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-- Posted Thursday, 10 January 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold fell to as low as $866 by late trade in London, but it then rallied strongly throughout most of trade in New York and climbed to as high as $895.45 before it came back off a bit in the last hour of trade and ended at a new record high with a gain of 1.32%.  Silver dropped to $15.312 before it also rose markedly in New York and ended near its high of $16.24 with a gain of 2.74% at a new 27 year high.

Euro gold rose to over €601, platinum gained $2 to $1552 to a new record high, palladium remained unchanged at $373, and copper fell slightly to about $3.27.

Gold and silver equities fell over 1% at the open, but they then rose for most of the rest of trade and ended with about 2% gains at or near new all-time highs.

The Economy:

Bernanke spoke this afternoon and showed that he recognizes the current market turmoil and is “ready to take substantive additional action as needed to support growth and to provide adequate insurance against downside risks.”  Expectations for a cut of 50 basis points at the fed’s next meeting on January 30^th are now nearly 100%.

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings Import and Export Prices for December and the Trade Balance for November expected at -$59.5 billion.  At 2PM is the Treasury Budget for December expected at $52.0 billion.

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The Markets:

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

Oil fell about 2% on worries that a slowing economy will cut into demand.

The U.S. dollar index fell after the ECB and BoE held rates steady and Bernanke hinted towards more fed interest rate cuts. 

Treasuries were mixed as the yield curve rose to its steepest in over three years while 2-year yields dropped and 10-year yields rose.

The Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell in morning trade on poor retail sales and credit worries before all three indices took off to the upside in afternoon trade after text of Bernanke’s speech was released, but 1% gains soon turned back into losses until the Wall Street Journal reported that Bank of America is close to buying Countrywide.  The report calmed credit market worries and resulted in the indices climbing new session highs by the close.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Bank of America and Countrywide, Northwest and Delta, Wal-Mart, Target, Citigroup, Blackstone, Capital One, and Alcoa.

The Commentary:

“February Gold finished up 11.9 at 893.6, 3.4 off the high and 23.4 up from the low.

March Silver closed up 0.435 at 16.275. This was 0.735 up from the low and 0.035 off the high.

The gold market apparently got something it liked from the US Federal Reserve Chairman speech on Thursday, because the gold market seemed to come alive in the wake of that news flow. With the ECB and BOE leaving interest rates unchanged early in the session and then seeing the Federal Reserve Chairman hinting at the potential for substantive or aggressive action by the Fed the bulls could have embraced the idea of a falling Dollar or inflation. With the Fed Chairman also throwing off fresh growth concerns, it is even possible that the bull camp was emboldened by added uncertainty. With the ongoing claims data coming in much better than the market expected and in some measure countervailing some of the concern toward the US jobs sector seen in the wake of the prior reading it is possible that some players were inclined to downplay recent recession fears.

Like the gold market, the silver market seems to have caught a lift from the Fed Chairman dialogue. With the added benefit of better than expected US economic readings early in the session and an attempt to rally in the US equity market, it is possible that a quadrant of the silver trade began to downplay the liquidation threat against silver and other physical commodity markets. However, copper and energy prices remained weak so the Fed influence didn't seem to be capable of providing a lift to all markets.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Citigroup, Merrill seek more foreign capital infusions

Morgan rewards former PM Blair with +$1 million per year

Shanghai exchange seen driving gold far higher

Simon Constable says we're 'fringe dwellers' but somehow Ron Paul isn't

Central banks long have been rigging gold market, Paul declares

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 1/09/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: The LSE added 0.55 tonnes and the ASX added 0.22 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:

Agnico-Eagle’s (AEM) gold price prediction, Aurizon’s (AZK) gold production, Great Basin’s (GBN) sinking of the planned second outlet at its Burnstone Mine Project, Apollo Gold’s (AGT) drill assays, Seabridge’s (SA) resource estimates, ECU’s (ECU.TO) resource estimate update, Oro Silver’s (OSR.V) mill plans, and Silver Standard’s (SSRI) drill results 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:

Avion Resources Grants Options - More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Simberi Announces Results of the Aboriginal Surveys in South Australia - More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Kimberly Gold Mines, Inc. Appoints Atlanta Capital Partners, LLC for Investor Relations Program - More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Orex Closes $696,780 Flow-Through Financing and Will Begin Drilling on Goldboro Property on January 22, 2008 - More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Aurizon Announces 2007 Gold Production and Plans for 2008 - "Gold production from Aurizon's 100% owned Casa Berardi mine for the year ended December 31, 2007, totalled 159,469 ounces from the processing of 545,258 tonnes at an average grade of 9.8 grams of gold per tonne, which is 2.0 grams per tonne higher than the present mine reserve grade. Recoveries for the year averaged 93.0% which was higher than anticipated. Gold production was 3% lower than the previous 2007 guidance of 165,000 ounces due primarily to a delay in mining one higher grade stope that will now be mined in 2008." More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Hunt Gold Corporation - Appointment of Transfer Agent - More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Royal Gold Announces Regular Quarterly Dividend on Its Preferred Stock - "ROYAL GOLD, INC. (Nasdaq: RGLD - News; TSX: RGL - News), the leading publicly-traded precious metals royalty company, today announced that its Board of Directors has declared the regular quarterly dividend for the first dividend period of $1.9333 per share on the 7.25% Mandatory Convertible Preferred Stock. The dividend is payable on February 15, 2008 to shareholders of record at the close of business on February 1, 2008. The dividend will be paid in cash." More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Denison Announces New Sales & Mining Executives - More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Royal Roads provides update on drilling activities at Daniels Pond deposit, Central Newfoundland - More
- January 10, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Pelangio Appoints Peter Crossgrove to Board of Directors - More