-- Posted Thursday, 25 January 2007 | Digg This Article
| Close | Gain/Loss |
Gold | $648.30 | +$1.20 |
Silver | $13.36 | +$0.18 |
XAU | 138.45 | -1.26% |
HUI | 330.98 | -1.10% |
GDM | 1062.56 | -1.13% |
JSE Gold | 2877.96 | +1.51% |
USD | 85.12 | +0.17 |
Euro | 129.29 | -0.28 |
Yen | 82.52 | -0.12 |
Oil | $54.23 | -$1.14 |
10-Year | 4.867% | +0.057 |
T-Bond | 109.71875 | -0.59375 |
Dow | 12502.56 | -0.94% |
Nasdaq | 2434.24 | -1.30% |
S&P | 1423.90 | -1.13% |
The Metals:
Gold remained near unchanged in Asia and rose about $5 to above $650 in London and early New York trade, but it then fell off a bit into the close and ended with a gain of just 0.19%. Silver rose up to about $13.50 before it also fell off into the close, but it still ended with a respectable gain of 1.37%.
Euro gold remained above €500, platinum rose $5 to $1,180, palladium gained $1 to $350, and copper rose over 5 cents to about $2.66.
Gold and silver equities rose over 1% in the first couple hours of trade, but they then fell off for most of the rest of trade and ended over 1% lower.
The Economy:
Report | For | Reading | Expected | Previous |
Initial Claims | 1/20 | 325K | 310K | 289K |
Existing Home Sales | Dec | 6.22M | 6.30M | 6.27M |
Help-Wanted Index | Dec | 33 | 31 | 29 |
Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST is the Durable Goods Orders report expected at 3.5% and at 10AM is the New Home Sales report expected at 1,050,000.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil fell on signs that OPEC is not living up to its stated production cuts as oil began pumping out of a Northern Iraqi pipeline as well.
The U.S. dollar index followed treasury note yields higher as higher interest rates in the U.S. encourage investment in the currency.
Treasuries fell despite lower than expected Existing Home Sales as home prices moved higher and inventories of unsold homes fell.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell about 1% despite good earnings reports as worries over home sales and higher interest rates weighed heavily on the markets.
Among the big names making news in the market today were Nokia, Dow Chemical, Blackstone and Equity Office, Ford, AT&T, Baxter, and Cardinal Health and Blackstone.
The Commentary:
“February Gold finished down 0.1 at 648.1, 6.5 off the high and 1.1 up from the low.
March Silver closed up 0.217 at 13.49. This was 0.09 up from the low and 0.11 off the high.
The gold market showed early strength, added to the early gains and then the market softened into mid session and then probably disappointed the bulls with the closing action. It is important to note that the gold managed the mid morning gains without the help of a weak Dollar and or beneficial oil price action. In fact, the morning gold rally was forged in the face of weak US economic stats and a generally soft US equity market which is surprising in its own right. While the gold market could have been supported by mid session news of escalating violence in Lebanon, the gold market in general didn't seem to pay much attention to the latest potentially supportive development from the Middle East. However, it is possible that developing oil market weakness served to dampen the potential speculative lift off the situation in Lebanon, as the oil market weakened throughout the session.
Certainly fund buying was part of the early rally in the silver market on Thursday. In fact, with a number of outside market influences patently bearish for silver in the face of the morning rally, some players were quite surprised with the action. However, into mid session the silver market saw a significant reversal and at times the market was actually back into negative ground. However, the silver market did manage to re-gather itself after the mid session swoon and in general left the trade was left with a mostly bullish outlook. In fact, with the copper market showing significant strength and the Chinese posting a very strong growth reading ahead of the US session, it would seem like the silver market was getting both physical and investment interest during the trade Thursday. In the end, the silver market clearly outperformed the gold market and that might have some bulls discounting the gains the silver.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
Gulf states seen shifting away from U.S. assets
Gold Fields closes Western Areas hedge book
Doug Hornig: The gold price-fixing conspiracy
Gold Rush 21 DVD promotion posted at YouTube
Fed economist proposes revaluing coins before they're melted down
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 1/24/2007
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 7,463,524 | - |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 114,160,390 | - |
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 | 450.30 | 14,477,672 | US$ 9,294m |
LSE (London Stock Exchange) AND Euronext Paris | Gold Bullion Securities | 86.48 | 2,780,439 | US$ 1,796m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 10.67 | 342,737 | US$ 222m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 10.25 | 329,405 | US$ 211m |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 1/24/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $909,087,161 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,404,140.630 |
Shares Outstanding | 14,150,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 43.67 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 1/24/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,532,184,002 | Ounces of Silver
in Trust | 116,112,664.800 |
Shares Outstanding | 11,650,000 | Tonnes of Silver
in Trust | 3,611.51 |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 92.97 tonnes were subtracted from the trust.
The Stocks:
Tanzanian Royalty’s (TRE) drill results, Newmont’s (NEM) trial in Indonesia, Gold Fields’ (GFI) earnings, $1.2 billion private placement, and terminated Western Areas hedge book, and Excellon’s (EXN.V) stock options were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.
WINNERS
1. Almaden | AAU +5.88% $2.34 |
2. Nevsun | NSU +3.65% $2.27 |
3. Freeport | FCX+3.62% $58.38 |
LOSERS
1. Gold Fields | GFI -5.56% $16.99 |
2. Fronteer | FRG-4.25% $10.15 |
3. Cumberland | CLG -3.73% $5.68 |
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:
Excellon Grants Incentive Stock Options - "Excellon Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:EXN - News) is pleased to announce it has granted an incentive stock option to Mr. John Sullivan, the Company's new Vice President - Exploration, to purchase up to 400,000 common shares, exercisable at a price of $1.41 for a period of five years expiring on January 25, 2012." More
- January 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Denison Mines' hunt for uranium heats up - More
- January 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Uracan Resources Ltd. grants stock options - More
- January 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Corriente delays Mirador production, stock sinks - More
- January 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
$1 Million Program Planned for Fiji Property - More
- January 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Harte Gold Corp. and Corona Gold Corporation: Joint News Release - More
- January 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Alma Resources Trading on Frankfurt Stock Exchange - More
- January 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
DIOS Reports a Uranium Anomaly on Hotish East Block - More
- January 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Universal Uranium intersects additional mineralization during Phase Two drilling - More
- January 25, 2007 | <
Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold & Silver Gain a Third Straight Session