-- Posted Wednesday, 16 May 2007 | Digg This Article
| Close | Gain/Loss |
Gold | $660.10 | -$12.60 |
Silver | $12.83 | -$0.36 |
XAU | 136.12 | -1.00% |
HUI | 325.44 | -1.20% |
GDM | 1051.08 | -1.00% |
JSE Gold | 2588.50 | -1.03% |
USD | 82.16 | +0.38 |
Euro | 135.18 | -0.76 |
Yen | 82.82 | -0.31 |
Oil | $62.55 | -$0.62 |
10-Year | 4.708% | -0.004 |
T-Bond | 110.9375 | +0.0625 |
Dow | 13487.53 | +0.77% |
Nasdaq | 2547.42 | +0.88% |
S&P | 1514.14 | +0.86% |
The Metals:
Gold traded slightly lower in Asia, fell a couple more dollars in London, dropped another $5 in morning New York trade, and then fell even further in afternoon trade to as low as $658.90 before it rebounded just slightly in the last minutes of trade, but it still ended with a notable loss of 1.87%. Silver followed a similar pattern but was able to hold the $13.00 level until a dramatic drop in afternoon trade brought it to as low as $12.79 before a small rebound at the close, but it still ended with a loss of 2.73%
Euro gold fell under €490, platinum lost $13 to $1,322, palladium lost $3 to $353, and copper fell over 10 cents to about $3.45.
Gold and silver equities fell over 2% by early afternoon, but they then rebounded in the last couple of hours of trade and ended with about 1% losses.
Gold Demand Grows Despite High Price CNBC
U.S. gold, silver hit lows on fund sales, dollar Reuters
Gold futures drop $13 to close at a two-month low MarketWatch
Metals Sink on High Dollar, Reports The Street
Gold demand edges up in Q1 as physical buying offsets weaker ETF inflows - WGC AFX
The Economy:
Report | For | Reading | Expected | Previous |
Housing Starts | Apr | 1528K | 1480K | 1491K |
Building Permits | Apr | 1429K | 1520K | 1569K |
Industrial Production | Apr | 0.7% | 0.3% | -0.3% |
Capacity Utilization | Apr | 81.6% | 81.5% | 81.2% |
Housing Starts surprisingly rose, but that potentially positive development in housing was offset by the fact that Building Permits fell to a 10-year low. Also making news today was the fact that Greenspan joined Pimco as a consultant.
Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Initial Jobless Claims for 5/12 expected at 310,000. At 10AM is the Leading Economic Indicators report for April expected at 0.0%, and at noon is the Philadelphia fed survey for May expected at 4.0.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil fell as tensions in Nigeria eased and inventories built more than expected. Crude inventories built 1.0 million barrels, gasoline inventories built 1.7 million barrels, distillates built 1.0 million barrels, and refinery utilization rose 0.5% to 89.5%.
The U.S. dollar index rose on mostly better than expected economic data, but most currency traders had their eyes on the relationship between the euro and the yen as the yen fell to a record low versus the euro ahead of tomorrow’s conclusion to the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting that is expected to keep interest rates unchanged at 0.5%.
Treasuries rose slightly after mixed housing data did not dramatically change interest rate expectations.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P ended markedly higher after mixed morning trade as lower oil, deal news, and billionaire buyers like Buffet and Icahn encouraged investors and traders to go long and send the Dow to a new record high.
Among the big names making news in the market today were Sony, Amazon, Federated, U.S. rail stocks, Merrill, Bausch & Lomb, Deere, and Edward Lampert and Citigroup.
The Commentary:
“We believe the fall in gold reflected the performance of the $. It appeared that the € was stronger overnight taking it to $1.36, then after New York’s opening the $ recovered to $1.3534. This caused gold to continue consolidating above support at $666. The danger zone for the $ is in the $1.35 to $1.37 to the € area and it seems to us that the $ is mired in this area. A break down below $1.37 would spell trouble for the $.
It appears that the $ is soon to breach $1.37 and we believe that this will not make the Fed unhappy, or Paulson, despite his strong $ talk.
Support at the mid $660 level is now being supported by lower Central Bank sales currently and by a return of the Investors to the gold Exchange Traded Funds.” - Julian D.W. Phillips, www.goldforecaster.com
“June Gold finished down 13 at 661.5, 10 off the high and 0.8 up from the low.
July Silver closed down 0.385 at 12.93. This was 0.01 up from the low and 0.31 off the high.
The gold market was certainly undermined by the sharp upward thrust in the US Dollar. Not surprisingly the gold trade decided to favor the direction of the Dollar over a noted improvement in the US economy. However, it is possible that the gold market was distracted from the improvement in the economic outlook because of the sharp Dollar rise, the sharp slide in energy prices and the lackluster response in the stock market to the favorable readings. However, it was also noted that June gold managed to fall below the 100 day moving average and the trade also failed to get the slightest lift from the news that Egyptian 1st quarter gold demand was more than 15% above the prior years pace. The market also wasn't supported by the fact that Saudi Arabian 1st quarter gold demand was up nearly 7% over year ago levels. In short technical considerations and Dollar strength simply prompted a layer of longs to exit from gold positions.
With the Dollar up sharply and gold under pressure it was logical for silver to come under more intense selling pressure. However, while the gold market fell below the 100 day moving average, the silver market fell below the 200 day moving average and that might have prompted a larger liquidation among the funds and the technical traders. With copper prices also down aggressively and the US stock market failing to give off much in the way of positive macro economic sentiment, it was not surprising to see another wave of weak handed longs move to the sidelines. In fact, if the Dollar continues to climb and the silver isn't capable of garnering support from the physical commodity fundamentals, then the market might see little in the way of support until the March low of $12.63.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
GoldSeek radio's Gold Manhattan Project
Greenspan first cringed at Rubin's 'strong dollar' slop but grew to love it
John Crudele: No freedom of info on Plunge Protection Team
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 5/15/2007
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 7,718,845 | - |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 132,058,765 | -596,588 |
Global Gold ETF Holdings
[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]
| Product name | Total Tonnes | Total Ounces | Total Value |
New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) AND Singapore Exchange (SGX) | Streettracks Gold Shares | 485.78 | 15,618,263 | US$ 10,666m |
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse ) | Gold Bullion Securities | 90.83 | 2,920,420 | US$ 1,935m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 11.77 | 377,941 | US$ 251m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 11.34 | 364,640 | US$ 243m |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The NYSE/SGX added 2.77 tonnes.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 5/15/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $976,938,347 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,451,857.070 |
Shares Outstanding | 14,650,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 45.16 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 5/15/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,768,028,111 | Ounces of Silver
in Trust | 135,821,754.600 |
Shares Outstanding | 13,650,000 | Tonnes of Silver
in Trust | 4,224.53 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
The Stocks:
Entree Gold’s (EGI) Deputy Chairman appointment, DRDGOLD’s (DROOY) closed Emperor hedge book, Apollo Gold’s (AGT) project update, YGC’s (YGC.TO) drill results, and Bear Creek’s (BCM.V) drill results were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.
WINNERS
1. Allied Nevada | ANV +8.65% $4.90 |
2. Apex Silver | SIL +8.48% $19.44 |
3. Ivanhoe | IVN +2.79% $12.51 |
LOSERS
1. Orezone | OZN -8% $1.61 |
2. Vista Gold | VGZ-7.68% $6.37 |
3. Rubicon | RBY -7.62% $1.94 |
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:
Richview Files First Quarter 2007 Financial Statements and Management Discussion & Analysis - More
- May 16, 2007 | Item | E-mail
SIRIOS RESOURCES INC.: Agreement with DIOS Targeting Uranium on OPINACA NORD, James Bay, Quebec - More
- May 16, 2007 | Item | E-mail
JNR Announces Appointment of New Director and Officers - More
- May 16, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Multi-Element assay data indicates significant molybdenum potential at Big Bar's Yuma King Project - More
- May 16, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold & Silver Fall Roughly 2%; Miners Lose Only 1%