-- Posted Wednesday, 22 November 2006 | Digg This Article
Note: All U.S. markets will be closed on Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving Day. The major stock indices will open for a half day on Friday, but the metals markets will remain closed in the U.S. The Gold Seeker Closing Report will return on Monday.
| Close | Gain/Loss |
Gold | $628.60 | +$0.50 |
Silver | $13.01 | -$0.03 |
XAU | 138.37 | +0.52% |
HUI | 332.03 | +0.65% |
GDM | 1054.84 | +0.47% |
JSE Gold | 2885.85 | +1.23% |
USD | 84.54 | -0.70 |
Euro | 129.27 | +0.83 |
Yen | 85.64 | +0.80 |
Oil | $59.24 | -$0.93 |
10-Year | 4.568% | -0.010 |
T-Bond | 113.21875 | +0.09375 |
Dow | 12326.95 | +0.04% |
Nasdaq | 1465.98 | +0.45% |
S&P | 1406.09 | +0.23% |
The Metals:
Gold fell a couple dollars in Asia before it rose to trade near unchanged in London and then gained over $5 to about $634 in midmorning New York trade, but it then fell off into the close and ended with only a slight gain. Silver rose to about $13.20 in midmorning New York trade before it also fell off into the close and ended with a small loss.
Euro gold fell back near €485, platinum lost $77 to $1,145, palladium lost $5 to $322, and copper remained at about $3.10.
Gold and silver equities rose about 2% in the first hour of trade before they fell back off and traded slightly lower in early afternoon trade, but they then rallied a bit for the rest of trade and ended with about 0.5% gains.
The Economy:
Report | For | Reading | Expected | Previous |
Initial Claims | 11/18 | 321K | 310K | 309K |
Michigan Sentiment | Nov | 92.1 | 93.0 | 92.3 |
There are no major economic reports for the rest of the week. Next week’s economic highlights include Durable Orders, Consumer Confidence, and Existing Home Sales on Tuesday, GDP, New Home Sales, and the Fed's Beige Book on Wednesday, Initial Claims, Personal Income and Spending, and the Help-Wanted Index on Thursday, and Construction Spending and the ISM Index on Friday.
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The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil fell over 1% as inventory reports showed crude inventories built a much more than expected 5.1 million barrels, gasoline inventories surprisingly built 1.4 million barrels, and distillates fell 1.2 million barrels which was about as expected. Losses did moderate by the close, however, as traders did not want to be caught short or not-long going into the extended weekend.
The U.S. dollar index fell markedly on U.S. economic growth concerns and on diversification into other currencies by other countries. The euro rose to a 5 and ½ month high.
Treasuries rose on economically disappointing Michigan Sentiment.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose at the open, fell back off and found slight losses after Michigan Sentiment, and remained near unchanged to slightly higher for the rest of trade as oil and interest rates fell off.
Among the big names making news in the market today were Freeport-McMoran, Goldman Sachs, Heyman and LSE, Alcoa, Dell, and Texas Pacific, Macquarie, and Qantas.
The Commentary:
“Once again ….the gold derivatives numbers rose sharply in the first half of the year, while gold producers were reducing their forward sales position rather dramatically. The so-called gold establishment folks REFUSE to reconcile how this can be, since they have associated gold derivatives positions with the activity of the gold producers and their bullion dealers.
GATA has been pounding the table for years that a great number of these derivatives are related to the activities of the price suppressing Gold Cartel and THEIR lending activities.
Case closed … for the umpteenth time. For those who need a SMOKING GUN to feel comfortable with GATA’s claims, this is it … well, another one.” - From yesterday’s Midas report by Bill Murphy of LemetropoleCafe.com
“December Gold finished up 0.3 at 629, 6 off the high and 2 up from the low.
December Silver closed down 0.045 at 13.04. This was 0.04 up from the low and 0.21 off the high.
The gold bulls held up in the face of a series of deflating developments on Wednesday. In additional to an early follow through slide in platinum prices, the gold market was also forced to weather a sharp slide in oil prices and a generally defeating flow of US economic readings. In fact, about the only positive for the gold market was the sharp ongoing slide in the US Dollar and that is probably why the gold market was able to stay near unchanged for a large portion of the trading session. It is surprising that the gold market wasn't under pressure off the ongoing talk from IMF officials than some of their gold holdings will have to be sold to finance operations. Some players might also suggest that seeing gold spike up and fail to hold those gains is a major negative for prices. However, it should be noted that the market did make a new high for the move and seemed to respect the prior sessions closing value.
Like the gold market the silver market also managed to forge a new high for the move but generally failed to sustain the strong early action. Apparently significant weakness in the Dollar supported gold and silver prices and distracted the silver market away from the weakness in copper and platinum prices. However, the weakness in the industrial metals in some ways restrains the silver market and with the US economic reports on Wednesday hinting at weakness in the US economy, it is surprising that silver did not come under more intense selling pressure.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
IMF talks about selling gold again
Corporate acquisitions for 2006 set record
Dollar falls amid concerns economy is slowing and Fed may ease
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 11/21-22/2006
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 7,524,058 | - |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 108,218,641 | + 618,026 |
Global Gold ETF Holdings
[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]
| Product name | Total Tonnes | Total Ounces | Total Value |
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) AND Singapore Exchange (SGX) | Streettracks Gold Shares | 415.76 | 13,367,010 | US$ 8,345m |
LSE (London Stock Exchange) AND Euronext Paris | Gold Bullion Securities | 90.33 | 2,904,232 | US$ 1,831m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 10.37 | 333,020 | US$ 210m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 9.88 | 317,735 | US$ 198m |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The ASX added 0.06 tonnes.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 11/21/2006 | |
Total Net Assets | $857,512,092 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,365,342.180 |
Shares Outstanding | 13,750,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 42.47 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 11/21/2006 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,372,125,332 | Ounces of Silver
in Trust | 106,231,357 |
Shares Outstanding | 10,650,000 | Tonnes of Silver
in Trust | 3,304.2 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
The Stocks:
Barrick’s (ABX) bid for NovaGold (NG), Rubicon’s (RBY) drill program, Freeport-McMoran’s (FCX) buyout chatter, Cumberland’s final short form prospectus, Newmont’s (NEM) court ruling in Uzbekistan, Gold Fields (GFI) permission to proceed with its proposed acquisition of Western Areas, and Silver Standard’s (SSRI) drill results were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.
WINNERS
1. Freeport | FCX +5.80% $61.80 |
2. Claude Resources | CGR +4.80% $1.31 |
3. Rio Narcea | RNO +4.27% $2.44 |
LOSERS
1. U.S. Energy | USEG-5.47% $5.18 |
2. IAMGOLD | IAG -2.01% $9.25 |
3. Entree Gold | EGI -1.97% $1.49 |
Winners & Losers tracks NYSE and AMEX listed gold and silver mining stocks that trade over $1.
All of today's gold and silver stock news:
Rubicon Announces Start of McFinley Drill Program, Red Lake, Ontario - "David W Adamson, President and CEO of Rubicon Minerals Corp. (TSX:RMX.TO - News)(AMEX:RBY - News) is pleased to announce that a planned 2000-metre Phase I drill program will commence at the Company's 100% controlled McFinley property in Red Lake Ontario on or around November 27, 2006. The McFinley project is strategically located in the heart of the prolific Red Lake gold camp and is host to the Rubicon's Phoenix Gold Zone discovery which currently has a strike length of 500 metres and has been drilled to a depth of 200 metres." More
- November 22, 2006 | Item | E-mail
Rocmec Announces Closing of Second Tranche of Debenture Financing - More
- November 22, 2006 | Item | E-mail
Freeport-McMoran shares rise again on buyout chatter -
"Shares in miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) jumped to a six-month high on Wednesday driven by a second day of speculation the company could be a takeover target. Shares in the company, which said on Sunday it would buy larger peer Phelps Dodge Corp. (PD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for $25.9 billion, leapt nearly 8 percent to $63.00 earlier in the day, before pulling back to $60.00, up 2.7 percent, near midday. Speculation that Australian BHP Billiton Ltd/Plc (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) could launch a bid for Freeport-McMoRan surfaced on Tuesday, pushing shares in the U.S. company up 5 percent." More
- November 22, 2006 | Item | E-mail
Gold Canyon Closes First Tranche of Private Placement for US$189,250 - More
- November 22, 2006 | Item | E-mail
Noront Grants Option- Mid-Matra Project, Hungary - More
- November 22, 2006 | Item | E-mail
Valley High announces commencement of 5,000 metre drill program - More
- November 22, 2006 | Item | E-mail
High River Gold Starts Drilling at Bissa - More
- November 22, 2006 | Item | E-mail
Barrick soldiers on despite low NovaGold support - "Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) is showing no sign it will give up trying to buy fellow
Gold Seeker Closing Report – Gold & Silver End Near Unchanged Before the Long Weekend