-- Posted Thursday, 24 May 2007 | Digg This Article
| Close | Gain/Loss |
Gold | $652.50 | -$9.50 |
Silver | $12.81 | -$0.22 |
XAU | 134.52 | -2.52% |
HUI | 318.74 | -3.24% |
GDM | 1034.32 | -3.14% |
JSE Gold | 2789.71 | +0.18% |
USD | 82.42 | +0.12 |
Euro | 134.40 | -0.17 |
Yen | 82.37 | +0.17 |
Oil | $64.18 | -$1.59 |
10-Year | 4.857% | -0.002 |
T-Bond | 109.03125 | +0.03125 |
Dow | 13441.13 | -0.62% |
Nasdaq | 2537.92 | -1.52% |
S&P | 1507.51 | -0.97% |
The Metals:
Gold remained near unchanged in Asia and London before it dipped about $4 in early New York trade and then dropped another 1% between 11AM EST and noon to as low as $651.00 before it rebounded slightly into the close, but it still ended with a loss of 1.44%. Silver followed a similar pattern and dropped to as low as $12.74 before it also rebounded in afternoon trade and ended with a loss of 1.69%.
Euro gold fell near €486, platinum lost $20 to $1,285, palladium lost $11 to $364, and copper fell over 10 cents to about $3.20.
Gold and silver equities steadily fell throughout most of trade and ended near their lows with about 3% losses.
The Economy:
Report | For | Reading | Expected | Previous |
Durable Orders | Apr | 0.6% | 0.9% | 5.0% |
Initial Claims | 5/19 | 311K | 305K | 296K |
New Home Sales | Apr | 981K | 860K | 844K |
New Home Sales unexpectedly rose 16.2%, but that rise was helped by the fact that March’s sales were revised down from 858,000 to 844,000 and most notably by the fact that the average home sale price fell a whopping 11.1% from $257,600 in March to $229,100 in April. Inventory levels dropped to 6 and ½ months of supply, but that does not include canceled homes. Durable Goods Orders for April rose less than expected, but March’s orders were revised up to 5.0% from 4.3% to offset that disappointment.
Tomorrow at 10AM EST brings the Existing Home Sales report for April expected at 6,130,000.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil fell in the U.S. and gasoline rose on continued refinery problems that swell crude inventories and limit gas inventories while London Brent crude rose to a 9 month high near $71 on a strike threat in Nigeria and worries over Iran.
The U.S. dollar index rose and treasuries fell in morning trade as mostly stronger than expected economic data briefly pushed the yield on the 10-year above 4.9% for the first time since January, but those early moves reversed in afternoon trade and bonds ended slightly higher while the dollar cut most of its gains.
The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose markedly after New Home Sales surprisingly jumped higher and initially eased worries about weakness in the housing sector, but all three indices eventually fell off to find notable losses as worries over higher interest rates overcame that optimism.
Among the big names making news in the market today were Upper Deck and Topps, Dell and Wal-Mart, Advanced Medical and Bausch & Lomb, Sanderson Farms, Hormel, AnnTaylor, GM, Mylan, and Toll Brothers.
The Commentary:
“June Gold finished down 9.3 at 653.3, 8.2 off the high and 1.8 up from the low.
July Silver closed down 0.185 at 12.92. This was 0.07 up from the low and 0.21 off the high.
The gold market initially waffled on both sides of unchanged but then seemed to come under direct pressure in the wake of the sharp slide in equity prices. One could have taken the regularly scheduled US economic data as a positive to gold as a better than expected housing reading failed to markedly lift the US Dollar. However, the Dollar mostly maintained a positive track throughout the trade and remained within striking distance of an upside breakout and that seemed to keep the heat on the gold trade. With crude oil prices sharply lower and unleaded prices sharply higher, we doubt that the slide in gold was influenced that much by the energy market action. However, it is possible that the gold trade was simply fretting over the prospect of a follow through decline in Asian equity prices and perhaps renewed concerns of slowing Asian economic activity.
Certainly the silver market was impacted by the slide in equity prices but with the platinum and copper markets down hard, the silver market had plenty of outside market pressures to contend with. Even talk of strong interest in a new silver ETF failed to provide the silver with a positive tilt in the wake of a multi market wave of selling. Some traders suggested that an options expiration prompted some of the volatility but it would seem like the market was seeing enough fundamental justification for the decline in prices.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
Eric Sprott: The era of China
China concedes little at U.S. summit
ETF captures 13% of world silver output
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 5/23/2007
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 7,667,935 | -514 |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 132,013,261 | - |
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 | 469.15 | 15,083,560 | US$ 9,983m |
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse ) | Gold Bullion Securities | 90.83 | 2,920,160 | US$ 1,908m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 11.84 | 380,407 | US$ 249m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 11.96 | 384,404 | US$ 254m |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The JSE added 0.37 tonnes.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 5/23/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $977,133,541 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,476,628.340 |
Shares Outstanding | 14,900,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 45.93 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 5/23/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,759,685,932 | 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:
Barrick’s (ABX) sold stake in Gold fields (GFI), Yamana’s (AUY) drilling update, Exeter’s (XRA) drill results, Endeavour’s (EXK) acquired 100% interest in the Guanacevi Mines Project, SilverCrest’s (SVL.V) assay results, and MAG Silver’s (MAG.V) assay results were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.
WINNERS
1. Exeter | XRA +10.96% $2.43 |
2. Rio Narcea | RNO +1.76% $5.20 |
3. Entree Gold | EGI +1.50% $2.03 |
LOSERS
1. Crystallex | KRY -8.49% $4.42 |
2. Great Basin | GBN -7.39% $2.38 |
3. Banro | BAA-6.66% $10.23 |
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:
Bruce Durham joins Temex as Executive Chairman - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Energentia Announces Management Change - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Glass Earth Limited: Hauraki Region Gold Exploration Update and Preliminary Results - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
VVC Exploration sells BBAM shares and improve cash position - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Mediterranean closes CDN$13.0 million private placement to fund exploration and development - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Platinex Permitted by Court Order to Proceed with Drilling Program on its Big Trout Lake Property - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Ronald Sheardown and Michael Bartlett Join Board of Directors - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Gold Canyon Undertakes Private Placement for $330,000 - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Cameco, Zircatec union labor talks underway - More
- May 24, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Gulfside Minerals arranges private plac
Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Fall Roughly 1.5%