The Markets:

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

Oil prices traded on either side of unchanged and ended slightly lower as traders took profits from yesterday’s rally despite concern over refinery issues and worries about violence in Nigeria due to an upcoming election.

The U.S. dollar index fell to new two year lows on tamer than expected Core PPI and economically disappointing consumer sentiment data as traders contemplated implications of this weekend’s G7 meeting.

Treasuries fell after the Michigan Sentiment survey as bond traders looked past the weaker than expected headline number and saw that consumers' inflation expectations jumped.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose as headline core inflation came in flat and oil prices eased ahead of a slew of earnings reports next week.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Magna and Chrysler, Citigroup and Old Lane, Morgan Stanley, General Electric, McDonald’s, and Sallie Mae.

The Commentary:

“June Gold finished up 10.2 at 689.9, 0.6 off the high and 7.3 up from the low.

May Silver closed up 0.235 at 14.09. This was 0.08 up from the low and 0.06 off the high.

In the past seeing the US Trade Balance narrow would have been cause for aggressive selling in the gold market. However, a rather significant headline gain of 1% in the PPI report and ongoing weakness in the US Dollar managed to keep sentiment toward gold in a very positive position. With the gold market earlier in the week seeing a series of stories predicting lower gold production it wasn't surprising to see buying interest dominate the selling interest in the wake of the inflation report. In fact, it seemed as if the bull camp embraced the headline PPI reading and discounted the "excluding Food and Energy readings,” the US Trade Deficit report, and the Michigan Sentiment figures. In short, the market was previously bullishly biased and therefore the bull camp picked its own focal points during the action Friday.

With May silver prices reaching up to just under the $14.16 level in the face of a potentially undermining scheduled US data, it is clear that the bull camp is managing to spin the headlines into its favor. However, the generally bullish bias toward all the metals markets that was already in place early in the week probably helped the silver market weave its way through the session Friday with an extension of the recent up trend pattern. Even the copper market managed to shake off its recent profit taking posture to contribute to some lift to the silver market in the action Friday.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 4/12/2007

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV)

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

The Stocks:

U.S. Gold’s (UXG) listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, Kimber’s (KBX) personnel change and grant of options, Freeport’s (FCX) worker rally, Abcourt’s (ABI.V) private placement and drilling, Avino’s (ASM.V) drill results, and Silver Eagle’s (SEG.TO) concentrate sale were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

WINNERS

LOSERS