my comment on Wednesday that we've seen the lows in silver for this move, still stands.

If silver was a surprise in the wrong direction, gold was an even bigger surprise in the right direction. The bullion banks improved their positions by a stunning 23,717 contracts...and are now down to a net short position of only 85,076 contracts. This is unbelievably low! They did this by covering a whopping 14,045 shorts and going long another 9,672 contracts. In order to do this, they ripped great chunks of flesh (losses) from the tech funds in the Non-Commercial category who pitched another 8,313 longs and went short an absolutely knee-wobbling 12,574 contracts. The small traders in the Nonreportable category chucked their pound of flesh in the pot as well. They tossed 5,762 longs, but were smart enough to cover 2,932 shorts at the same time. The small traders are net long a minuscule 6,761 contracts. I don't ever remember a net number that small. Here's the link to the current COT...click here.

No gold news worth of reporting day...but in other news...I see that the US postal service is looking to cut 40,000 jobs...and in a Reuters story, GMAC said it was in talks with federal regulators about becoming a bank holding company so it too could tap into Paulson's recapitalization plan....and become another pig at the public trough. The Bank of Japan has cut its key interest rate from 0.5% down 0.3%. US rates should be down at this level soon, too. And in a Bloomberg story..."Panic strikes East Europe borrowers as banks cut foreign currency loans". Foreign denominated loans helped fuel eastern European economies, but foreigners are pulling their money out and the loans are going with them. Interest rates in local currencies are much higher. And last but not least, even Disney is considering handing out pink slips.

Only two stories today. The first one is from Bloomberg and is headlined "Gulf Citizens Beg for Bailout as Stock Rout Signals End of Boom" and the link is here.

Today's second offering is also from Bloomberg, and is a trip down the Bretton Woods memory lane. The story is entitled "'New Bretton Woods' Rendezvous Beckoned by Old One's Host Hotel". Regardless of where the meeting is held, I wonder if a return to the gold standard (in some form) may be in the cards when world leaders meet in mid November. Several prominent European heads of state have called for a return to the "first Bretton Woods Agreement"...and I still haven't forgotten about those photos of Putin and Medvedev holding gold bars. Time will tell...and the link is here.

History is a vast early warning system. - Norman Cousins

Today's 'blast from the past' needs no introduction. Turn up your speakers and then click here.

With October now in the history books, we await the results of the US election. No matter what happens, the great unwinding will continue...the "Greater Depression" will begin to bite harder...and all the money printing in the world won't save us from it.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and all of us at Casey's Daily Resource Plus will see you right here early on Tuesday morning...election day. And as Doug Casey is wont to say "Please don't vote, as it only encourages them."

Casey Research correspondent-at-large Ed Steer is a keen observer of the financial scene and a board member of GATA.org.