CME Group Hikes Comex Gold Margins Again, Cuts Palladium Margins By Kitco News Friday July 01, 2016 07:40 http://www.kitco.com/news/2016-07-01/CME-Group-Hikes-Comex-Gold-Margins-Again-Cuts-Palladium-Margins.html In the meantime, Palladium shoots ahead... semi-precious moving w/precious... LOL!!! (Kitco News) - CME Group is hiking margins for Comex gold futures for the second time in a week, while the margin for Nymex palladium futures will decline, the exchange operator announced late Thursday. As of the close of business on Friday, the margin for new speculative positions in the main Comex 100-ounce gold contact will rise to $6,600 from $6,050. As of a week ago, before an increase that went into effect on Monday, this margin had stood at $4,950. The maintenance margin for existing speculative, plus all hedge positions, will rise to $6,000 from $5,500. As of a week ago, this stood at $4,500. Meanwhile, for Nymex palladium futures, the margin for new speculative positions will decline to $3,850 from $4,620. The maintenance margin for existing speculative positions, plus all hedge positions, will fall to $3,500 from $4,200. Margins act as collateral on trades in the futures market. CME Group said the changes were “per the normal review of market volatility to ensure adequate collateral coverage.” CME Group also changed margins for a number of other markets, including increases for cocoa, soybeans and Japanese yen futures. A link to the complete notice can be seen www.cmegroup.com/notices/clearing/2016/06/Chadv16-254.pdf?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT1dRNE9XUXhNRFk1TURFNCIsInQiOiI4S1NcL0g1UlFTM0R1aUdVNGFWeWRNVFBIS29QQzh6dnppQ1lLbXY4RVlCZE5kTU5vcnJxQ1RWYTg3RFJJdVZyNDdscjJDU2E1Unc4akRla0hBTHAxOXhKR1wvYTVpNG1ES3NxMUtoTlwvZWt right here. By Allen Sykora of Kitco News; asykora@kitco.com