-- Posted Friday, 23 February 2007 | Digg This Article
| Close | Gain/Loss | On Week |
Gold | $682.90 | +$3.70 | +2.15% |
Silver | $14.49 | +$0.27 | +3.87% |
XAU | 145.82 | -0.16% | +1.89% |
HUI | 357.29 | +0.27% | +2.94% |
GDM | 1137.27 | +0.13% | +2.46% |
JSE Gold | 2893.13 | +1.76% | +3.01% |
USD | 84.04 | -0.29 | -0.04% |
Euro | 131.69 | +0.40 | +0.27% |
Yen | 82.63 | +0.31 | -1.48% |
Oil | $61.14 | +$0.19 | +2.95% |
10-Year | 4.678% | -0.052 | -0.26% |
Bond | 111.625 | +0.5625 | +0.11% |
Dow | 12647.48 | -0.30% | -0.94% |
Nasdaq | 2515.10 | -0.39% | +0.75% |
S&P | 1451.19 | -0.36% | -0.30% |
The Metals:
CoT Reports: Gold | Silver
All presentations for this year’s Virtual Gold Investment Conference are now available at www.goldseek.com/2007
Gold fell over $5 in access trade late yesterday before it steadily rebounded higher in Asia and London and came into New York just slightly lower at $677.80. It then gained over $10 to about $688 before it fell back off into the close a bit, but it still ended with a gain of 0.54%. Silver traded mostly slightly higher in Asia and London and outpaced gold’s gains in New York as it rose past $14.50 by mid morning, remained near its highs into the close, and ended with a gain of 1.90%.
Euro gold rose near €520, platinum gained $7 to $1,231, palladium gained $8 to $354, and copper rose a couple of cents to about $2.80.
Gold and silver equities rose about 1.5% at the open, but they then steadily sold off into the close and ended mixed and near unchanged.
The Economy:
All of this week’s economic reports:
Next week’s economic highlights include Existing Home Sales, Durable Orders, and Consumer Confidence on Tuesday, GDP, Chicago PMI, and New Home Sales on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims, Personal Income and Spending, Construction Spending, and the ISM Index on Thursday, and Michigan Sentiment on Friday.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil continued to rise on worries over Iran and on news of a foreign worker killed in Nigeria. Several refinery and pipeline problems in the U.S. also added buying pressure early on, but the resolve of a couple of those problems later in the day did take oil off its highs by the close.
The U.S. dollar index fell and treasuries rose as traders took profits from gains accomplished in the dollar and interest rates on Wednesday and Thursday that were the result of higher than expected CPI data.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell on worries over the housing sector and Iran.
Among the big names making news in the market Friday were KB Home, Lowe’s, Lehman Brothers, UPS, and Clear Channel.
The Commentary:
“Lordy, Lordy … the Comex gold open interest rose sharply, up 9250 contracts to 405,365, which is stunningly bullish, and brings us closer to a colossal Commercial Signal Failure.
Why? Yesterday’s move up was not due to The Gold Cartel covering, nor was it due to some hedge fund blowing up. If that were the case, the OI would have collapsed. The sharp increase means that someone BIG is willing to take the entire Gold Cartel on. You might recall I mentioned China yesterday. There is NO DOUBT in my mind that this someone out there knows what GATA knows about what the cabal bums have done … and they know those same bums DON’T have enough available central bank gold to meet burgeoning demand for physical gold. This is EXPLOSIVE!!!
We are very close to a major Commercial Signal Failure, in which the shorts and Gold Cartel crowd are routed.”- From yesterday’s Midas report by Bill Murphy of LemetropoleCafe.com
“April Gold finished up 3.7 at 686.7, 5.2 off the high and 4.4 up from the low.
March Silver closed up 0.345 at 14.595. This was 0.275 up from the low and 0.055 off the high.
The gold market initially waffled on both sides of unchanged before the trade settled into a most bullish posture. While crude oil prices showed some divergence with the products, the impact off action in the oil market was generally positive during the session Friday. With the Dollar managing a clear reversal in the early afternoon action, it is possible that some currency motivated buyers were behind the slight pulse up in the afternoon action. It is also possible that some buyers were anticipating a boost from the return of the Chinese from an extended holiday or perhaps the buyers were anticipating the prospect of incendiary Iranian developments early next week. As usual the Press suggested that fund buying was behind part of the rally and that is hard to discount.
With the March silver contract taking out a number of critical points on the charts with the gains Friday, it probably goes without saying that a combination of short covering and fresh longer term buying was behind the pulse up in prices. Certainly seeing the copper market finish the week with very impressive gains lent some spillover support to silver but as long as gold is higher oil prices are firming and the Dollar is weak, the silver market can probably expect to get buying interest from a number of themes.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
Eric Hommelberg's gold/HUI update cites GATA's work
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 2/22/2007
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 7,487,276 | - |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 116,016,794 | - 482,360 |
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 | 485.93 | 15,623,147 | US$ 10,568m |
LSE (London Stock Exchange) AND Euronext Paris | Gold Bullion Securities | 87.07 | 2,799,540 | US$ 1,916m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 11.30 | 362,975 | US$ 249m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 10.24 | 329,304 | US$ 217m |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The NYSE added 6.16 tonnes to its trust and the ASX added 0.22 tonnes.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 2/22/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $953,430,126 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,403,670.518 |
Shares Outstanding | 14,150,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 43.66 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 2/22/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,795,374,638 | Ounces of Silver
in Trust | 126,026,951.100 |
Shares Outstanding | 12,650,000 | Tonnes of Silver
in Trust | 3,919.88 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
The Stocks:
Rubicon’s (RBY) potential property acquisition and financing, NovaGold’s (NG) Environmental Assessment Certificate, Newmont’s (NEM) lawsuit in Indonesia, Goldcorp’s (GG) 2006 reserves, production, and cash costs, Stillwater’s (SWC) 2006 profit, Palmarejo’s (PJO.V) quarterly results, and Silver Eagle’s (SEG.TO) mine opening were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.
WINNERS
1. U.S. Energy | USEG +10.54% $6.19 |
2. Rio Narcea | RNO +10.38% $3.19 |
3. Minco Gold | MGH +9.15% $1.79 |
LOSERS
1. Northern Dynasty | NAK -3.27% $10.35 |
2. Richmont | RIC -2.91% $2.67 |
3. Solitario | XPL -2.82% $3.79 |
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:
Northern Orion to Release Fourth Quarter and Year End Results on March 8, 2007 - "Northern Orion (Toronto:NNO.TO - News)(AMEX:NTO - News) will release its fourth quarter and year end results before the market opens on Thursday, March 8, 2007 and will host a telephone conference call at 1:00 p.m. Pacific Time (4:00 p.m. Eastern) to discuss the results." More
- February 23, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Gemini Explorations, Inc Overview of La Planada Gold Project - More
- February 23, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Rubicon Minerals Corporation: Discussion of Potential Property Acquisition and Financing - "Rubicon Minerals Corporation (Toronto:RMX.TO - News)(AMEX:RBY - News) announces that it is currently in discussions with a third party with respect to the potential acquisition of certain mineral properties and with respect to a potential private placement of units. There can be no assurance that these transactions will be completed." More
- February 23, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Soltoro Completes First Phase of Drilling at Rayo Silver Lead Gold Project, Mexico and Adds 1,000 Metres to Test Geophysical Anomalies - More
- February 23, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Asia Now's First Hole at Beiya Intersects Shallow Gold-Silver Zones Within 13-km Gold Anomaly That Covers Adjacent Open-Pit Mine - More
- February 23, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Ur-Energy Inc. Appoints Vice President of Mining - More
- February 23, 2007 |
Gold Seeker Weekly Wrap-Up: Gold Gains Over 2% on the Week While Silver Adds Nearly 4%