Gold bulls driven by the bond melt-down in Europe seem to be in control of the market with the Cartel only able to cap the gains around $1174.

Silver is a different story. Although JP Morgan may be somewhat sidelined because of the CFTC investigation, it was expected that the other bullion banks would pick up the slack. They didn't do a very good job of keeping silver under $18 at yesterdays option expiry. So they want to keep the paper silver price below $18 so fewer COMEX clients will insist on delivery. This now looks like it may fail as well with silver at $18.08 at noon today. Actually with all the problems in the euro zone driving the US $ higher, lately it seems like gold has detached from the US$. Lets hope silver can do the same.