-- Posted Tuesday, 24 April 2007 | Digg This Article
| Close | Gain/Loss |
Gold | $683.70 | -$6.00 |
Silver | $13.76 | -$0.28 |
XAU | 140.86 | -1.21% |
HUI | 348.13 | -1.94% |
GDM | 1100.64 | -1.47% |
JSE Gold | 2924.25 | -2.00% |
USD | 81.52 | -0.23 |
Euro | 136.22 | +0.52 |
Yen | 84.28 | -0.06 |
Oil | $64.58 | -$1.31 |
10-Year | 4.622% | -0.028 |
T-Bond | 111.71875 | +0.25 |
Dow | 12953.94 | +0.27% |
Nasdaq | 2524.54 | +0.03% |
S&P | 1480.41 | -0.04% |
The Metals:
Gold fell a few dollars in early Asian trade before it rallied back higher in London and saw about $2 gains by the open in New York, but it then steadily fell off in morning New York trade and fell even further in early afternoon trade ahead of a small rally off its low in the last hour of trade that left it with a loss of 0.87%. Silver rose to over $14.05 in London before it also steadily fell off in morning New York trade and then dramatically fell off further in early afternoon trade before it also bounced slightly higher into the close, but it still ended with a notable loss of 1.99%.
Euro gold fell under €502, platinum lost $16 to $1,299, palladium lost $4 to $376, and copper fell over 8 cents to about $3.55.
Gold and silver equities steadily fell throughout most of trade and ended near their lows of the day with close to 2% losses.
The Economy:
Report | For | Reading | Expected | Previous |
Consumer Confidence | Apr | 104.0 | 105.0 | 108.2 |
Existing Home Sales | Mar | 6.12M | 6.45M | 6.68M |
Existing Home Sales fell 8.4% (the biggest drop since January 1989) to the lowest level in almost four years. “Another industry report earlier today showed a measure of home values in 20 metropolitan areas, the S&P/Case-Shiller home- price index, declined 1 percent in February from a year earlier, the biggest price drop since the index started in 2001.”
Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Durable Goods Orders for March expected at 2.5%. At 10AM are New Home Sales for March expected at 890,000, and at 2PM is the fed’s Beige Book.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil fell over a dollar as worries over Nigerian violence faded and traders prepared for tomorrow’s inventory reports.
The U.S. dollar index fell and treasuries rose after economic data came in worse than expected and pushed interest rates lower.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell in early trade on poor economic data, but all three indices rallied higher by late afternoon on strong earnings and lower oil and the Dow ended modestly higher but short of a new all-time high while the Nasdaq and S&P ended mixed and near unchanged.
Among the big names making news in the market today were Whirlpool, Occidental, BP, Toyota and GM, Pepsi Bottling, AT&T, IBM, DuPont, and Lockheed.
The Commentary:
“June Gold finished down 6.5 at 687.7, 7.5 off the high and 3.2 up from the low.
May Silver closed down 0.268 at 13.782. This was 0.062 up from the low and 0.268 off the high.
The gold market was clearly disappointed with the flow of scheduled US economic information as that prompted some concern of too much slowing. However, the Dollar was lower and at times did manage to forge another new low for the move and that was seen as a force mitigating the selling interest. While oil prices were at times supportive to gold prices, the overall action seemed to reconfirm that gold was indeed a physical commodity that is impacted by the ebb and flow of economic activity. Surprisingly suggestions from Iran that they would not back down in their Nuke quest and news that 74 people were killed in a Chinese oil field attack in Ethiopia failed to prompt much in the way of flight to quality support in the gold market. In the short term, the balance of power in the gold market could be determined by the magnitude of the weakness in the Dollar versus the level of concern toward the US economy. In other words, concern of too much US slowing, without a sharp slide in the Dollar could indeed be seen as a double negative to gold prices. However, seeing lower margins at the CBOT for gold and silver can sometimes lend support to prices.
With the US economic report slate really discouraging on Tuesday, copper and platinum prices under pressure, and the gold market correlating tightly with the silver market, the bear camp certainly had a long list of issues in their court. In fact, the slide in the copper market was to be expected in the wake of the weakest existing home sales reading in 4 years and that seemed to ignite a wave of selling in the industrial metals that also seemed to pull down the precious metals markets. With the silver market already faced with a moderately overbought spec positioning, the failure on the charts Tuesday wasn't all that surprising. However, seeing lower margins at the CBOT for gold and silver can sometimes lend support to prices.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
Ted Butler: Increasing Comex inventories in silver
Massive European bank gold sales continue to fail
Invest in weather -- UBS launches global warming index
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 4/23/2007
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 7,680,192 | + 67,222 |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 131,233,604 | + 71,126 |
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 | 494.87 | 15,910,462 | US$ 10,955m |
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana | Gold Bullion Securities | 89.75 | 2,885,649 | US$ 1,975m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 11.50 | 369,232 | US$ 253m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 11.34 | 364,728 | US$ 251m |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 4/23/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $992,469,481 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,437,467.912 |
Shares Outstanding | 14,500,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 44.71 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 4/23/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,882,706,319 | Ounces of Silver
in Trust | 135,879,074.200 |
Shares Outstanding | 13,650,000 | Tonnes of Silver
in Trust | 4,226.31 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
The Stocks:
Newmont’s (NEM) pollution trial verdict and shareholder supported resolution on its impact on local communities, Claude’s (CGR) completed bought deal, Crystallex’s (KRY) closed public offering, U.S. Energy’s (USEG) drill results, Gammon Lake’s (GRS) completed public offering, NovaGold’s (NG) closed public offering, First Majestic’s (FR.V) silver production increase, Yale’s (YLL.V) exploration targets, and Valencia’s (VVI.V) exploration program were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.
WINNERS
1. U.S. Energy | USEG +2.52% $6.11 |
2. Arizona Star | AZS +1.83% $11.99 |
3. International Royalty | ROY +1.34% $6.567 |
LOSERS
1. Entree Gold | EGI -6.69% $2.23 |
2. U.S. Gold | UXG -6.59% $5.95 |
3. Eldorado Gold | EGO -5.68% $5.81 |
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:
Copper Canyon Adopts Shareholder Rights Plan - More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Uranium Resources Announces Live Webcast of Raymond James Uranium Conference Presentation May 8th - More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Novawest Finds Uranium Potential In Chibougamau Region - More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Farallon Announces Construction Management Appointments, M3 Engineering Engaged as EPCM Contractor for All Surface Facilities - More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Wildcat Exploration Ltd. - High Zn-Pb-Ag Anomalies Identified - More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
91.6 Percent of Newmont Shareholders Support Resolution for Mining Company to Report on Its Impacts on Local Communities - "Christian Brothers Investment Services, Inc. (CBIS) and other religious investors today hailed a shareholder vote of 91.6 percent at Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM - News), one of the world's leading gold producers, to produce a report addressing community-based opposition to its operations in the U.S. and around the world. The company's annual meeting represents the first time a U.S. mining company had called on its shareholders to vote for a social resolution. While the result of the vote is still preliminary, it is expected to remain close to 92 percent." More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
First Majestic Silver Corp.: Silver Production Increases by 38% - "FIRST MAJESTIC SILVER CORP. (CDNX:FR.V - News)(Other OTC:FRMSF.PK - News)(Frankfurt:FMV.F - News)(WKN: A0LHKJ) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that silver production in the first quarter ending March 31st, 2007 has increased by 38% over the prior quarter to 792,196 equivalent ounces of silver which is also an increase of 1358% over the same quarter ending March 2006." More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Aurus Communicates Board Decision - More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Claude Resources Inc. completes $20,000,000 bought deal - "Claude Resources Inc. ("Claude" or the "Company") (TSX: CRJ, AMEX: CGR) is pleased to announce today that it has completed the offering, on a bought deal basis, to a syndicate of underwriters co-led by National Bank Financial Inc. and RBC Dominion Securities Inc. (the "Underwriters") previously announced on March 29, 2007. The offering consisted of a total of 12,500,000 common shares at a price of Cdn $1.60 per share, for gross proceeds of Cdn $20,000,000." More
- April 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold & Silver Fall Nearly 1% & 2%