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-- Posted Wednesday, 12 December 2007 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

After closing at $811.60 yesterday, gold fell back off in illiquid after hours access trade to as low as $795.70 at one point, but it then rallied back higher in Asia and London and rose to as high as $817.00 in early New York trade before it came back off slightly in the last few hours of trade and ended with a gain of 0.20%.  Silver dropped to $14.47 and rose to $14.797 before it also fell back in the last few hours of trade and ended with a loss of 0.20%.

Euro gold rose to about €553, platinum gained $11 to $1473, palladium gained $4 to $348, and copper fell roughly 6 cents to about $2.96.

Gold and silver equities saw about 3% gains in morning trade before they fell back off with the major indices in afternoon trade, but they still ended with about 2% gains.

The Economy:

“The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and three other central banks moved in concert to alleviate a credit squeeze threatening global growth, in the biggest act of international economic cooperation since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The Fed said in a statement it will make up to $24 billion available to the ECB and Swiss National Bank to increase the supply of dollars in Europe. The Fed also plans four auctions, including two this month that will add as much as $40 billion, to increase cash in the U.S.”

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings PPI for November expected at 1.5%, Core PPI expected at 0.2%, Initial Jobless Claims for 12/08 expected at 335,000, and Retail Sales for November expected at 0.6%.  At 10AM are Business Inventories for October expected at 0.3%.

The Markets:

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

Oil rose over $4 as crude inventories fell 700,000 barrels, gasoline inventories built 1.6 million barrels, distillates fell 800,000 barrels, and refinery utilization fell 0.6% to 88.8%.  Continued harsh weather and a refinery fire also kept supply concerns fresh while the fed’s cash injection eased demand worries.

The U.S. dollar index fell slightly overall despite large gains versus the yen as higher yielding currencies rose on central banking plans to flood the system with cash.

Treasuries fell on the fed’s plan to ease credit market pressures.

The Dow rose over 270 points at the open and the Nasdaq and S&P followed suit on news of the fed’s plan to increase world liquidity before gains tapered off throughout trade and even briefly turned into notable losses at one point, but all three indices were able to end with at least moderate gains.

Among the big names making news in the market today were PIMCO, Bank of America, Citigroup, Florida Fund, and GE’s NBC.

The Commentary:

“February Gold finished up 1.7 at 818.8, 3.5 off the high and 4.1 up from the low.

March Silver closed down 0.04 at 14.825. This was 0.015 up from the low and 0.145 off the high.

The gold market waffled around on both sides of unchanged throughout the trading session on Wednesday but we suspect that the bull camp was a little discouraged with the ultimate reaction to the events that took place during the session. In fact, with the US equity market at times on fire with optimism in the wake of the Central Bank liquidity plan, one might have expected buyers to have entered the gold market in force. However, the Dollar failed to give ground despite an expansion in the US trade deficit and it also appears as if some flight to quality players in gold decided to step aside in the wake of the latest financial answer to the sub-prime crisis. Even more deflating to the bull camp in gold is the fact that the gold market failed to benefit from the rather impressive bounce in energy prices.

While the silver market mostly followed the ebb and flow of the gold market during the trade Wednesday it was clear that silver wasn't as optimistic about the Central Bank liquidity plan, as silver spent a great deal of the session in negative ground. As suggested in the mid day coverage the overt weakness in the copper market probably undermined silver from a physical or an industrial perspective. In the end seeing a true improvement in the macro economic outlook could benefit silver as it has recently been concerned about the threat of too much slowing.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Fed's money helicopters take off for Europe, Britain, Canada

Gold glitters in the eyes of Russia's billionaires

Fed to try another way of injecting banks with cash

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 12/12/2007

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The JSE added 0.61 tonnes.

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) completed acquisition, Nevsun’s (NSU) mining agreement, US Gold’s (UXG) exploration update, ECU’s (ECU.TO) new resource estimate, Endeavour’s (EXK) acquired properties, Silvercorp’s (SVM.TO) new mill, Silver Dragon’s (SDRG.OB) closed financing, Hecla’s (HL) public offering, and Arian’s (AGQ.V) sampling program were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

WINNERS

LOSERS

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:

Ontex Resources Announces the Adoption of a Shareholders Rights ("Poison Pill") Plan to Protect Against Unsolicited Bids - More
- December 12, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Barrick Completes Acquisition of PNG Properties - "Barrick Gold Corporation (Toronto:ABX.TO - News)(NYSE:ABX - News) announced today that it completed its acquisition of the Kainantu gold mine and over 2,900 square kilometers of highly prospective exploration licenses in Papua New Guinea from Highlands Pacific Limited (ASX:HGL.AX - News)." More
- December 12, 2007 | Item | E-mail

HudBay Announces Share Buy Back Program-Normal Course Issuer Bid - More
- December 12, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Guyana Goldfields Inc.: Aurora Exploration Update - More
- December 12, 2007 | Item | E-mail

GoldSpring, Inc. Secures Financing to Commence Drilling - More
- December 12, 2007 | Item | E-mail

Amera Announces Appointment of New Director and New Vice President, Exploration - More
- December 12, 2007 | Item