-- Posted Monday, 26 February 2007 | Digg This Article
| Close | Gain/Loss |
Gold | $685.80 | +$2.90 |
Silver | $14.65 | +$0.16 |
XAU | 147.72 | +1.30% |
HUI | 361.82 | +1.27% |
GDM | 1151.29 | +1.23% |
JSE Gold | 2892.29 | -0.03% |
USD | 83.94 | -0.10 |
Euro | 131.79 | +0.10 |
Yen | 82.91 | +0.28 |
Oil | $61.39 | +$0.25 |
10-Year | 4.631% | -0.047 |
T-Bond | 112.1875 | +0.5625 |
Dow | 12632.26 | -0.12% |
Nasdaq | 2504.52 | -0.42% |
S&P | 1449.37 | -0.13% |
The Metals:
Gold rose nearly $5 in Asia before it fell back off a bit and traded around $2 higher in London, but it then rose back higher in early New York trade and saw over $5 gains ahead of another sell of that took it as low as $682.30 by early afternoon. Any losses were brief, however, as gold rose back up into the close and ended with a gain of 0.42%. Silver dropped to $14.48 in New York after it saw about 1% gains in Asia, but it also rallied higher into the close and ended with a gain of 1.10%.
Euro gold rose over €520, platinum gained $5 to $1,236, palladium remained unchanged at $354, and copper fell a couple of cents to about $2.78.
Gold and silver equities rose over 1% at the open, fell back near unchanged by early afternoon, and then rallied back higher into the close and ended with over 1% gains.
The Economy:
There were no major economic reports today, but some comments from former fed chairman Greenspan about a possible U.S. recession did have some talking. Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Durable Orders for January expected at -3.0% and at 10AM are Existing Home Sales for January expected at 6,240,000 and Consumer Confidence for February expected at 109.0.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil ended higher in mixed trade on cold weather forecasts and continued worries over Iran.
The U.S. dollar index fell and treasuries rose on expectations that economic data released this week will show slowing growth.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P opened higher on buyout news, but they then fell off and ended with modest losses on worries over a correction to recent gains in the indices.
Among the big names making news in the market today were Temple-Inland, XM Satellite, KKR, Texas Pacific and TXU, Station Casinos, and Dow Chemical.
The Commentary:
An email this morning from Charleston Voice:
The below scan is page 21 from this PDF link. Clearly the large commercials DO NOT HAVE 'adequate "deliverable supply" ' Gold (or Silver) to deliver to honor their contracts and are in total non-compliance and violate CFTC rules! Compose and send your own complaints to CFTC contacts from this CFTC link. Copy in your own congressman as well. We are at the edge of having a repeat of 1980 in which the CFTC changed their rules to bailout Armand Hammer and other shorts by squeezing Bunker Hunt and other silver longs. How high would silver have gone then w/o CFTC interference? The shorts had no Silver in 1980 to deliver against their promises, and HAVE NO SILVER NOW! This unfolding development should spur even more apprehension about the gold and silver ETFs. Will these escrowed metals be available through "loans" to underwrite a bailout? You better get the physical in your own possession is all I can say.
"...For clarity, that was just the increase in the LCNS [Large Commercials, Net Short] since January 9. The total commercial net short position covers COMEX contracts for about 523 tonnes of the yellow metal worth notionally about $11.5 billion. As of Tuesday COMEX commercials held net short positions of about the same amount of gold as is held in all the gold ETFs sponsored by the World Gold Council in other words. One wonders where the price of gold would be today without the counterbalance of global gold ETF investor demand.
One aspect not to be overlooked is that with gold in the $680s nearly all of the gold short positions on the COMEX (and for that matter on other bourses large and small) are off side, so upward thrusts of the metal relative to paper currencies tend to trip short trailing stops and has the potential to snowball into short covering routs."..... Resource Investor
[PDF]
CFTC OVERSIGHT OF COMMODITY FUTURES AND OPTIONS
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
CFTC Market Surveillance. Utilizes daily reports of large trader positions in all. markets. Special information requests and routine contacts ...
www.ksg.harvard.edu/hepg/Papers/Shilts%2001-25-02.pdf – 
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“April Gold finished up 3.1 at 689.8, 2 off the high and 4.3 up from the low.
March Silver closed up 0.095 at 14.69. This was 0.19 up from the low and 0.02 off the high.
With a pattern of higher lows, rising oil prices and a somewhat vulnerable US Dollar, the gold bulls seemed to have most of the typical fundamentals working in their favor on Monday. Once again it seemed like the gold market was seeing its share of fund buying but with the Iranian situation in the headlines and the US equity market under significant pressure it wouldn't be surprising to find out that flight to quality buying was also contributing to the upward bias in prices. With the US economic numbers Monday better than expected and oil prices mostly firm, it is also possible that the some in the gold trade were hopeful of renewed inflationary concerns.
After some divergence with gold early in the session the silver market managed to fight its way back into positive ground and finish the session on an upbeat note. With yet another new high for the move and the market climbing above a series of critical chart points it is certainly possible that silver was lifted by the funds and by classical technical buying. In fact, with copper and platinum prices strong and the US economic readings released during the session coming in better than expected it seems that silver was once again seeing support from both the physical and investment themes.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
Gold council's ETF reaches $10 billion in assets
Technical analysis likes metals; central bankers read it, and don't
Euro and gold look better to central banks for reserves
Peter Schiff: Is the Fed finally losing its credibility?
With gold assets scarce, Barrick will mine other metals
Barrick eliminates non-project hedges but still owes 9.5 million oz.
Hedging to cost Barrick nearly $1 billion by mid-year
Yamana joins XAU as Kinross absorbs Bema
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 2/23/2007
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 7,487,176 | - |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 116,016,668 | - |
Global Gold ETF Holdings
[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]
| Product name | Total Tonnes | Total Ounces | Total Value |
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) AND Singapore Exchange (SGX) | Streettracks Gold Shares | 487.47 | 15,672,701 | US$ 10,702m |
LSE (London Stock Exchange) AND Euronext Paris | Gold Bullion Securities | 87.07 | 2,799,447 | US$ 1,922m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 11.30 | 362,963 | US$ 249m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 10.24 | 329,297 | US$ 224m |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The NYSE added 1.54 tonnes to its trust.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 2/23/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $972,162,691 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,423,505.730 |
Shares Outstanding | 14,350,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 44.28 |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 0.62 tonnes were added to the trust.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 2/23/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,799,130,853 | 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:
Cardero’s (CDY) drill results, Golden Star’s (GSS) restated GAAP, NovaGold’s (NG) drill results, Aurizon’s (AZK) sampling results, Great Basin’s (GBN) project update, Rubicon’s (RBY) involvement with Rob McEwen, Avino’s (ASM.V) drill results, Southern Silver’s (SSV.V) exchange approval and private placement, MAG Silver’s (MAG.V) board appointment, and Strategic Nevada’s (SNS.V) name change and director appointment were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.
WINNERS
1. Rubicon | RBY +55.41% $1.15 |
2. Cardero | CDY+23.02%$2.079 |
3. Orezone | OZN +15.85% $1.90 |
LOSERS
1. U.S. Energy | USEG -5.01% $5.88 |
2. Mines MGMT | MGN -4.30% $5.56 |
3. Nevsun | NSU -3.36% $2.30 |
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:
Vena Resources Provides Update on Pucara Au/Cu and Azulcocha Zinc Projects in Peru - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Cardero Expands Copper-Gold Mineralization at the Huachi Porphyry Project, San Juan Province, Argentina - "Cardero Resource Corp. ("Cardero" or the "Company") (Toronto:CDU.TO - News)(AMEX:CDY - News)(Frankfurt:CR5.F - News) is pleased to announce that additional diamond drilling has substantially increased the size of the mineralized porphyries at its 100% owned Huachi Copper-Gold Project, San Juan Province, NW Argentina." More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Oremex Update - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Gold Hawk Resources Inc.: Results of Metallurgical Testing of Coricancha Ore - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Glass Earth Announces Joint Venture Agreement With Newmont to Explore Hauraki Region in New Zealand - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Forsys Acquires 70% of Ancash Investments and 5 Additional Uranium Licences - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Gold Summit Completes Private Placement - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Bralorne Gold Mines Ltd.: Initial Results From the 2007 King Mine Underground Drilling Program - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Eastern Goldfields, Inc. Announces Phase 3 Drilling Results, Commencement of Underground Development and Appointment of New Director - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Rocmec inc.: Corporate Update - More
- February 26, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Golden Star Restates US GAAP Reconciliation Note to Account for Warrants Using FAS 133 - "Golden Star Resources Ltd. (TSX: GSC - News; AMEX: GSS - News) today announced that it has restated its US GAAP note to its financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2003, 2004 and 2005 and quarters ended March 31, June 30, and September 30, 2005 and 2006 to comply with US GAAP accounting for warrants to purchase common shares which have an exercise price in Canadian dollars. No changes were required to the Company's Canadian GAAP financial statements or notes. The changes in earnings are non-cash items that do not impact the Company's consolidated statements of cash flows under US GAAP." More
Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold & Silver Rise to New 9 Month Highs