The Markets:

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

Oil closed at $68 for the first time since September on continued concerns over geopolitical tensions and also refinery problems that have not built inventories as much as most have expected.

The U.S. dollar index fell overall on the day along with interest rates, but the dollar’s dramatic fall versus the euro was somewhat offset by strength versus the yen as the Bank of Japan did not raise interest rates as some had hoped they would do.

Treasuries rose on weaker than expected tame Core CPI as interest rates fell further from the 5-year high above 5.3% reached early on Wednesday that technicians are pointing to as a possible significant top.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P rose on moderating inflation indications from Core CPI and Core PPI (ignoring headline PPI and CPI) and signs of decent, but not too strong, economic growth.  The Nasdaq rose to a 6 and ½ year high and the Dow and S&P rose back near their all-time closing highs.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Penn National Gaming and Fortress Investment, Winnebago, Nymex, NYSE, Deutsche Boerse, CME, Home Depot, and Blackstone and Fortress Partnership.

The Commentary:

“Be sure and read Neal's comments on the Swiss gold sales. It is understood by the more savvy investment world that this very public announcement by Switzerland (and others) is another desperate ploy to drive gold's price down. What few understand is that the bankers do not hold gold as reserves in hopes that it will appreciate in value above their own paper money debt creations. These are false flag diversions. You see, gold is a competitor of fiats, not an ally! It is the bane of international banking, a real millstone around their now over stretched-out necks. They can't shake it, and never will.

Let's look at these CB gold sales from a different angle. If you owned 1/2 of all the shares of the Dow Jones blue chip stocks, and announced with great fanfare and press releases to even the Junior Scholastics tabloid that you would be dumping 25% of your shares within a few months what effect do you think it would have on the DJI? Duh.  I don't believe you'd be with this money manager long if it were your funds he was managing. And, then with new paper money that you could print off your Dell computer you could buy those shares back at fantastic discounts. Neither should the Swiss tolerate this jettisoning of their gold any more than Americans should put up with the Federal Reserve. This is a cartel that must take a big fall. People around the world should be firing their own respective money managers.  The problem the CBs are seeing now though is their "shares" (gold) are not going down as hoped. Citizens, as shareholders of their country's gold, are now exercising their sovereign rights as shareholders and reclaiming physical possession of their shares (gold). BEWARE THOSE ETFs!”- Charleston Voice

“August Gold finished up 2.8 at 658.7, 0.8 off the high and 4.7 up from the low.

July Silver closed up 0.095 at 13.26. This was 0.18 up from the low and 0.01 off the high.

Apparently the gold market was seeing some indirect pull from the sharp ongoing gains in the equity market. With the Dollar apparently failing at what now seems to be a very critical chart level and seeing the currency trade discount the prospect of inflation, it would seem to leave the gold market in a much better fundamental position than was present at the start of the week. Certainly the gold market would benefit from expectations of upwardly spiraling inflation, but in the near term the gold market also seems to be concerned that for now rapid inflationary pressures might bring about an overly aggressive Fed reaction. Therefore, the best path for the bull camp in gold is to see ongoing equity market gains, upbeat macro economic conditions and perhaps indirect inflationary threats from the energy and food markets.

The silver market was lifted by the favorable action in the gold market, but it was once again clear that silver market was lagging behind the gold market. With the copper market managing to shake off an extremely bearish flow of overnight fundamental news and the stock market rising sharply throughout most of the session, it is clear that a number of outside market forces are favoring the bull camp. In fact, with rumors circulating that a major fund was poised to take delivery of a physical commodity, it is possible that even the silver market is in line to benefit from an influx of fund money. In the end, a number of patently bearish forces in place at the beginning of the week seem to have reversed and seeing the market rise above a critical longer term moving average might leave the market in a positive position next week.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 6/14/2007

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]