Jul 26, 2026
The board splits along one axis: metals with 30-day inflows are stacking up while gold's deliverable base and the reserve behind it keep thinning.
LME lead stocks sit at the 100th percentile of a 19-year record, 448,850 mt, up 49.8% over 30 days. The daily move is flat at -0.1%, so the level is extreme while the speed has gone quiet. The stacking already happened; what we track now is whether it holds.
Copper rhymes with it: COMEX copper at a 6-month high, 706,328 short tons, up 7.7% on the month. Gold pulls the other way. COMEX total gold at a 6-month low of 27.02M oz, down 2.8%, and registered gold at 14.76M oz, down 1.7%. Two families of metal drifting apart, one filling warehouses, one draining the deliverable pile.
The tension inside gold is coverage against silver. COMEX gold coverage sits at the 10th percentile of its 6-month record, down 9.7% over 30 days, the sharpest velocity on the board, while silver's deliverable share climbs to a 6-month high of 29.1%, up 7.4%. Same exchange, opposite direction. China's gold reserves round it out at 2,321.6 tonnes, the highest in an 11-year record.
What the data shows: the divergence is not gold versus everything, it is a thinning deliverable base for gold set against inflows in lead, copper and silver's deliverable share. The extreme levels came with calm days; the gold coverage drawdown is the one moving fast.
LME lead stocks hit 448,850 mt, the top of a 19-year record, after climbing 49.8% in 30 days. The day itself was flat at -0.1%, so this is a built-up level, not a fresh surge.
SPR crude fell to 311.4 MM bbl, the lowest since March 1983, down 1.6% on the week and 8.5% over 30 days. A reserve this thin has less room to absorb a supply shock.
COMEX copper stocks rose to 706,328 short tons, a 6-month high, up 7.7% on the month. The metal is accumulating in the warehouse system.
COMEX total gold slipped to 27.02M oz, a 6-month low, down 2.8% over 30 days though little changed on the day. The deliverable pile has been quietly shrinking.
COMEX registered gold, the portion actually pledged for delivery, sits at 14.76M oz, a 6-month low, down 1.7% on the month. Less metal is committed to settle contracts.
COMEX silver's deliverable share reached 29.1%, a 6-month high, up 7.4% over 30 days. A larger slice of the silver stockpile is registered for delivery.
China's official gold reserves stand at 2,321.6 tonnes, the highest in the 11-year record. The central bank's holdings keep grinding up, 0.3% on the month.
COMEX gold coverage, the buffer of deliverable metal against open claims, sits at 38.5%, the 10th percentile of its 6-month record and down 9.7% over 30 days. That is the fastest-moving figure on the board today.
Sources: CME Group COMEX warehouse reports, LME warehouse data, EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report, ETF issuer filings, and venue price quotes. Every figure is computed straight from the stored source data; percentiles rank today's level against the series' full record.