Tuesday’s up $10.50 Comex day produced a moderate 1,653 lot (5.14 tonne) rise in open interest. Perhaps there was some short covering also.

Having drifted up all day, gold ran into selling before the Comex open, slicing some $5 off in a few minutes. This apparent effort to develop downward momentum failed: gold rallied sharply on the open and it took very heavy selling – said by ScotiaMocatta to be from dealers – to drive June Gold down to its down $4.20 low for day. This happened at 10AM: 56% of the day’s estimated volume had traded by then. After that June Gold drifted back up to an intraday high of $891.70 (up $8.40) before losing ground in the last half hour as estimated volume accelerated 34.7%. The floor close was up only $2.60. Total estimated volume was only 87,493 contracts with a switch effect of 5,876.

The Wire Service commentaries, which usually ignore after market action, are unusually assiduous in reporting gold’s marked $5 subsequent slide - attributed by Reuters to the perception of no inflation concern in the FOMC minutes released in mid-afternoon. Taken altogether, it looks as if a short position is being actively managed.

The GLD ETF gold holdings were reported unchanged at 1127.37 tonnes for the 4th day running: there has been no significant change for 9 business days now. MarketVane’s Bullish Consensus and the HGNSI were both unchanged at 71% and -3.5% respectively. The gold shares responded badly to the late gold loss, but did manage modest rallies into the close: the HUI actually closed up 0.24% but the XAU was down 0.48%.

Could this market, now approaching the long Easter break, be getting too quiet?

Indian ex-duty premiums: AM ($1.95) PM ($2.23) with world gold at $883.82 and $884. Below legal import point. This was despite a slight firming of the rupee, which closed at $1=R50 (Wednesday R50.13.) The stock market edged up 0.57%. Somewhat disappointing for gold’s friends.

Less scrap