Scotia added 60,000 ounces to the deliverable category yesterday from their vaults. Brinks threw in about 4,635 ounces as well.
This brings the deliverable (registered) bullion inventory back up to 655,556 ounces, a bit more respectable for the December delivery month.
As far as deliverable inventory goes, Scotia and JPM hold the bulk of it. As a percentage of total holdings, HSBC is remarkably light on deliverables. Must be an Asian thing.
For now the Comex is setting price, the tail wagging the dog. But at some point that will change, and the Comex will become a price follower, and then we may see some real market clearing. The longer these antics go on, the more violent the market correction coming from a blind side will be.
But until then it is the usual games, and the usual suspects.
Speaking of financial antics and the usual suspects, after the bell it was announced that ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski, who famously used fraud to take $134 million from his company, is being granted parole from prison.
He and the CFO Mark Swartz had been sentenced to 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison for grand larceny, conspiracy, falsifying records and violating business law. They were found guilty of giving themselves illegal bonuses and forgiving loans to themselves from 1999 to 2002.
In many ways Kozlowski and Swartz were pioneers for American financial innovations that were not fully realized until the 2007-8 financial crisis.
"Back when I was running Tyco, I was living in a CEO-type bubble. I had a strong sense of entitlement at that time," Kozlowski told the board.
Kozlowski was clearly a trend-setter.
Is it time to go long high-end umbrella stands and wastebaskets, or custom-tailored Italian silk burnt orange prison jumpsuits and Presidential handcuff links? Once an outlier, massive financial fraud now seems to be in season in both NY and London, if not
de rigueur.
Have a pleasant evening.
