-- Posted Thursday, 20 December 2007 | Digg This Article
| Source: GoldSeek.com
| Close | Gain/Loss |
Gold | $798.50 | -$2.60 |
Silver | $14.21 | +$0.14 |
XAU | 161.75 | +0.42% |
HUI | 380.61 | +0.27% |
GDM | 1169.09 | -0.15% |
JSE Gold | 2212.57 | -1.17% |
USD | 77.78 | +0.20 |
Euro | 143.47 | -0.37 |
Yen | 88.43 | +0.23 |
Oil | $91.06 | -$0.18 |
10-Year | 4.026% | -0.044 |
T-Bond | 116.5625 | +0.65625 |
Dow | 13245.64 | +0.29% |
Nasdaq | 2640.86 | +1.53% |
S&P | 1460.12 | +0.49% |
The Metals:
Gold traded mostly slightly higher in Asia before it began to fall off in London and dropped to as low as $792.92 by late morning in New York, but it then rallied back higher in afternoon trade and ended with a loss of just 0.32%. Silver fell to as low as $13.92 by late trade in London, but it then started to climb back higher in morning New York trade, spiked even higher in afternoon trade, and ended with a respectable gain of 1.00%.
Euro gold fell to about €556, platinum fell from its record high and lost $4 to $1512, palladium lost $3 to $353, and copper rose slightly to about $2.93.
Gold and silver equities fell over 1% in the first hour of trade, but they then steadily climbed back higher for most of the rest of trade and ended mixed and near unchanged.
The Economy:
Report | For | Reading | Expected | Previous |
GDP | Q3 | 4.9% | 4.9% | 4.9% |
Chain Deflator | Q3 | 1.0% | 0.9% | 0.9% |
Initial Claims | 12/15 | 346K | 335K | 334K |
Leading Indicators | Nov | -0.4% | -0.3% | -0.5% |
Philadelphia Fed | Dec | -5.7 | 6.0 | 8.2 |
Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST beings Personal Income for November expected at 0.5%, Personal Spending expected at 0.7%, and Core PCE Inflation expected at 0.2%. At 10AM is the revised reading for December Michigan Sentiment expected at 74.5.
The Markets:
Charts Courtesy of http://finance.yahoo.com/
Oil fell slightly on economic concerns as Leading Indicators fell to a two year low and the Philadelphia Fed gave its lowest reading since April 2003.
The U.S. dollar index rose in technical trade despite mostly poor economic data that sent interest rates lower and treasuries higher.
The Dow and S&P ended slightly higher and the Nasdaq found impressive gains despite increased recession and credit worries as decent earnings reports drove select names higher.
Among the big names making news in the market today were MBIA, Bear Stearns, Eaton, FedEx, and Discover Financial.
The Commentary:
“February Gold finished down 2.2 at 803.2, 1.3 off the high and 5.5 up from the low.
March Silver closed up 0.118 at 14.34. This was 0.205 up from the low and 0.05 off the high.
With the Dollar mostly sustaining positive action on Thursday it wasn't surprising to see gold favor the downside tilt. With a series of US economic reports highlighting the prospect of further slowing in the US economy and the Chinese hiking interest rates for the 6th time this year overnight, it wasn't surprising to see a host of physical commodities like gold off balance. However, with the Nasdaq showing signs of impressive strength in the afternoon action, it is possible that part of negative drag from the macro economic outlook was discounted. Once again the trade noted that gold was outperformed by the silver market.
The silver market at times Thursday acted like a completely different commodity than the gold market. In fact, March silver clearly diverged with the gold market and at times reached the highest level since the big range down failure day of December 13th. However, periodic impressive strength in various sectors of the US stock market and strength in copper prices probably allowed the silver trade to play up its potentially bullish fundamental issues and in turn downplay the potentially negative influence of the US Dollar.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting
GATA Posts:
Al-Jazeera's 'People & Power' airs 'Death of the Dollar, Part 2'
The Statistics:
As of close of business: 12/20/2007
Gold Warehouse Stocks: | 7,365,304 | - |
Silver Warehouse Stocks: | 133,786,419 | -26,694 |
Global Gold ETF Holdings
[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]
| Product name | Total Tonnes | Total Ounces | Total Value |
New York Stock Exchange Arca (NYSE Arca) AND Singapore Exchange (SGX) | StreetTRACKS Gold Shares | 617.43 | 19,851,059 | US$ 15,872m |
London Stock Exchange (LSE) AND Euronext Paris AND Borsa Italiana AND Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (Deutsche Börse ) | Gold Bullion Securities | 97.50 | 3,134,642 | US$ 2,495m |
Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) | Gold Bullion Securities | 16.38 | 526,177 | US$ 419m |
Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE) | New Gold Debentures | 22.37 | 719,286 | US$ 578m |
Note: No change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data.
COMEX Gold Trust (IAU)
Profile as of 12/19/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $1,421,492,985 | Ounces of Gold
in Trust | 1,774,786.476 |
Shares Outstanding | 17,950,000 | Tonnes of Gold
in Trust | 55.20 |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 1.07 tonnes were added to the trust.
Silver Trust (SLV)
Profile as of 12/19/2007 | |
Total Net Assets | $2,079,920,732 | Ounces of Silver
in Trust | 148,817,097.700 |
Shares Outstanding | 15,000,000 | Tonnes of Silver
in Trust | 4,628.73 |
Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: 61.7 tonnes were added to the trust.
The Stocks:
Golden Star’s (GSS) appointed interim president, Newmont’s (NEM) royalty sale, Rubicon’s (RBY) project updates, Gold Fields’ (GFI) operational guidance, Metallica’s (MRB) board appointment, Yamana’s (AUY) acquisition of Meridian’s remaining shares, Sterling Mining’s (SRLM.OB) commenced production at Sunshine, Aquiline’s (AQI.TO) supreme court ruling, MAG’s (MVG) drilling, Coeur’s (CDE) mill commissioning, Silver Wheaton’s (SLW) agreement to purchase further silver production, and SilverCrest’s (SVL.V) secured surface rights were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.
WINNERS
1. Coeur | CDE +11.14% $4.49 |
2. Great Basin | GBN +10.51% $2.84 |
3. Allied Nevada | ANV +9.56% $5.50 |
LOSERS
1. Minefinders | MFN -5.13% $9.81 |
2. Claude Resources | CGR -4.72% $1.21 |
3. Gold Fields | GFI -4.63% $13.61 |
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:
Golden Star Appoints Interim President and CEO - "Golden Star Resources Ltd. (AMEX: GSS - News) (TSX: GSC - News) (“Golden Star” or the “Company”) today announced that Mr. Tom Mair has been appointed Interim President and CEO effective January 1, 2008, at which time Mr. Peter Bradford will be stepping down as President and CEO of the Company." More
- December 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Novawest Resources Inc. - Private placements arranged - More
- December 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Sterling Mining Commences Production at the Sunshine Mine - "Sterling Mining Company (Toronto:SMQ.TO - News)(OTC BB:SRLM.OB - News)(Frankfurt:SMX.F - News) today announced that it has resumed initial production at the Sunshine Mine in Idaho, USA. This announcement caps off an extremely productive year for Sterling Mining Company which included becoming listed on Canada's senior exchange, the TSX; a successful fundraising of US$24.7 million; and completion of Sunshine Mine's technical report compliant to Canada's National Instrument 43-101 (the "43-101 Report")." More
- December 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Tara Gold Partners Its Picacho, Curcurpe and Millonaria Projects - More
- December 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Canstar Resources Announces Grant of Stock Options - More
- December 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Lincoln Gold Announces Revised Gold Resource Estimates for Its Pine Grove Property, Nevada - More
- December 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Ur-Energy Meets Second Major Milestone-Files Applications for in Situ Permit to Mine and License to Mine With State of Wyoming - More
- December 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Buchans River announces Incentive Stock Options Granted - More
- December 20, 2007 | Item | E-mail
Freewest Acquires New Volcanic-Hosted Massive Sulphide Occurrence at Kirby Lake in the Onaman-Tashota Greenstone Belt, Northwestern Ontario - More
- December 20, 2007 |
Gold Seeker Closing Report: Gold and Silver End Mixed Again