this is from ed steer, explaining that the manipulation of silver and gold is not limited to the hours the london and new york exchanges are open:

It was no surprise to me to see gold and silver get sold off the moment that Globex trading began in New York at 6:00 p.m. Wednesday night. Sydney and Hong Kong both open for Thursday morning trading shortly after that, and this gives New York the opportunity to set the tone for trading in the Far East if they wish to do so. The Far East is not a big market [Don't forget that 90%+ of all gold and silver trading volume is during Comex hours in New York] and it can be shoved around quite easily, as volume is never very heavy. Note the bottom of the Kitco graph [below] where it shows the times that various world gold markets are open. Carefully note that the New York-based U.S. bullion banks can enter the global market for 23 hours and 15 minutes every day...not just in the Far East...but in London trading as well. But I digress...

Once the London a.m. fix was in, gold began a gentle rally that lasted through the Comex open...and until lunchtime in New York. From there it flat-lined until the close of electronic trading on the Globex at 5:15 p.m. Eastern. I was delighted to see such a wonderful looking gold graph when I rolled out of bed yesterday morning. It certainly appears that we are away to the races...but I'm sure that JPMorgan et al will be riding shotgun on this advance to make sure that it doesn't show too many signs of "irrational exuberance".

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Silver's path was virtually identical to gold's...however the 'top' was in shortly before 11:00 a.m. in New York...an hour before gold's top for the day. Volume in both metals yesterday was not particularly heavy...which is encouraging...and the shares had another spectacular day.

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Open interest changes on Wednesday's wild roller coaster ride in both metals was as follows...gold o.i. rose for the second day in a row...this time by 3,594 contracts...and silver o.i. was down for the second day in a row...this time by 312 contracts. It's difficult to read a lot into these figures...especially gold. Since all the big action happened on a Wednesday...the day after the cut-off for today's COT report...we won't see these numbers until they show up in next Friday's COT on March 27th.

In other precious metals news, there were 90 gold contracts delivered on the Comex yesterday. The two biggest issuers were Prudential Bache [56 contracts] and Fortis Clearing [24 contracts]...and the biggest stopper was the Bank of Nova Scotia [75]. In silver, there were only 56 contracts delivered. The biggest issuer was the Bank of Nova Scotia [56]...and the biggest stopper was JPMorgan [49]. Comex-designated silver warehouse stocks fell a very small 10,065 ounces. The gold ETF...GLD...had another huge inflow yesterday...up 19 tonnes, almost 610,000 ounces. SLV was unchanged. There were no changes in gold or silver eagle production from the U.S. Mint yesterday either. And lastly, Ted Butler pointed out to me that the backwardation in silver had disappeared.

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