J.P. Morgan Has Sold 2 Mln Ounces Of Comex Gold
J.P. Morgan accounts for nearly all of the physical gold sales that Comex in the last three months, blogger Mark McHugh wrote in a blog on Friday, which was reposted on ZeroHedge.
McHugh, who writes the “Across the Street” blog, cited a report on the CME Group CME -0.43% web site that details metals issues and stops year to date for his findings.
In the report, “I” stands for issues, the number of contracts it sold, “S” stands for stops, meaning the firm took delivery of the gold, McHugh said. It shows that just one firm accounts for 99.3% of the physical gold sales at the Comex in the last three months, he said.
Doing the math on J.P. Morgan, McHugh says the brokerage “fumbled ownership” of 1,966,000 troy ounces of gold since Feb. 1 through the reporting date of April 25. (One gold futures contract is 100 troy ounces.)
That nearly 2 million ounces of gold is 74% more gold than the U.S. Mint delivered through the U.S. Mint’s American Eagle program in all of 2012, said McHugh.
“One thing’s very clear: When it comes to selling physical gold, J.P. Morgan is acting alone,” he said.
But Gene Arensberg, editor of the Got Gold Report, discounted McHugh’s report. There is no doubt that JPM’s gold inventories at Comex has fallen, but we don’t know why, he said.
Registered gold, stores in the Comex approved vaults and therefore deliverable, and eligible gold inventories, those stored at Comex approved depositories but claimed by owners, have both fallen recently, he said. Read his thoughts on the latest Commitments of Traders report released Friday.
On Friday, gold futures suddenly turned lower during the trading session, with analysts attributing the drop to profit-taking ahead of the weekend, as well as a big “margin call” — that’s when a broker demands additional funds from traders because of adverse price movement. June gold GCM3 +0.01% settled at $1,453.60 an ounce on Comex, down $8.40, or 0.6%, for the session.
For the week, however, futures prices gained 4.2%, to log their first gain in five weeks. They suffered a loss of more than $100 an ounce last week.
Marketwatch
