The gold price fell and rose about ten bucks between the Far East open and the London open...and then lost that ten spot going into the jobs report release at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time...and the rest, as they say, is history. By 10:15 a.m. in New York, gold had risen over $70 from its New York open...and continued to rise slowly from there up until its 2:10 p.m. high of the day, which was $1,631.90 spot. From that high, the gold price got sold off a bit going into the close of electronic trading.

From its New York high to its New York low, gold had an intraday price move of about $84...and closed on Friday at $1,626.30...up $66.10 from Thursday's close. That's one of the biggest one-day price moves in gold that I can remember...both dollar wise and percentage wise...and I can remember quite a lot. The last time was the announcement of the Washington Accord back in 1999 sometime. Net volume was in the 290,000 contract range, which is a really big number.

Things were a bit different in silver...with the price hanging around unchanged right up until 9:00 a.m. local time in London...and then the price was engineered lower a couple of times from there, with the absolute low [around $27.10 spot] coming at 1:10 p.m. BST in London, which was about ten minutes before trading began in New York. From that low, the silver price never looked back...and was on its way higher from there, helped along by the jobs report.

Most of the big gains were in by 10:15 a.m. in New York but, like gold, the price continued to move higher...with the high tick of the day [$28.83 spot] coming sometime during the Comex trading session...and it's not possible to tell, even from the NY spot bid chart, what exact time that was...not that it matters, I suppose. I was rather impressed by the little pop in price just before the close of electronic trading. Normally the price would be ruler flat at the time of day on a Friday.

From its absolute low, which came just before the Comex open, to its absolute high, silver had an intraday price move of about $1.70...around 6.3%...and closed at $28.68...up only 66 cents on the day, which shows you how badly it was beaten down during the London trading session. Net volume was 57,000 contracts.

The dollar index made it all the way up to 83.40 by about 8:50 a.m. Eastern time, before getting whacked for a bit more than 75 basis points during the next forty-five minutes. But there was somebody there to catch a falling knife...and by the close of trading in New York, the dollar index was only down about 20 basis points, closing at 82.89. The currency moves and the price moves in the precious metals yesterday were totally unrelated.

Not surprisingly, the gold stocks gapped up at the open...and powered ever higher, with most of the day's gains in by 12:15 p.m. in New York. The absolute high came around 2:15 p.m...and then they got sold off a hair into the close. The HUI finished higher by an eye-watering 6.74%.

The silver stocks did well for themselves...and there were a number of double-digit gains on my screen yesterday. Nick Laird's Silver Sentiment Index closed up 4.41%.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Day three of the June delivery month was a much more subdued affair, as only 166 gold and 1 lonely silver contract were posted for delivery on Tuesday. The CME's Issuers and Stoppers Report is linked here.

The GLD ETF had an authorized participant add 116,475 ounces of gold yesterday...and there were no reported changes in SLV.

There was no sales report from the U.S. Mint

On Thursday, the Comex-approved depositories added 1,348,614 ounces of silver...and shipped 647,353 ounces out the door.

As I hoped/expected, there were slight improvements in both gold and silver's Commercial net short position in the yesterday's Commitment of Traders Report. In silver, the Commercial net short position declined by 888 contracts, or 4.44 million ounces...and is now down to 71.67 million ounces, which is the same amount as the low in December. The big 4 bullion banks are short 144.2 million ounces.

In gold, the Commercial net short position declined by 488,900 ounces and now sits at 13.1 million ounces. The big 4 bullion banks are short 9.53 million ounces.

Without doubt next week's COT report will show big changes...and it will be interesting to see how much of yesterday's big price gains were the result of short covering and how much of it was new long positions being placed. The new Commercial net short positions in next Friday's report will tell us a lot.

Here's Nick Laird's "Days of World Silver Production to Cover Short Positions" chart updated with yesterday's COT data. This chart basically shows the short positions of the big 4 and big 8 traders in all physical commodities on the Comex. As always, the precious metals stand out...with silver's short position being the most egregious.

(Click on image to enlarge)

Reader Scott Pluschau has a new blog that's headlined "The coast isn't "all clear" yet, but this was a major breakout from consolidation"...and the link to that is here.

Because I'm on the road for the next three days, I'm just going to provide the linked headlines...and leave the final edit up to you. Doug Noland's Credit Bubble Bulletin is the absolute must read out of this whole lot...as is the last piece by Paul Craig Roberts.

¤ Critical Reads

Morgan reportedly returns $600 million in MF Global customer funds:

1. Morgan reportedly returns $600 million in MF Global customer funds: WSJ

2. Fed Will Likely Weigh Rosengren’s Call for Stimulus- Bloomberg

3. Art Cashin - Precipice of a Broad, Dangerous Global Contagion: KWN

4. Ron Paul Republicans take over Nevada GOP: Russia Today

5. Doug Noland: Credit Bubble Bust - And This Week a Turn for the Worse: Prudent Bear

6. Panic Rises in Europe as Spain and Greece on the Brink - SPIEGEL ONLINE

7. Euro's future 'to be decided within weeks' - The Guardian

8. Here's Why The 'Greek Drachma' Has Shown Up On Bloomberg

9. Anti-Iran sanctions run contrary to international law: Russia - Tehran Times

10. Rick Rule - Here is why gold is soaring & stocks are tanking: KWN

11. Mike Kosares: Central banks have made a thousand-tonne yearly switch on gold: GATA

12. Paul Craig Roberts: Cold War 2.0 Heating Up [MUST READ as well]

View full GSD edition

Today's 'blast from the past' needs no introduction...and is the first time that I've ever seen it performed 'live'. You know it well...and the link is here.

Well, here we are at the proverbial brick wall...and today's price action in the precious metals was the bell tolling for the beginning of the end of all things. To predict what will happen from here on in is a mug's game, as everyone is making this up as they go along...politicians and newsletter writers included. What can be know for sure is that the gold, silver, platinum and palladium's time in the sun has arrived...and the 'powers that be' who are making this up as they go as well, are going to be hard pressed to put these genies back in the bottle...if they even try this time.

As you can see from the 6-month gold chart below, the price blasted above its 50-day moving average...and if this upward trend continues, the technical funds will pour back into this market and I'm sure some of them showed up yesterday. BUT, as Ted Butler continually points out...Who will be the short sellers of last resort this time? Will it be JPMorgan et al...or will they step aside? I'm sure that this will be discussed by all concerned parties over the weekend...and the Far East open on Sunday night should tell us a lot.

(Click on image to enlarge)

You're running out of time real quick, but there's still the opportunity to either readjust your portfolio, or get fully invested in the continuing major up-leg of this bull market in both silver and gold...and I respectfully suggest that you take a trial subscription to either Casey Research's International Speculator [junior gold and silver exploration companies], or BIG GOLD [large producers], with all our best (and current) recommendations...as well as the archives. Don't forget that our 90-day guarantee of satisfaction is in effect for both publications.

I'm still 'all in'.