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-- Posted Friday, 30 November 2007 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold traded mostly slightly higher in Asia and London before it fell in morning New York trade and dropped to as low as $778.90 by about 10:45AM EST.  It then rebounded about 0.5% higher into the close, but it still ended with a loss of 1.52%.  Silver dropped all the way to $13.77 before it rallied over 20 cents off that low, but it still ended with a loss of 1.76%.

Euro gold fell to about €535, platinum lost $5 to $1438, palladium gained $2 to $347, and copper rose over 7 cents to about $3.16.

Gold and silver equities found slight gains at the open, but they soon fell off with gold and silver and traded roughly 2% lower for the rest of the day.

CoT Reports: Gold | Silver  

The Economy:

Bernanke’s comments last night hinted towards further rate cuts to bolster the economy and fight "headwinds for the consumer in the months ahead,” though no action is likely to come until the fed’s next meeting on December 11^th.

All of this week’s economic reports:

Next week’s economic highlights include the ISM Index on Monday, Productivity, Factory orders, and ISM Services on Wednesday, Initial Jobless Claims on Thursday, and November’s jobs data, Michigan Sentiment, and Consumer Credit on Friday.

The Markets:

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

Oil fell under $89 to make for the biggest weekly decline in two years as traders looked ahead to next week’s OPEC meeting which is expected to officially boost output.

The U.S. dollar index continued its recent bounce higher as traders currently choose to ignore the otherwise bearish prospects of lower interest rates for the dollar and instead argue that a lower fed funds rate may help the US economy and therefore lead to dollar strength.

Treasuries fell as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P opened markedly higher on Bernanke’s assurance for more interest rate cuts, but the Dow and S&P ended well off their early highs with just slight gains and the Nasdaq ended lower on profit taking from this week’s impressive gains.

Among the big names making news in the market Friday were Sprint, Big Lots, Motorola, Dell, Morgan Stanley, and Tiffany.

The Commentary:

“With most market watchers hoping and praying for a $ bounce now, we are worried that the $ has suffered too much from a loss of confidence.   If the bounce is temporary the next $ fall could be steep.   We see strong support lower down and the Asian world positive on gold.”- Julian D.W. Phillips, www.goldforecaster.com

“December Gold finished down 13.1 at 782.2, 9.8 off the high and equal to the low.

December Silver closed down 0.274 at 13.963. This was 0.083 up from the low and 0.217 off the high.

CBOT gold collapsed under the weight of end of month long liquidation selling, sell recommendations from key New York investment firms, a sharp drop in energy markets and a surge in the US dollar. February lost near $41.40 for the week as investment flows turned against metals. Higher than expected deliveries and ideas that index funds would re-allocate their commodity mix to own less gold for the coming year (due to strong gains for this year) added to the negative tone. A late push to the highest level since November 6th for the dollar kept the selling pressure intact late in the day.

March silver pushed sharply lower following gold and moving opposite the dollar. The market showed some support near the 50% retracement point of the August to November rally as there was increased buying on the sharp break in association with talk of quick actions by the Fed to boost liquidity and lower rates in the US in the weeks ahead and talk that South Africa miners could strike next week. A jump in the stock market and industrial metals also helped provide some underlying support. Big deliveries in New York and Chicago added to the bearish tone early.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Reg Howe: Gold derivatives -- options galore

Pleas for ECB rate cut grow as 1-month Euribor rate soars

Bernanke hints at further rate cuts

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 11/29/2007

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

Silver Trust (SLV)

 Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.

The Stocks:

Barrick’s (ABX) striking workers in Tanzania and tentative deal with workers at the David Bell gold mine, Aurizon’s (AZK) "Company of the Year" award from the Association de L'Exploration Miniere du Quebec, Newmont’s (NEM) asset sale, Northgate’s (NXG) fourth quarter forecast, Glencairn’s (GLE) changes, and Great Panther’s (GPR.TO) exercised warrants were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines Friday.

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