End-month markdowns

Predictably, futures contract expiry is coinciding with precious metals weakness. But it ignores weakness in the dollar, likely to prompt further dollar selling in favour of gold.

Another week of universal apathy. It is the end of the first half of 2025 with book squaring in mind, and the July futures contract running off the board. In Europe this morning, gold was $3285, down $93 on the week, and silver at $35.85 down 20 cents. Interestingly, price weakness featured during Hong Kong and Shanghai trading hours particularly for gold, a pattern which has been noticeable recently.

Nevertheless, it is noticeable how well gold and silver are holding current price levels when Comex shorts would normally wish to see them much lower. Instead, we can assume that it is punters on the Shanghai Futures Exchange who are in a pickle, with their June contract settlement expiring yesterday.

This week, silver has been notably firm despite Comex open interest declining, shown in the chart below:

Meanwhile, Comex warehouse stocks have held up as the Macromicro chart shows. This is next:

This compares with gold stocks, which have declined sharply: