It appears that the exchanges decided to provide volume and open interest data for those commodities that traded for a full session on Friday. These were copper, gold, silver, crude oil, natural gas, British pound, euro and S&P 500 E mini. This will be a short report without much commentary due to the lack of participants in the markets on Friday. Following this report, we will provide the volume and open interest stats for December 24.

Crude oil:

February crude oil lost $1.47 on volume of 337,737 contracts. Open interest declined by 999 contracts, which is a minuscule number relative to volume and is dramatically below average. Stand aside.

Natural gas:

February natural gas lost 1.3 cents on volume of 275,751 contracts. Open interest declined by 9,558 contracts, which in relation to volume is approximately 40% above average, meaning that liquidation was fairly heavy. Stand aside.

Copper:

March copper gained 3.10 cents on volume of 49,791 contracts. Open interest declined by 2,093 contracts, which in relation to volume is approximately 65% above average, meaning that speculators were liquidating fairly heavily as copper rallied. Stand aside.

Gold: On December 21 February gold generated in intermediate term sell signal.

February gold gained $14.20 on volume of 145,096 contracts. Open interest declined by 5,192, which in relation to volume is approximately 40% above average, meaning that liquidation was fairly heavy on the rally. Gold is now on a short and intermediate term sell signal, which means long positions should not be taken, and the preferred position is on the short side. Although gold can move lower, we caution clients about getting overly bearish at current prices.

Silver: On December 21, March silver generated a intermediate term sell signal.

March silver gained 52.5 cents on volume of 46,464 contracts. Open interest declined by 2,280 contracts, which in relation to volume is approximately 100% above average, meaning that liquidation was extremely heavy on the advance, much heavier than gold. In the December 23 Weekend Wrap, we wrote about the likelihood of heavier liquidation in silver going forward. Stand aside.

British pound:

The March British pound lost 1.22 cents on volume of 91,495 contracts. Open interest declined by 8,160 contracts, which in relation to volume is approximately 250% above average, meaning that liquidation was extraordinarily large. As we have commented in earlier reports, we thought the British pound was massively overbought, not only in terms of price, but by the huge numbers of managed money that have rushed in at the high end of the trading range. Stand aside.

Euro:

The March euro lost 65 points on volume of 202,124 contracts. Open interest declined by 1553 contracts, which in relation to volume is approximately 65% less than average, meaning that liquidation was fairly light on the decline, which is positive. The market is vulnerable to a further setback because of the fiscal cliff issue, which gives the dollar a bid.

S&P 500 E mini:

The S&P 500 E mini advanced 14.50 points on volume of 2,116,725 contracts. Open interest increased by a minuscule 3,881 contracts, which is minuscule and dramatically below average. On December 20, the E mini made a low of 1391.25 during the evening session , but the market was able to  close positively. The very low increase of open interest is testament to the internal weakness of the market, and the lack of committed participants. Stand aside.