A quiet session: the live board sits where it did yesterday, firmness still only at the small end, with the September RAPI now about three days out as the figure that settles the one-carat question and resolves the two calls D-Loupe set for October 2.

The live index to October 2 is unchanged from yesterday, with the half-carat up 2.26 percent on the month against the one-carat essentially flat at 0.33 percent, so the firmness still sits only in the smaller goods and has not reached one-carat stones. The official September RAPI has still not printed, and the tension D-Loupe has carried for weeks stays open with it. IDEX's September report put round goods below one carat down 4 to 6.5 percent, the opposite of this small-stone strength, and only the September RAPI reconciles the two.

The September RAPI, now about three days out and expected around October 9, is the single figure that settles whether the one-carat grade joins the small-stone firmness, and it resolves the two calls D-Loupe set for October 2, which remain open. After it, the reported United States plan to add a tariff on Indian gem and jewelry goods carries an October 18 marker that exporters are rushing to beat. On the calendar, JIS Fall runs in Miami from October 16 to 19.