by Andy Hoffman, MilesFranklin.com:
On yet another day of Fed failure to meaningfully prop up the deteriorating Treasury market – while PIIGS sovereign bonds were “slaughtered into the close” – something incredible occurred, which even I am still in disbelief about. And that something was – drum roll please – an actual sharp increase in PM prices late on a Friday afternoon.
Some might say it was due to “short covering”; extreme undervaluation; fears of a weekend turn of events in Syria; the PM-bullish COT report, released at 3:30 PM EST; or even reduced expectations of Fed tapering (personally, I expect no more than a “token taper,” if anything at all, which may well BACKFIRE on the Fed’s best laid plans).