The silver commercial COT improved this past week to 36% from 34%. This was in line with our expectations and with the improvement in the gold commercial COT. Long open interest rose roughly 1,000 contracts while short open interest fell about 8,000 contracts. This suggests the improvement was largely short covering rather than any new buying. Not surprisingly, the large speculators became more bearish and their COT slipped to 64% from 66% as they mostly covered longs. We are encouraged by the silver commercial COT. It never really turned negative, but the drop last week was of concern. It would be good to see further improvement this coming week. © David Chapman