Bear squeezes in PMs

Lack of physical liquidity is putting a bear squeeze on gold, silver, and platinum group metal derivatives. After a bullish consolidation, gold, silver, and PGMs are set to resume rising.

Gold improved on last Friday’s sharp rise, up a further $36 at $3400 in Europe this morning, and silver is up $1.40 at $38.40. Yesterday, Comex volumes on both contracts rose sharply. But on preliminary figures, gold’s open interest rose by a large 15,203 contracts, but silver’s fell to the lowest level since 30 May while the price rose 1.1%.

There is growing evidence of bear squeezes. The next chart shows how silver’s price is rising while open interest is falling. Clearly, the shorts are running scared in an illiquid physical market with little or no free float.

Turning to Commitment of Traders statistics, we can see why.