Timberline Resources Corp. [OTC-BB: TBLC] Upside Through Discovery • Record Revenues - Drilling Services

The Markets:

Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/

Oil eventually rose in choppy trade on cold weather and geopolitical risks in Nigeria, Iran, and Venezuela.

The U.S. dollar index initially fell on weaker than expected January payrolls, but it then rebounded and ended modestly higher as traders looked into the report and found positive revisions to October’s, November’s, and December’s jobs.

Treasuries rose on weaker than expected headline payrolls and weaker than expected Michigan Sentiment as traders also prepared for next week’s refunding of $38 billion in debt sales.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P traded mixed and near unchanged on varied economic and company reports.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Harley-Davidson, Nissan, Chevron, Ericsson, Equity Office and Vornado, NYSE Group, ITT, and Merrill, Credit Suisse, and Enron.

The Commentary:

“*The IMF gold accounting changes are likely to wreak all sorts of havoc regarding gold that isn’t there anymore and cannot be retrieved without sending gold to the moon. My guess is that A talk of this is now leading to B, which is now leading to C … C being the realization that much of the central bank gold is not there to deliver, or that central bank gold out on lease cannot be retrieved without sending gold to the moon. There must be a whole lot of "Oh goshes" uttered at IMF central banks, and at the IMF itself.

*The latest gold surge is further confirmation of GATA’s influence on the gold price at pivotal, strategic times. There have been TOO MANY coincidences over the years for that not to be the case.”- From yesterday’s Midas report by Bill Murphy of LemetropoleCafe.com

“April Gold finished down 11.5 at 651.5, 13.8 off the high and 3.5 up from the low.

March Silver closed down 0.35 at 13.375. This was 0.105 up from the low and 0.355 off the high.

After a huge failure from what appeared to be an overdone technical condition, the gold market was ripe with talk of major fund liquidations. With the Dollar forging a very impressive upward extension, in the face of what some could have considered to be bearish Non farm payroll data, it is clear that some gold players were concerned about more gains in the Dollar. With the US Factory orders report and the University of Michigan Sentiment readings also highlighting growth and the equity market suggesting that the payrolls report was "perfect" it is possible that gold simply lost out to paper assets.

The silver market apparently wasn't immune to the liquidation pressure in the gold market on Friday as prices pulsed sharply lower in the wake of a failure at the critical even number zone of $13.50. Certainly a massive slide in the copper market, a higher Dollar and generally weak oil prices provided the bears with some cover and probably also prompted some longs to bank profits and move to the sidelines. Some players suggested that the overall impact from the US scheduled numbers were disappointing to the physical metal traders but with the Factory Orders numbers strong that argument doesn't seem to carry water.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Congressional investigators to report on credit derivatives

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 2/1/2007

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The NYSE added 3.7 tonnes.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)