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-- Posted Tuesday, 15 January 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold traded decently higher in Asia and London and then fell to find a slight loss back near $900 in early New York trade before it spiked higher around 10AM EST to as high as $914.10 to get within 20 cents of yesterday’s all time high, but it then plummeted in later morning trade to as low as $893.50 by early afternoon.  The last hour and a half of trade saw the yellow metal rally back higher and trade on either side of $900, but it still ended with a slight loss of 0.14%.

Silver rose to $16.52 in Asia before it dropped to as low as $15.927 by early afternoon in New York, but it also rallied back higher for most of the rest of trade and ended with a loss of just 0.55%.

Euro gold fell to about €606, platinum lost $14 to $1576 to fall from a record high, palladium lost $2 to $378, and copper fell over 10 cents to about $3.24.

Gold and silver equities fell about 4% by mid-afternoon before they rebounded slightly into the close, but they still ended with over 3% losses.

The Economy:

Tomorrow at 8:30AM EST brings CPI and Core CPI for December both expected at 0.2%.  At 9AM is the Net Foreign Purchases report for November, at 9:15 is Industrial Production for December expected at -0.2% and Capacity Utilization expected at 81.2%, and at 2PM is the release of the fed’s Beige Book.

The Markets:

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

Oil resumed its fall on worries about a slowing economy and its impact on falling demand.  Saudi oil minister Al-Naimi also stated that they will increase production if “the market justifies it” while traders prepared for inventory reports tomorrow which are expected to show the first crude build in 9 weeks.

The U.S. dollar index fell in early trade on recession fears, but it ended with a slight gain after the fed did not surprisingly cut interest rates today as some had hoped for along with the announcement of their auction of $30 billion to banks to combat the credit crises in the “third in a series of innovative auctions the Fed began last month as a way to provide cash-strapped banks with the reserves they need.”

Treasuries rose noticeably as the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P fell markedly on poor results from Citigroup and on disappointing Retail Sales.  The yield on the 10-year fells to its lowest since early 2004 and the major indices fell to their lowest since last spring.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Apple, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, and State Street.

The Commentary:

“February Gold finished down 0.8 at 902.6, 12.7 off the high and 7.1 up from the low.

March Silver closed down 0.125 at 16.3. This was 0.28 up from the low and 0.25 off the high.

April gold did manage another new high for the move with the initial pulse up on Tuesday. However, the market seemingly recoiled from that new high and finished the day toward the low end of the trading range. Apparently the gold trade became a little more concerned with the threat of slowing or perhaps the action in the Dollar wasn't weak enough to offset a series of negative outside market developments. With the oil prices following through on the downside and in the process reaching the lowest price level since December 21st, one of the other stalwart performers of the commodities bull market seems to have come under noted pressure. Certainly seeing the US equity market down hard and in a pattern of hard declines lately heightens the recession/slowing fears and that in turn seems to have prompted some gold investors to bank profits.

With the silver market also posting a massive trading range and seemingly favoring the lower portion of the range into the close Tuesday, it would seem like the silver market is seeing pressure from the deterioration in the US economy. Apparently a number of physical commodities were undermined by the magnitude of the decline in the equity markets but it would also seem like a softer than expected US retail sales report added yet another element of concern to the equation. With copper prices at times down by nearly 12 cents and crude oil prices at one time down by as much as $3.00 a barrel, it would also seem like the recent inflation look translated into a deflation look. With the US PPI showing a contraction for the latest monthly report that was released on Tuesday morning, it was clear that the inflation argument was falling in sync with the pace of the US economy and that put pressure on industrial markets like silver.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

There's no inflation, but British food costs are soaring anyway

Registration is open for GATA's Washington conference

Fed has little room to keep cutting rates, European central banker warns

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 1/14/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

 Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: StreetTRACKS added 10.75 tonnes to climb to a new record high holding.

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:

Claude’s (CGR) production results, Cardero’s (CDY) scoping study, Exeter’s (XRA) drill results, Minco Gold’s (MGH) appointments, Banro’s (BAA) updated Mineral Resource estimates, Bear Creek’s (BCM.V) final earn-in payment on Corani, Great Panther’s (GPR.TO) resource estimates update, Endeavour’s (EXK) record silver production, Coeur’s (CDE) management promotions, and Orko’s (OK.V) drill results were among the big stories in the gold and silver mining industry making headlines today.

WINNERS

LOSERS

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All of today's gold and silver stock news:

Wave Uranium Records 1327 Claims in Southeastern Utah - More
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Sulliden comments on Century offer - More
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Soltoro Completes Drill Program on Bacanora Gold Project - More
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Atlanta Gold Strengthens Board and Management Team to Bring Atlanta Gold Project to Early Production - More
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Amerigo Announces Q4 2007 Production Results - More
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Rocmec Mining Inc.: Geostat Confirms the Presence of 2 Mineralised Structures on Puma Property in Peru - More
- January 15, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Armistice Resources Corp. - Project Update - More
- January 15, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Moss Lake retains Watts, Griffis and McOuat for Preliminary Assessment report - More
- January 15, 2008 | Item | E-