RED LETTER DAY #2! More broken records. 2008-01-08

Tuesday 8th January 2008: 11.07 pm : "RED LETTER DAY #2"

Today has seen two new all time high London Gold Fixes at USD 873.25 and 873.50, as seen on the excellent http://www.kitco.com/ind/dorsch/jan022008.html homepage as I write.

Meanwhile back at the ranch (in the futures market) there is a new all time high close in the January contract of $878. I am wondering whether Jim Sinclair's $887.50 on 21 January 1980 was for the January 1980 contract, because the $895 high shown on the Chart in 'Schwager on Futures' (Amazon UK) was labelled on the chart as the April 1980 contract. Maybe not. That might explain the difference. Anyway, today's Jan 2008 Futures contract close was $878.00, February's (the most active contract at present according to Reuters) was $880.30 (they say that it compares to a record of $875 from 1980), March's was 883.00, April's was $887.20 and June's $893.20. If you want to go out to December 2011, the contract is at $1007.00, already in four figures, along with June 2012 and Dec 2012, both also over $1000!

Anyway, so basically all records are down now, because I looked at earlier today at the intraday highs NYMEX Futures page and the intraday highs were: Jun'08:$892.00 and Aug'08:$894.30. These intraday highs are now not displayed and my figures were only halfway through the day so they may have been beaten already!

John Nadler of Kitco gives the spot gold close at $877.50 bid with a net gain of $18.20 per ounce and an intraday high of $881.80 is quoted on Kitco's Kitco's front page.

It would be pretty pedantic to say we haven't broken the records now, wouldn't it? It actually gets complicated because there are so many contracts and fixes and spot prices and intraday highs and closing prices! Does it all really matter? You will be paying more than ever for the actual stuff on the physical market; you could have a nominal profit on your Krugerrands bought in 1980, that you never thought you would ever sell and get all your money back. ALso, thingsd will change tomorrow - in fact the spot market is open again as I write, wonderful Kitco is saying SPOT MARKET IS OPEN closes in 19 hrs. 21 mins. Jan 08, 2008 18:08 NY Time Bid/Ask 878.10 - 878.90.

For those of us across the Pond, the London Fixes were AM: £441.57 PM: £442.03, equivalent to 593.81 and 593.29 Euros respectively. Who cares says Doctor Darryl Robert Schoon in his article Christmas On Threadneedle Street & The Coming Depression. the basic sentiment of his missive is that the credit system in place since 1694 and the start of the Bank of England is collapsing and so will the infuence of Britain on the world because of this event. Makes interesting reading.