TOCOM continued noncommittal. On day session volume equivalent to 18,269 NY lots open interest was static (up 0.321 tonnes or 103 NY lots). The public added 0.75 tonnes to its long. The active contract lost 37 yen and world gold lost $5 during the session to close over $2 below the NY floor close.

The Shanghai Gold Exchange closed gold $3.73 above world gold of $1,083.48 on volume equal to 4,305 NY lots (Thursday $3.93/$1,090.63). No sign of the exuberance Reuters reports in the kilo market.

The CME final indicates that on volume of 320,192 lots (17.5% above estimate) open interest plummeted 19,109 contracts (59.4 tonnes or 3.8%) to 478,361 lots. This is the biggest change in open interest since early November, and takes to total outstanding down to the level of early October. It was mostly achieved by the lapsing of the Feb gold contract.

Open interest has dropped 29,204 lots (90.8 tonnes or 5.75%) in two days. Over the past 5 days, open interest has shed 46,980 lots, 146.1 tonnes or 8.9%. (Gold lost $18.40, or 1.7%.) In essence, the buying which drove gold up through $1,000 to $1,220 has now been reversed.

Today after an early NY rally attempt gold met the usual selling pressure and lost $16 between 9AM and 12 noon NY time. The dollar was firming but Euro gold tracked $US gold quite closely. Estimated volume at 1PM was a fairly moderate 163,598 lots.