-- Posted Wednesday, 25 July 2007 | Digg This Article
| Close | Gain/Loss |
Gold | $673.70 | -$10.70 |
Silver | $13.08 | -$0.27 |
XAU | 153.32 | -1.34% |
HUI | 358.58 | -1.68% |
GDM | 1133.35 | -1.43% |
JSE Gold | 2643.64 | -2.99% |
USD | 80.65 | +0.42 |
Euro | 137.14 | -1.13 |
Yen | 83.09 | +0.13 |
Oil | $75.88 | +$2.32 |
10-Year | 4.904% | -0.040 |
T-Bond | 108.875 | +0.40625 |
Dow | 13785.07 | +0.50% |
Nasdaq | 2648.17 | +0.31% |
S&P | 1518.09 | +0.47% |
The Metals:
Gold fell about $4 in Asia, dropped another $4 in London, and then fell even further in New York to see an over 2% loss at $670.30 by late morning. It then rebounded about 0.5% off its low in afternoon trade, but it still ended with a loss of 1.56%. Silver dropped to as low as $13.02 by late morning in New York before it also rebounded a bit into the close, but it still ended with a loss of 2.02%.
Euro gold fell to about €491, platinum lost $4 to $1,318, palladium lost $2 to $364, and copper fell roughly 10 cents to about $3.57.
Gold and silver equities fell roughly 4% by 11AM EST as the general markets swooned along with the metals, but the miners then rebounded in afternoon trade and ended with only about 1.5% losses.
The Economy:
Report | For | Reading | Expected | Previous |
Existing Home Sales | June | 5.75M | 5.90M | 5.98M |
Existing Homes Sales fell 3.8% to the lowest since November 2002 as the median price rose for the first time in 11 months thanks declining sales of lower valued homes versus more expensive home sales that have not declined as much. Mortgage applications also fell to a 5-month low according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly report. The fed’s Beige Book showed mixed concerns overall as it weighed moderately expanding economic growth versus inflation worries. “Most districts said that residential construction and real estate activity continued to decline,” the Beige Book said. “Almost every region said that oil and gasoline prices were either rising, high, or ‘an issue.’”
Tomorrow at 8:30 AM EST brings Initial Jobless Claims for 7/21 expected at 310,000 and Durable Goods Orders for June expected at 2.0%. At 10AM are New Home Sales for June expected at 900,000 and the Help-Wanted Index for June expected at 27.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil eventually rose over 3% to back above $75 after a mixed inventory report as crude inventories fell more than expected while gasoline inventories built more than expected. Crude inventories fell 1.1 million barrels, gasoline inventories built 800,000 barrels, distillates built 1.5 million barrels, and refinery utilization rose 0.7% to 91.7%. A pipeline burst in Vancouver and gas plant explosions in Dallas encouraged buying as “technical issues” briefly shut down electronic trading of some commodity futures on the CME Globex and spurred short covering while floor traders easily ran up the price during open outcry.
The U.S. dollar index rebounded fiercely from a technically oversold condition off the 80.0 level tested yesterday despite weaker than expected housing data as traders booked impressive recent gains from the euro and many other world currencies.
Treasuries rose on poor Existing Home Sales data and credit concerns after Chrysler postponed a $12 billion auto loan deal.
The Dow rose over 100 points at the open on strong earnings before it plummeted and saw slight losses by late morning on lending worries and poor economic data, but it then rallied back higher for most of the rest of trade and ended with decent gains. The Nasdaq and S&P followed similar patterns as traders watched a rising oil price as well.
Among the big names making news in the market today were Chrysler, Amazon, Glaxo, IHOP, Xerox, Reynolds American, Siemens, Colgate, Boeing, Amaranth, ConocoPhillips, and Resolution and Friends Provident.
The Commentary:
“August Gold finished down 11 at 673.8, 5.2 off the high and 2.8 up from the low.
September Silver closed down 0.293 at 13.15. This was 0.03 up from the low and 0.15 off the high.
With a major breakdown on the charts, the gold trade had to be disappointed from a number of fronts on Wednesday. First of all seeing the gold market quickly take out a large portion of the July gains within a few hours of trade had to be disconcerting to the bull camp, but seeing the gold market fail to benefit from an expansion of economic anxiety must have been really disappointing. Certainly a sharp and sudden rise in the Dollar caught the bull camp in gold leaning on the upside of the market and even though the currency markets didn't seem to have a solid fundamental reason to push up the Dollar, the gold trade was still unnerved because of the action. With the US numbers weak, US stock prices falling off some early gains and oil prices initially weak, the whole environment was seemingly weighing on gold prices. However, there continues to be a potential flight to quality situation fomenting in the back ground and that could serve to improve sentiment toward gold, especially if the sharp recovery in the energy complex after technical difficulties on Wednesday whipped up yet another uncertainty.
With the copper market under aggressive attack and a host of physical commodity markets fretting over the prospect of sagging macro economic demand it wasn't surprising to see the silver market fade in conjunction with declines in the gold market. Certainly the rally in the Dollar added to the weakness in the silver market and certainly the failure at some key technical areas in the morning trade put the silver market on a negative path, but some bulls might hold tight to long positions as long as the sub-prime loan situation has the potential to spark a volatility event.” - The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
Central banks seen rescuing dollar with more gold sales
Italy to rescue bank from derivatives blowup
Former Malaysian leader renews call for gold dinar
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 7/24/2007
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 6,910,698 | -41,977 |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 131,482,362 | +21,437 |
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 | 497.15 | 15,983,883 | US$ 10,935m |
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse ) | Gold Bullion Securities | 94.65 | 3,043,126 | US$ 2,054m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 12.48 | 400,818 | US$ 271m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 13.92 | 447,447 | US$ 306m |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The LSE added 1.55 tonnes.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 7/23/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,004,375,952 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,475,649.875 |
Shares Outstanding | 14,900,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 45.90 |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 7/23/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,889,341,591 | Ounces of Silver
in Trust | 141,671,812.200 |
Shares Outstanding | 14,250,000 | Tonnes of Silver
in Trust | 4,406.49 |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 30.92 tonnes were added to the trust.
The Stocks:
Freeport-McMoRan's (FCX) second quarter profits, Meridian gold’s (MDG) second quarter financial results, IAMGOLD’s (IAG) new resource estimate and exploration update, Randgold’s (GOLD) exploration, Harmony’s (HMY) gold reserve’s, Goldcorp’s (GG) and Silver Wheaton’s (SLW) completed Penasquito transaction, and Palmarejo’s (PJO.V) drill results were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.
WINNERS
1. Solitario | XPL +8.33% $5.20 |
2. Orezone | OZN+5.17% $1.83 |
3. Northgate | NXG+3.42% $3.33 |
LOSERS
1. U.S. Energy | USEG -6.24% $4.66 |
2. Meridian | MDG-5.75% $28.86 |
3. Pacific Rim | PMU -5.41% $1.05 |
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:
Goldcorp Announces Completion of Silver Wheaton Transaction - "GOLDCORP INC. (Toronto:G.TO - News)(NYSE:GG - News) has completed the previously announced sale to Silver Wheaton (Toronto:SLW.TO - News)(NYSE:SLW - News) of 25% of the life of mine silver production from Goldcorp's Penasquito project for a cash payment of $485 million. The agreement also requires Silver Wheaton to pay an ongoing per-ounce payment equal to the lesser of $3.90 (subject to annual inflationary adjustments) and the prevailing market price per ounce of silver delivered under the contract." More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Silver Wheaton Completes Penasquito Transaction - "Silver Wheaton Corp. ("Silver Wheaton") (Toronto:SLW.TO - News)(NYSE:SLW - News) has completed the previously announced acquisition from Goldcorp Inc. ("Goldcorp") of 25% of the life of mine silver production from Goldcorp's Penasquito Project, located in Zacatecas, Mexico, for an upfront cash payment of US$485 million. In addition, Silver Wheaton will pay an ongoing per-ounce operating cost payment equal to the lesser of US$3.90 (subject to annual inflationary adjustments) and the prevailing market price per ounce of silver delivered under the contract." More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Pele Mountain Retains O&M Partners for Investor Relations - More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Azco Mining Announces Name Change to Santa Fe Gold Corporation - More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Affinor Resources Inc.: Acquisition of 10,204 Mining Squares in the Democratic Republic of Congo - More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Sparton Appoints Chief Financial Officer - More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Copper/Gold Ore Stored on Surface Ready to Process - More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Freeport-McMoRan's quarterly profit triples - "Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday that second-quarter profit tripled, boosted by higher metal prices and the acquisition of rival copper miner Phelps Dodge.
Net earnings rose to $1.1 billion, or $2.62 per share, from $367 million, or $1.74 per share, a year earlier, the Phoenix-based company said." More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Taranis Resources Inc. Announces Closing of Private Placement - More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Knight Resources Ltd.: 28.65 Metres of 1.06% Nickel and 5.90 Metres of 2.98% Nickel Intersected in First Drill Hole at West Raglan - More
- July 25, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver Fall Roughly 2% as the Dollar Rebounds