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-- Posted Thursday, 17 January 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

The Metals:

Gold fell slightly to $877 in Asia before it rose to find nearly a 1% gain at $889.45 by about 10AM EST in New York, but it then fell back off for most of the rest of trade and ended with a minor loss of 0.11%.  Silver fell to $15.73 and rose to $16.07 before it also fell back off for most of the rest of trade, but it still ended with a nice gain of 0.76%.

Euro gold fell to about €599, platinum lost $1 to $1558, palladium lost $3 to $368, and copper gained a couple of cents to about $3.19.

Gold and silver equities gained over 2% in the first half hour of trade, but they were then dragged down along with the major indices for most of the rest of the day and ended with roughly 2% losses.

The Economy:

Bernanke gave his blessing for a fiscal stimulus package while forecasting below trend economic growth in his testimony before the House Budget Committee on Capitol Hill today.  President Bush is set to reveal the details of the stimulus package sometime tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow at 10AM EST brings Leading Economic Indicators for December expected at -0.1% and Michigan Sentiment for January expected at 74.5.

The Markets:

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

Oil eventually fell back near $90 on worries about the slowing economy and its impact on falling demand.

The U.S. dollar index fell after it was clarified that yesterday’s ECB comments were misconstrued and were not intended to imply that the ECB may start to cut interest rates.

Treasuries rose and the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P started to fall rather dramatically at 10AM EST when Bernanke started to give his testimony and the Philadelphia Fed survey came in much worse than expected.  All three indices fell throughout the day and ended with roughly 2% losses while bonds closed with nice gains.

Among the big names making news in the market today were Kellogg, TD Ameritrade, Merrill, Bank of New York, CIT, BlackRock, and Lockheed.

The Commentary:

“February Gold finished down 1.5 at 880.5, 9.5 off the high and 3.5 up from the low.

March Silver closed up 0.115 at 16.01. This was 0.13 up from the low and 0.15 off the high.

The gold market waffled around both sides of unchanged and then began to give ground in the face of progressively steeper equity market losses. While the Fed commentary during the session hinted at energy market pass through inflation and a recent up tick in core inflation, the gold market seemed to be more concerned about too much slowing. With the US Dollar trading range non descript the gold trade was hardly able to come away with much of a currency influence and that in turn probably allowed the liquidation in the energy and equity market to influence the trade.

March silver forged an inside day but generally seemed to attempt to hold above the prior sessions closing value. As was seen in the prior sessions the sagging macro economic outlook seemed to weigh on silver prices at times but relatively speaking the silver market weathered the negative news better than the rest of the precious metals markets. In fact, silver seemed to stay positive despite the fact that copper and equity prices were under pressure and that is a deviation with recent action. Perhaps the silver market was supported by a mine shut down as the gold market was supported on a number of occasions in 2007 in the wake of mine mishaps.”- The Hightower Report, Futures Analysis and Forecasting

GATA Posts:

Murphy's 'Midas' commentary posted in the clear at GoldSeek

The Statistics:

As of close of business: 1/16/2008

Global Gold ETF Holdings

[WGC Sponsored ETF’s]

Note: Change in Total Tonnes from yesterday’s data: StreetTRACKS subtracted 21.55 tonnes and the JSE added 1.35 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:

Golden Star’s (GSS) record operating results, Western Goldfields’ (WGW) gold pour, Fronteer’s (FRG) drill results, Solitario’s (XPL) drill results, Pacific Rim’s (PMU) resource update, Silver Quest’s (SQI.V) acquired property, First Majestic’s (FR.V) quarterly production figures, Avino’s (ASM.V) drill results, and Bear Creek’s (BCM.V) scoping study 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:

Golden Star Reports Record Operating Results for 2007 and Guidance for 2008 - "Golden Star Resources Ltd. (AMEX: GSS - News)(TSX: GSC - News) today announced that it has achieved record quarterly gold sales for the fourth quarter of 2007 of 88,015 ounces at a cash operating cost of $582 per ounce and a total of 246,278(2) ounces for 2007 at a cash operating cost of $601 per ounce." More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Mexivada Discovers Two Large Diamonds at Malambani, Republic of Congo - More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Silver Quest Acquires Capoose Silver Property in Central British Columbia - "Silver Quest Resources Ltd. (the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:SQI - News) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an Option and Joint Venture Agreement (the "Agreement"), subject to regulatory acceptance, with Bearclaw Capital Corp. (BRL.V) ("Bearclaw") to acquire up to a 100% interest in the Capoose Property (the "Property") located in the Nechako Plateau district of central British Columbia." More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Opawica Explorations Inc. Announces Assays and Drill Mobilization - More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Fury and Golden Predator Terminate Merger Negotiations - More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail

MacMillan Reports Positive Gold and Silver Results From San Miguel NW Target at the La Mus Project - More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Melkior Resources Inc.: Summary and Plans for 2008 - More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Midland Exploration Options its James Bay Uranium Properties to Quest Uranium Corporation - More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail

Quest Uranium Acquires Midland Exploration Inc's Sakami Area Uranium Properties, Quebec - More
- January 17, 2008 | Item | E-mail